3rd December 2024
RENEWING OLD TIES: THE NEW BISHOP OF LONDON
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
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25th November 2024
The climate crisis and gender-based violence
8th November 2024
Ecolabels: A Catalyst for Sustainable Food Choices?
28th May 2015 Asuncion, Paraguay
Saliendo de la “burbuja diplomática”
Los Embajadores tienden a vivir y trabajar en las ciudades capitales – no es sorpresa ya que la mayoría de los ministerios y negocios operan allí. Asunción no es la excepción. Como muchos otros Embajadores, buena parte de mi tiempo se divide entre reuniones oficiales y recepciones diplomáticas de distintas índoles. Las mismas brindan buenas […]
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27th May 2015 Asuncion, Paraguay
Getting ‘out and about’
Ambassadors tend to live and work in capital cities – not surprising, as that is where most government ministries and business people operate. Asuncion is no exception. Like many Ambassadors I spend a lot of time in official meetings and diplomatic receptions of one sort or another. These provide good opportunities for progressing Embassy business. […]
27th May 2015 Colombo, Sri Lanka
To be or not to be… Shakespeare’s Globe comes to Colombo
On 14 May, Shakespeare’s Globe came to Colombo. Sri Lanka was their 96th stopover in their Globe to Globe challenge to perform Hamlet in every single country in the world. Here in Sri Lanka, they performed twice, a free matinee for 20 schools from across Colombo, and an evening production. Junior prefects from the British […]
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26th May 2015 Athens, Greece
Guest blog: Four months in Athens
I’m pleased to invite Hinesh Rajani to write a guest blog about his time in Greece. Hinesh joined the Embassy team in early February, and has spent four months on a temporary posting as First Secretary Political/Economic. His observations are below. After January’s election, a new Government promised a rather different approach to Greece’s challenges. Given […]
26th May 2015 New Delhi, India
Newton Bhabha Innovation Workshop: Industry Academia Engagement
On 12-13 May 2015, the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng), in partnership with the Science and Innovation Network (SIN) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) organised a workshop in New Delhi on ‘industry academia engagement’. The aim of the workshop was to discuss the current challenges of technological development in India, […]
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25th May 2015 Toronto, Canada
The Science and Technology Committee visits Toronto
Guest blogger Dr. Elizabeth Rough, Committee Specialist on the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, spent a month getting rained on in Toronto – all in the name of science. For a month in Spring, the Toronto Office of SIN Canada became my adopted home. Normally you can find me in Westminster working as a Committee Specialist […]
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25th May 2015 Istanbul, Turkey
Remembering Houla – why sectarianism cannot be part of Syria’s future
Three years ago today, a massacre took place in the Syrian village of Taldou in Houla, in northern Syria. According to the UN, 108 civilians were brutally murdered, including 34 women and 49 children. More even than the death toll, the clear sectarian nature of the killings sparked an international outcry. The UN and twelve other […]
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25th May 2015 Mumbai, India
Celebrating World Intellectual Property Day in Chennai
On 25 April, I was in Chennai to speak at a seminar organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on ‘Leveraging intellectual property rights for a creative and innovative India’. Two reasons made the event momentous. One, celebration of the World Intellectual Property (IP) Day (26 April) and two, launch of a report mapping […]
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22nd May 2015 Brasilia, Brazil
Seahorses: ‘flagships’ for biodiversity conversation – Guestpost by Dr Lucy Woodall
22 May marks the International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB), a day to increase understanding and awareness of biodiversity issues. The theme for 2015 will be ‘Biodiversity for Sustainable Development’ to reflect the importance of a new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) being developed as part of the UN post-2015 development agenda and the relevance […]
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22nd May 2015 Mumbai, India
IP – savvy future judges
Imagine speaking to an audience of state level judges-in-training on intellectual property (IP)! Well, I had the honour of doing so at the Odisha Judicial Academy in Cuttack, Odisha on 11 April 2015. At the academy, newly recruited state judicial officers learn about, inter alia, the different areas of law, judicial attitude, aptitude orientation and […]