This blog post was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna

Part of Speakers' Corner

30th December 2011

12 blogs of Christmas

With the New Year looming, here are 12 of my blogs from 2011:

January: Is Ukraine Free? (Freedom House rankings)
February: MI6, Art and Freedoms (“A Year with MI6”)
March: Brilliant British Business in Ukraine (British Business Days)
March: Down Syndrome: “Let Us In!” (Down Syndrome in the UK and Ukraine)
April: What I think about Ukraine (Oxford speech)
May: Life lessons from Deep Purple (British rockers in Kyiv)
June: The teenage traffic victim (road safety and the traffic police)
July: Justice and politics in Ukraine (trials of opposition leaders)
August: Ukraine: hand grenades in the polygon (military co-operation)
September: Tymoshenko in Yalta (trials of opposition leaders)
October: Back to the Café in Shanghai (Business climate)
December: Donetsk, Ukraine and the EU (Donetsk speech)

These aren’t necessarily my best or most important blogs, but I hope they illustrate some themes of 2011 and the scope of the embassy’s work. We’re still working to update all our links after our move to a new web-platform; but do feel free to navigate from these blogs to others on similar subjects, or indeed read the whole collection.

Happy New Year!

1 comment on “12 blogs of Christmas”

Prabhat Misra, Assistant Director- Savings, District- Etawah, U.P., India says:

31st December 2011 at 2:40 pm

Respected Ambassador, WISHES FOR a Happy Last Day of Year-2011. May Happiness come in your life from first day of New Year 2012. Happy New Year- 2012 to you Sir, your family and all the members of Embassy and to the citizens of Ukraine. Regards.

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About Leigh Turner

I hope you find this blog interesting and, where appropriate, entertaining. My role in Vienna covers the relationship between Austria and the UK as well as the diverse work of…

I hope you find this blog interesting and, where appropriate, entertaining. My role in Vienna covers the relationship between Austria and the UK as well as the diverse work of the UN and other organisations; stories here will reflect that.

About me: I arrived in Vienna in August 2016 for my second posting in this wonderful city, having first served here in the mid-1980s. My previous job was as HM Consul-General and Director-General for Trade and Investment for Turkey, Central Asia and South Caucasus based in Istanbul.

Further back: I grew up in Nigeria, Exeter, Lesotho, Swaziland and Manchester before attending Cambridge University 1976-79. I worked in several government departments before joining the Foreign Office in 1983.

Keen to go to Africa and South America, I’ve had postings in Vienna (twice), Moscow, Bonn, Berlin, Kyiv and Istanbul, plus jobs in London ranging from the EU Budget to the British Overseas Territories.

2002-6 I was lucky enough to spend four years in Berlin running the house, looking after the children (born 1992 and 1994) and doing some writing and journalism.

To return to Vienna as ambassador is a privilege and a pleasure. I hope this blog reflects that.

This blog post was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

12 blogs of Christmas

1 comment on “12 blogs of Christmas”

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