8th November 2024
Ecolabels: A Catalyst for Sustainable Food Choices?
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
17th October 2024
OSLOBOĐENJE BEOGRADA
11th October 2024
Busting the gender myths – women and organised crime
10th September 2021
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
What I learned from my Youth Advisers
Not all of my ideas work out (ask my Embassy colleagues), but like many of the better ones the Youth Advisers group started with a nagging question that had been bothering me for a while. I often talked about the need to put young people here at the centre of my thinking, but how often […]
7th September 2021 Skopje, North Macedonia
Celebrating 30 years of Independence! Friendship, partnership and cooperation – our UK and North Macedonia story
Working and living in North Macedonia is a real privilege. I am struck regularly by the warmth of the people, the taste of the food and the wine and the beauty of the landscapes. I have had the privilege to meet people across the country. To see the heritage of the country from Bigorski monastery […]
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2nd September 2021 Vienna, Austria
Diplomatic Lessons 12: Tips for Diplomats and Ambassadors
These, however, are parsimonious days… The telegraph has made a difference in the position of Ambassadors. When men can and do receive instructions hourly about the smallest details, and, indeed, ask for them as if anxious to escape responsibility, it is easy to conceive that the Foreign Office will not again insist on the Treasury behaving […]
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31st August 2021 Vienna, Austria
An immense cultural gift
When I first decided to apply for the job of ambassador in Vienna in March 2015, I visited the city. A wise friend gave me a book: The Hare with Amber Eyes, by British ceramicist and writer Edmund de Waal. I found it one of the most striking accounts of the Holocaust, and its impact […]
30th August 2021 Tripoli, Libya
Farewell Libya
I finish my mission as UK Ambassador to Libya at the end of this month. So, this is my last blog in the role. My excellent successor, Caroline Hurndall, will take up post in September, leading our talented teams in Tripoli, Benghazi and Tunis. The Embassy will continue to represent the UK and promote its […]
25th August 2021 Vienna, Austria
Diplomatic Lessons 11: Give something back
When I was appointed as a junior diplomat to Vienna in September 1984, my letter of appointment, signed by Her Majesty the Queen and Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe, contained the phrase: “Whereas it appears to Us expedient to nominate some person of approved Industry, Fidelity and Knowledge [my emphasis] to perform the functions of an Officer […]
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13th August 2021
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Keep on resisting
On Saturday 14th, hundreds of people will take to the streets of Sarajevo, to participate in a PRIDE march. I will be pleased to be one of them, as I was in the very first PRIDE event in BiH, two years ago. I will be there personally, because I believe in and support these values. […]
4th August 2021 Skopje, North Macedonia
Environmental education is the only way out
As the days are sliding and passing by, while the most of us are sitting in our pyjamas in our homemade offices, closed in by the second pandemic in this still new millennium, we are watching on our digital skies how many parts of the world are facing the harsh and devastating reality of the […]
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29th July 2021 Vienna, Austria
Diplomatic Lessons 10: Immerse yourself
When we arrive on Heybeliada in the Sea of Marmara, a cool breeze lures us to climb on foot to our appointment at the Greek Orthodox seminary at the summit of the island. The route leads through aromatic pine trees. We arrive at the back door of the compound and stroll in. The place seems […]
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23rd July 2021 Geneva, Switzerland
Privilege and Power at the Palais des Nations
After 13 sessions, dozens of resolutions, and innumerable late nights staring square-eyed at incomprehensible drafting changes, my tenure as part of the UK’s negotiating team at the UN Human Rights Council finally concluded last week. It had been a tense session, conducted mostly virtually: as I’ve commented elsewhere, it can be difficult to reach compromise […]
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