Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs

A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy

15th January 2016 Washington DC, USA

Spencer Mahony

Spencer Mahony

Former HM Consul & East Coast Director UKTI USA

Tackle the American market like you would Disneyland

With over three hundred million consumers, fifty state governments, entrepreneurial dynamism, century old corporate giants and competition that bite, the US is an enormous, diverse and challenging market to understand. Many UK businesses have a false sense of security when it comes to doing business in the US – often misled by our shared “English” […]

Read more on Tackle the American market like you would Disneyland | Reply (2)

13th January 2016 Hanoi, Vietnam

Giles Lever, UK Ambassador to Vietnam

by Giles Lever

British Ambassador to Vietnam

Youth Parliament programme

First of all, let me take this opportunity to wish everyone a healthy and successful New Year. “Chuc mung nam moi”! For my first blog of 2016 I thought I’d try something a little different so I invited Nguyen Ngoc Lan, a student at the Hanoi Law University, to share this blog with me. Lan […]

Read more on Youth Parliament programme | Reply (1)

12th January 2016 Canberra, Australia

Menna Rawlings CMG

by Menna Rawlings

British High Commissioner to Australia

RIP David Bowie

While I was being born in September 1967, David Bowie (real name David Jones) was 20 years old, and trying to make it big in music. Thrilled to receive a letter from an American fan who had actually heard his music, he penned this response. I love this letter – it speaks to the humility, […]

Read more on RIP David Bowie | Reply (4)

11th January 2016 Geneva, Switzerland

by Julian Braithwaite

Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN and other international organisations in Geneva

The Geneva Agenda for 2016

The Geneva institutions are facing big questions at the start of 2016. Will the humanitarian system adapt to the challenges of protracted conflicts and unsustainable mass migration?  Will the World Trade Organization (WTO) rediscover its role at the heart of the global economy?  Can we respond effectively to the growing threat of pandemics and the […]

Read more on The Geneva Agenda for 2016 | Reply

8th January 2016

Avatar photo

by Nigel Baker

Ambassador to the Holy See (2011-2016)

History and healing: remembering the Stuarts

On 8 January, with the gracious permission of Her Majesty The Queen, I laid a wreath at the tomb in the crypt of St Peter’s Basilica of James Francis Edward Stuart, 250 years after his burial there. The message on the wreath was very simple: “In memoriam – James Francis Edward Stuart – ‘The Chevalier’ […]

Read more on History and healing: remembering the Stuarts | Reply (3)

8th January 2016

Avatar photo

by Leigh Turner

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

Press Freedom in Turkey

I was proud to be one of a number of Consuls General, who visited the offices of Cumhuriyet on 6 January.  We made the following statement, and handed over a signed text: “As representatives of EU consulates based in Istanbul, we wish for Turkish journalists across the whole political spectrum to be able to exercise […]

Read more on Press Freedom in Turkey | Reply (3)

7th January 2016 Delhi, India

by Shivani Sharma

Senior Adviser, Science and Innovation Network

Indo-UK Conference on Emergency & Critical Care Services

The British Deputy High Commission Chandigarh organised an Indo-UK Conference on Emergency & Critical Care Services on 27th November 2015. UK-India collaboration in health  Both India and the UK are now focussing on working together on healthcare and the main objectives of the conference were: 1) to allow UK and Indian organisations to explore the […]

Read more on Indo-UK Conference on Emergency & Critical Care Services | Reply

5th January 2016 British High Commission, Kingston, Jamaica

by Syranno Baines

Digital and Communications Officer

Helping Hands : Glenhope Nursery and Place of Safety

Led by the dynamic and devoted Sara Farr of our British High Commission community, the children of the Glenhope Nursery and Place of Safety in Jamaica eagerly welcome the growing international group which visits the home each Monday and Thursday morning to cuddle, play with, read to, teach and give the greatest gift that these children could receive, our […]

Read more on Helping Hands : Glenhope Nursery and Place of Safety | Reply (2)