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
19th May 2016 Los Angeles, USA
Trust Your Gut: Scientists Want to Study your Microbiome
It’s easy to forget that there are trillions of microbes that call us home. We tend to only think about our inhabitants when they’re causing us harm, but science suggests there’s much more to our microscopic squatters. Currently hailed as “the holy grail of health and wellness,” the microbiome is the ecosystem that lives in, […]
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19th May 2016 Los Angeles, USA
Funding: Global Challenges Research Fund
Agriculture and Food Systems call (~£15M) The challenge of ensuring access to a safe, sufficient and nutritious diet for a healthy life – whilst maintaining a healthy agri-environment – will intensify as demand for food rises with an increasing global population, urbanisation and changing diets. At the same time as ensuring a sustainable food supply […]
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19th May 2016 Skopje, North Macedonia
Sporting Diversity
I was on Facebook yesterday evening and I saw something that shocked me. It was a post which said that the World Health Organisation only took homosexuality off the list of mental disorders in 1990. I found it hard to believe that anyone over 25 years old has lived in a time when a global […]
19th May 2016
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Making the Case for Tolerance
This afternoon I will attend a memorial service in the City of London’s Guildhall to celebrate the long, eventful life of Sir Nicholas Winton, who died last year aged 106. As a young man, Sir Nicholas travelled briefly to Prague in 1938 to help a friend facilitating urgent evacuation of refugees from the looming Nazi […]
18th May 2016
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Pontifical Diplomacy
The international activism and high profile of Pope Francis has generated renewed interest in the nature and practice of the Holy See’s diplomacy. Just in the last week, the Pope visited the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy – the papal diplomatic college – to meet the young priests preparing there to take up their role as a […]
18th May 2016
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Arctic Convoys: UK veteran leaves his medals to a school in Murmansk
Russia celebrated Victory Day on 9 May. Commemorative events took place across the country. In St Petersburg, I joined the Governor and thousands of St Petersburg residents to lay flowers at Piskarevskoye Memorial Cemetery, where half a million of the victims of the Leningrad Siege are buried. The following day I was in Murmansk, another […]
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17th May 2016 Paris, France
Euro 2016: hit the road Jacques
With three of the home nations having qualified for the European Championships – and hosts France such a short hop away – this summer’s tournament is expected to attract hundreds of thousands of British nationals. And whether you’re travelling by land, air or sea, we’ve got everything you need to #BeOnTheBall. If you’re already thinking about your visit, […]
17th May 2016 Colombo, Sri Lanka
Minding mental health
“It’s Mental Health Awareness week this week, and we’ve taken the opportunity to reflect on a recent mental health consular case the team has been supporting. A few weeks ago, a British National came for a holiday of a lifetime to the Maldives. This person had a pre-existing mental health condition, but did not inform […]
17th May 2016 Vilnius, Lithuania
Why I am – visiting HMS Iron Duke in Klaipeda
This week the UK Royal Navy ship, HMS Iron Duke, visits Klaipeda. HMS Iron Duke (the HMS stands for Her Majesty’s Ship) is taking part in NATO activity in the Baltic Sea and will be doing some training with the Lithuanian Navy. She (ships in English are female) has already visited Tallinn and Riga. HMS […]
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16th May 2016 San Francisco, USA
FUNDING: Securing the Internet of Things
Funding Opportunity The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Silicon Valley Office has issued a solicitation for innovators to submit ideas focused on Internet of Things (IoT) Security—HSHQDC-16-R-00035. This call, open until December 11, 2016, is seeking solutions from participants from across the nation (and around the world) addressing one, some or all of the following three areas: […]
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