17th July 2025
Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
15th July 2025
International Day of Women in Diplomacy: UK Special Envoy for Women and Girls visit to Geneva
1st May 2025
The UN Commission on the Status of Women: My first visit as UK Special Envoy for Women and Girls
3rd March 2015
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Human Rights and the Cyrus Cylinder
Next week the Foreign Office will release its annual report on Human Rights and Democracy. It will showcase some of the work the UK has been doing to promote human rights around the world over the course of our current parliament (ie. the last five years), paying special attention to the value we place on […]
3rd March 2015 Mumbai
EU tour to Pune – A glimpse of R&D base in India
Pune, also known as the Oxford of the East, is the educational and research hub of Western India. The European Union (EU) Delegation to India organised a regional tour to Pune from 16-18 February 2015. We (new SINner Karanpreet and veteran Vishakha) represented the British High Commission and participated in the stimulating deliberations over the three […]
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3rd March 2015 Pretoria, South Africa
Today’s friends, tomorrow’s leaders…
Guest Blogger: Patrice Madurai As my season at university draws to an end, I have found myself being more deliberate, more present. In South Africa I am part of the “one percent” which is by and large a minority that has had the honour and privilege of receiving tertiary education. I’ve always dreamed of being successful […]
2nd March 2015 Geneva, Switzerland
Marching On
I hope you’re feeling fit and strong in time for this session. As I don’t have much time for exercise these days, I’ve been trying to get in shape before the Council by pushing my household chores to my physical limit. I’ve managed to improve my stamina, reactions and speed with new personal bests for double […]
2nd March 2015 Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei
Racing on the Brunei River on St David’s Day
Sunday 1st March – St David’s Day – and I am taking part, with other Ambassadors, in an afternoon race with 7 other boats including one captained by His Majesty The Sultan. To bring luck to our team, we posed with the Welsh Flag, it being a little known fact that the Brunei crocodile’s only […]
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1st March 2015 Skopje, North Macedonia
Dydd Hapus Gŵyl Dewi! – Happy St David’s Day
On Sunday 1 March along with Welsh citizens around the World, I will celebrate St David’s Day. Tradition has it that St David, or Dewi Saint in the Welsh language, died on this day in 569AD and from the 18th Century he was adopted as the Patron Saint of Wales, and the date celebrated as […]
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1st March 2015
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Dragons and daffodils…..
Today is 1 March and the Welsh flag, Y Ddraig Goch, was flying outside the British Embassy as we mark St David’s Day. And several of us are wearing dragon or daffodil badges in our lapels or as cufflinks to recognise the patron saint of Wales. The date marks the anniversary of the death of […]
28th February 2015 Islamabad, Pakistan
St David’s Day
Fans of J.K. Rowling in Pakistan will remember that a Common Welsh Dragon featured in ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’, the fourth book of her immensely popular series. That dragon was green in colour, but the dragon on the flag flying at the British High Commission in Islamabad today is a vibrant red. […]
27th February 2015
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Get on the bus for British Week Guatemala 2015
The British Week that we hold in Guatemala has always been our way of showing the best of our nation. The hardest part is narrowing down the possibilities of what we could do to just a week’s worth of activity. That means that we hold a real variety of events crossing cultural, political and economic […]
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27th February 2015 Beirut, Lebanon
What Lebanese Students Tell Me About Us
I spend a lot of time in universities, talking with students about their hopes for the region and their perceptions of the UK. Lebanon has always been a good place to listen to the currents surging through the Middle East. These sessions are always lively, surprising, challenging. It is foolish to try to generalise about […]
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