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RENEWING OLD TIES: THE NEW BISHOP OF LONDON
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
25th November 2024
The climate crisis and gender-based violence
8th November 2024
Ecolabels: A Catalyst for Sustainable Food Choices?
12th November 2015 Burma
8th November: A day in the life of a Burma elections observer
5.45am – voting opens The polling station manager lifted the empty ballot box over her head to show us the party candidates, other polling station volunteers and us observers that the boxes were empty. With just a few minutes to go, we were about to witness history in the making with the opening of the […]
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12th November 2015
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
A Song For Romania (and Britain)
We held a learning and development week at the British Embassy last month. Alongside training courses ranging from performance management to social media I decided to put together a slightly more light-hearted finale. We would attempt to identify the pieces of music which, in the view of Embassy staff, best represent Romania and Britain. I […]
12th November 2015 London, UK
Legalisation: the alpha phase
In my last post I discussed the FCO’s legalisation service and our plans to build a new digital service. So what have we done so far? After getting our spending controls approval, we used the Digital Services Framework to find development resources and appointed Informed Solutions to work with us. For development we’ve been following […]
12th November 2015
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Creating an environment for foreign investment: what “independent” means
I recently met a group of top Turkish business folk from the financial sector. They were an impressive group and a powerful advertisement for the talent Turkey has to offer. We discussed how best to boost Turkey’s role as a financial centre. Turkey needs more inward investment. It must compete for that investment with other […]
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11th November 2015 Skopje, North Macedonia
On Remembrance Day in Macedonia
This year I was privileged to take part in a Remembrance ceremony in Skopje at the invitation of the British Embassy. Although I am currently serving in EUFOR in Sarajevo Bosnia Herzegovina, this was my first visit to the Republic of Macedonia and I was delighted to get the opportunity not only to be part […]
11th November 2015 London, UK
When digital meets the real world
A tweetup is where people who are in contact through Twitter meet in person and bring the conversation offline, an example of where the digital and real world come together. Last year, our Embassy was included in the Foreign Office’s innovative project to create maps of Twitter followers. As a digital specialist, I was thrilled […]
11th November 2015
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Remembrance Sunday in the old English church, St Petersburg
We held our annual Remembrance Sunday service in St Petersburg on Sunday 8 November. This is always an important event which brings together the British community as well as church members from Russia and other countries to honour and remember those who were killed in World War One and Two, as well as later conflicts. […]
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11th November 2015 London, UK
Why do Brits wear the Poppy?
The small, red flower – a poppy – that I’m currently wearing on my jacket lapel (and my Twitter page) is often a point of curiosity in Turkey and people frequently ask about it. The United Kingdom, together with other Commonwealth nations, commemorates Remembrance Day every year on 11th November when we remember our fallen. […]
11th November 2015 Chennai, India
My Pal Ralph
The tall bloke on the right is my best friend Ralph Chapman (obviously I’m not quite that short nor, unfortunately, that young). We’ve known each other since we were 3 and together at Nursery (when I spoke mostly Gujarati), and best mates since we were about 8 when I was forcibly separated from Michael Mowbray […]
11th November 2015 Beijing, China
Meeting with a Nobel Prize Winner – Chinese Scientist Tu Youyou
It was the first snow of winter in Beijing on Friday Morning 6th November 2015. The beautiful snowflakes paved a wide carpet to the Institute of Chinese Materia Medica, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences (ICMM). It was freezing cold outside, but there was a warm atmosphere in a meeting room in the ICMM. In […]
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