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
30th June 2016 Canberra, Australia
Solidarność
One of the best days of my life culminated in the POSK Polish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith, West London. Let me explain. I went to school directly opposite the POSK centre. I often walked past it, looking at the windows full of posters of beautiful places, described in a language I could not begin to […]
29th June 2016 Copenhagen, Denmark
SIN and the Social Sciences
When we talk about tackling global challenges or delivering economic benefits to society, the focus is often on technological developments in the natural sciences. And rightly so – we need breakthroughs in clean tech to mitigate climate change and we need new developments in medicine to tackle antimicrobial resistance or dementia, just to name a […]
29th June 2016 Vientiane, Laos
12 Months as Ambassador in Laos – Notes on an Ever Expanding Friendship
Birthdays and anniversaries always make me think of the famous quote from Geoffrey Chaucer – like Shakespeare one of the giants of English literature – that “time and tide wait for no man.” And no woman either. It was a thought firmly in mind when we at the British Embassy hosted a 90th Birthday Party […]
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28th June 2016 Guatemala City
Rock and Shakespeare a real treat!
Rock music and Shakespeare may not seem immediately to have much in common. You might see both as a form of art, but that might be as far as the similarity goes. Well, here in Guatemala, we have been celebrating all three for being British. In the last few weeks we have been treated to […]
28th June 2016
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Completing the mission
On 23 June I was given the honour, along with my family, of a farewell audience with Pope Francis. It was not the moment to discuss political or global developments, but to make reference to the depth and importance of the modern relationship between Britain and the Holy See. Characteristically, His Holiness chose to encapsulate […]
28th June 2016
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Connecting the Carpathians
I spent a day last week with a team from the UK-headquartered non-governmental organisation Fauna & Flora International and their Romanian partner Asociatia Zarand, in the Zarand region of south-western Transylvania. I was there to learn more about an EU-supported initiative, LIFE Connect Carpathians, focused on protecting the large carnivores which are such a remarkable […]
28th June 2016 Delhi, India
Biotech going ‘big’ in Bengaluru
I recently took over as the innovation lead in Science and Innovation Network India (SIN) team, which with India’s focus on translating research, is an important area of joint collaboration between the UK and India. To find out more about this collaboration I headed to Bengaluru, biotechnology hub of India for a networking event of […]
28th June 2016
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Days of the Ambassadors: Postcards from Bosnia and Herzegovina
Sarajevo is not just a beautiful, historic city. Set in a magical landscape, it is also an enchanting one, full of life and promise, but with a past as painful as any European city in living history. To me, as to so many diplomats – indeed millions of people around the world – the names […]
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27th June 2016 Geneva, Switzerland
From Rain to Roast
Civil service convention dictates that I should avoid expressing a public view on important domestic matters, so I’ll leave all talk of last week’s referendum to others. I’m free to discuss the weather though and after endless weeks of rain, this week’s dramatic rise in temperature caught many of us by surprise. As someone who […]
23rd June 2016
Securing pockets of paradise in the Turks and Caicos Islands
Elizabeth Radford, Senior UK Overseas Territories Officer with the Royal Society of the Protection of Birds, talks about her recent visit to the Turks and Caicos Islands where RSPB is working with local partners on site conservation. It was an overcast day in May when I climbed into a little motor boat and bounced across […]
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