2nd December 2025
In cybersecurity, there are no limits – only new voices ready to lead
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
14th October 2025
Lost and Found (but mostly lost)
13th October 2025
UK Special Envoy for Women and Girls: September visits to Sarajevo and New York
1st September 2016 London, UK
Help, I’m in trouble! – or third party payment functionality
One of the first experiences I had of an Emergency travel document was covered in a series of photo casebooks I wrote last year. I actually had to cut out some of what happened because you wouldn’t have believed me – but now that you are all desensitised to a man losing his passport between […]
Read more on Help, I’m in trouble! – or third party payment functionality | Reply
31st August 2016 Los Angeles, USA
FUNDING: Microbiome Partnership Development Awards: Open Call for Submissions
The UK-US Partnership Development Awards Programme aims to develop new relationships in the field of microbiome research, leading to long‐term research collaborations. Applications for the current round are open to academic and innovation experts in the UK and US. Ideal outcomes include joint publications; joint or complementary funding applications; student / researcher exchange programmes; sharing […]
Read more on FUNDING: Microbiome Partnership Development Awards: Open Call for Submissions | Reply (2)
31st August 2016 Havana, Cuba
Hasta la vista, Cuba!
That’s it. I’m off. It’s been four years. Four fascinating, complicated, frustrating, perplexing, wonderful years. Is Cuba the only country in the world where it’s simultaneously fast and furious and time stands still? There’s been change. Obama came and went. In El Vedado, a Maserati now parks alongside a Moscvich. People now IMO their Miami […]
31st August 2016 London, UK
My First Month at the Foreign Office
I joined the Foreign Office at the beginning of August as a Graduate Intern in the Africa Directorate and to say that I joined at an eventful time would be an understatement: a new Prime Minister, a new Foreign Secretary and two new government departments off the back of June’s Brexit vote (not to forget […]
Read more on My First Month at the Foreign Office | Reply (3)
31st August 2016 Science and Innovation Network
Why Global Britain is driving the fintech revolution
The UK’s history of innovation goes back a long way. Ever since the Industrial Revolution, we have carved out a far-reaching global reputation for creative thought and technological excellence. But national reputations only stick if they are backed up by concrete action – and ours has remained solid because we live it every day. In […]
Read more on Why Global Britain is driving the fintech revolution | Reply (1)
30th August 2016 London, UK
Athletes go gold at Rio … but gold doesn’t react!
The UK’s recent success at the Olympics showed how working collectively as a team, we can achieve greatness, despite being a relatively small nation. In Government, we understand that used carefully, sporting prowess can be a source of soft power for the UK, as are many other sectors of which we are proud: fashion, film […]
Read more on Athletes go gold at Rio … but gold doesn’t react! | Reply
30th August 2016
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
A Potsdam Prism
In January 1992 in the early days of a reunified Germany I visited Potsdam after dropping off the Vilnius Diplomatic Bag at the British offices in the old Berlin Olympic Stadium. I wanted to see the Palace of Sans Souci, where Frederick the Great had employed Quantz and CPE Bach. But even after three years […]
29th August 2016 Bangalore, India
UK-India aerospace partnership can scale new heights
Aerospace is a UK manufacturing success story in the global business of making planes. We are a world leader in innovation, design and manufacturing parts for planes. Over the past several years the UK Science and Innovation Network and Department of International Trade have worked together to boost collaboration between the UK and India. This […]
Read more on UK-India aerospace partnership can scale new heights | Reply
26th August 2016 Tripoli, Libya
LIBYA’S YOUTH
My last visit to Tripoli included a meeting with young activists. They were very clear about what they wanted: a voice in their future. They were no different from young people anywhere in the world. They wanted a better world: security, a job and a way to contribute to decisions that affect them. If you […]
25th August 2016 London, UK
Configuring the emergency travel documents web application
A while ago, I blogged about the vast levels of complexity we faced digitising the application process for Emergency travel documents. Today I’d like to look at a little more detail at one of our responses to that: building a data-driven application and how we control what is displayed. In my earlier blog, I talked […]
Read more on Configuring the emergency travel documents web application | Reply (3)