3rd December 2024
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?
15th June 2015 Islamabad, Pakistan
The Magna Carta
Guest blog by Senator Aitzaz Ahsan Senator Aitzaz Ahsan, of Grays’ Inn Barrister-at-Law, is a senior lawyer, a veteran politician, a human rights’ activist, a constitutional theorist, a former political prisoner and federal minister, a left-wing campaigner against military regimes and a member of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party who currently serves as the Leader of […]
14th June 2015 Geneva, Switzerland
Bursting the Bubble
It feels like we’ve hardly been away. I’m starting to suspect that someone has airbrushed April and May from the global calendar. The only clue that the months have been and gone is our hedge growing high enough to receive a letter from the estate agent ordering us to cut it by 10 centimetres and […]
13th June 2015 Brasilia, Brazil
Our Man In… Florianópolis – Guestpost by Michael Delaney
It is almost eight months since the British Embassy Brazil launched our outreach strategy, we decided we would strengthen our engagements in the great states of Bahia, Minas Gerais, Parana, Rio Grande do Sul, Amazonas, Ceara, Santa Catarina and Espirito Santo. It is also roughly two years since we started appointing Honorary Prosperity Consuls to […]
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12th June 2015 Havana, Cuba
#BritTalks
Last week, we held the first #BritTalk in my house. In a fascinating presentation, Lord David Triesman, in Havana on business, shared his experiences of working with FIFA and Sepp Blatter when he was Chair of the Football Association. The audience was gripped by Lord Triesman’s tales of sleaze and abuse of power, by his […]
12th June 2015 Dublin, Ireland
Russia and Ukraine: stay the course
In recent months, Ukraine has receded from the news headlines in Poland. This is understandable, as other concerns such as the Eurozone crisis and presidential election have been dominating headlines. But we must not forget Ukraine. The situation there remains fragile and worrying. Fighting continues, albeit at a lower level than in the past. Separatist […]
12th June 2015
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Diplomacy and business
Can others learn from diplomacy? I think they can, but so can diplomats learn from others. I gave a presentation to a business group in Minsk, on “10 lessons of diplomacy” that might be useful for business. I picked on 10 as it seemed a good number. My brief was to entertain and provide some […]
12th June 2015
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Expo 2015: UK and Holy See make a buzz
It was Holy See day this week at Expo 2015 in Milan. Expo is like a world fair, with this year 145 countries represented including 53 national pavilions (the Holy See has one) based around the theme “Feeding the Planet: Energy for Life”. Reminding us that “man does not live by bread alone”, the Holy […]
12th June 2015 Canberra, Australia
“So… what do you do?”
Very often when I tell people about my job, their reaction is puzzlement. ‘So you work on climate change stuff in Australia?’ ‘Yep.’ (and energy policy, and a few other things) ‘But you work for the UK government?’ ‘Yep.’ ‘So… why does the UK employ someone in Australia to work on climate change?’ When I […]
11th June 2015 Windhoek, Namibia
Celebrating the Queen’s Birthday in Namibia
Thank you to all of you who joined us for our fantastic Queen’s Birthday Party in Windhoek yesterday. We were delighted to welcome to our traditional British garden party Namibian Speaker Professor Peter Katjavivi and eight government ministers (ranging from Environment & Tourism, to Mines & Energy, Defence, Higher Education, Sport and Poverty Eradication), in […]
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11th June 2015
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Romanian stories in Britain (IV) Emi Gal: ‘Never give up’
It was a summer day in August and I was having burgers and fries at the only McDonald’s in Berceni, a peripheral neighborhood in Bucharest. Misha, who was sipping out of a Coke plastic cup, was soon to be the first employee of my budding new venture that had no clients, no money and no […]
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