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Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
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2nd December 2025
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14th October 2025
Lost and Found (but mostly lost)
25th August 2015 Istanbul, Turkey
2 Years Since Ghouta, Memories of Horror Live On
Last Friday marked two years since the Assad regime attacked Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus in Syria, with chemical weapons. This despicable act killed hundreds of innocent civilians and injured many hundreds more. Since then Assad’s declared chemical weapons stockpile and production facilities have been destroyed. But the UK remains very concerned about credible allegations […]
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25th August 2015 Istanbul, Turkey
لا تتسع البرادات لهم جميعاً
الغوطة الشرقية – دمشق – سورية بعد منتصف ليلة الأربعاء 21 / 08 / 2013 فقط ما يُقارب 10 آلاف مُصاب، تشنج العضلات يملأُ المكان، الكلُّ ينتفضون، يتساقط الناس كأوراق الشجر، هناك نيامٌ لم يستيقظوا .. ماتوا هادئين، وبعضهم استيقظوا ولم يستطيعوا الخروج .. ماتوا مُحاولين، أمٌ كان لابد أن تختار اثنين من خمسة أبناء، […]
21st August 2015 Jerusalem, Israel
Extremist Ideology and Settlers
As I saw the charred remains of the house in Douma where young Ali Dawabsheh and his father lost their lives, and listened to a community still struggling to come to terms with what had happened, I was forcibly reminded of the death of another young boy a little over a year ago – Mohammed Abu […]
21st August 2015
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Habitat
A few weeks ago I had the delight of taking off my shoes and socks, rolling up my trousers and walking onto a raised bog. I actually stepped onto a bed of moss. It was a nice feeling walking on soft moss and gently sinking. It was also a bit unnerving as my footsteps slowly […]
21st August 2015 Colombo, Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka: an election observed
Monday’s general election was very tight. It was also remarkably peaceful. From the President and Elections Commissioner down, all involved have commented positively on the conduct of the election, many describing it as Sri Lanka’s best in decades. It’s not for the UK to support one party over another. Our interest is for Sri Lanka […]
20th August 2015 Mumbai, India
Maharashtra Police visit the UK
Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of welcoming Maharashtra’s two senior police officials to London for a 3-day programme on exchanging best practices in intellectual property (IP) enforcement between the UK and India. Mr Sanjay Kumar IPS, Additional Director General of Police – Criminal Investigation Department (Pune), and Mr Dhananjay Kamalakar IPS, Joint Commissioner […]
20th August 2015
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
World Humanitarian Day
Yesterday was World Humanitarian Day. Geographically and geopolitically Ethiopia lies at the heart of a deeply unstable region, with neighbouring Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Eritrea all engaged in conflicts. Enjoying comparative peace for some time now, it has been hosting refugees since the 1990s. But recent times have seen a dramatic rise in the […]
19th August 2015 Toronto, Canada
Canadian science news: 10-16 August 2015
Compiled by the UK Science and Innovation Network, this is the most comprehensive coverage of new developments in Canadian science around. This edition covers news released between 10-16 August 2015 inclusive (please get in touch if we missed your story): [View the story ” Canadian science news: 10-16 August 2015″ on Storify]
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19th August 2015 Chevening, UKSkopje, North Macedonia
Don’t Apply for a Chevening Scholarship…
20 years ago I saw an advert in a UK national newspaper which was headlined “Don’t apply to be a diplomat…” I was intrigued. Why would the Foreign and Commonwealth office be advertising for people not to apply for one of their jobs? The answer was fairly clear as I read on. It said don’t […]
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19th August 2015 Madrid, Spain
What’s it like working in a British Embassy?
Spain receives the largest number of UK visitors anywhere in the world, by a long shot: around 15m last year. We have around 300,000 British nationals registered as living here permanently. And we work closely with Spain on a whole host of important bilateral and global issues. We are a great example of dynamic diplomacy […]
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