Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs

A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy

30th December 2014

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by Matt Field

British Diplomat

Back to 2015

It’s that time of year when many of us look ahead at the coming year, and wonder what lies in wait. Fortunately, 2015 has already been predicted and captured on film, 25 years ago, in Back to the Future II. OK, so we’re still waiting on hover-boards, but the film did seem to hit the […]

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29th December 2014

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by Greg Dorey

Diplomat

Unsung Heroine

A few weeks ago, I was asked to try to locate the grave of Eileen Harewood. She was Matron at the Princess Tsahai Hospital in #Addis and had been in Ethiopia for 14 years when she was found murdered in her quarters on 12 September 1961, aged 51. According to the #Glasgow Herald of 17 […]

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29th December 2014 Havana, Cuba

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by Tim Cole

Former British Ambassador to Cuba

Cuba’s ageing population – lessons from around the world

Cuba’s ageing population is widely-acknowledged as a serious problem. Marino Murillo, now Minister for the Economy, has described it as a ‘colossal challenge for the nation’. The bare facts are: in 2021 more people will leave the labour force than will join, in 2026 more Cubans will die than will be born and the number […]

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29th December 2014

Paul Brummell, British Ambassador to Romania

by Paul Brummell

Head of Soft Power and External Affairs Department, Communication Directorate

Revisiting Romania

During a visit to London last month I headed to the delightfully quirky Horniman Museum at Forest Hill, where curator Fiona Kerlogue gave me a tour of the Revisiting Romania exhibition, on show since October. The exhibition offers a beautiful display of Romanian folk art, from embroidered sheepskin jackets to the intricately carved distaffs often […]

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29th December 2014 Sofia, Bulgaria

2014 – Celebrating Friendship between Britain and Bulgaria

by His Excellency the British Ambassador to Bulgaria Jonathan Allen When we began this year with the intention to mark the centenary of the Ambassador’s Residence, we could not have imagined how successful and interesting our year would be. Amongst the many events that we planned, the most successful and most interesting has been our blog. Just […]

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26th December 2014 Colombo, Sri Lanka

Laura Davies » Deputy High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and the Maldives

by Laura Davies

Former Deputy High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and the Maldives

Searching for Maya

For our final blog in our#TsunamiRemembered series, we turn to fiction, sometimes the best way to make sense of facts. Ramya Chamalie Jirasinghe is the author of Rhythm of the Sea and Trinity. Her 2011 book of poetry, There’s an Island in the Bone  won the 2011 State Literary Joint Award for poetry. She was longlisted for […]

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25th December 2014 Colombo, Sri Lanka

Laura Davies » Deputy High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and the Maldives

by Laura Davies

Former Deputy High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and the Maldives

Waves of Compassion

In our penultimate #TsunamiRemembered blog, Tesco, the MCC, an ancestral home and overwhelming compassion come together to help rural talent shine. Kushil Gunasekera describes his vision for Foundation of Goodness. I was born in the rural village of Seenigama, but educated in Colombo, and was always determined to bridge the gap between the rural and […]

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24th December 2014

Mark Kent, the British Ambassador to Thailand

by Mark Kent

British Ambassador to Argentina

Remembering

At the end of the year, most of us take time to look back and remember. This brings a mix of thoughts and emotions. For me, it is particularly appropriate as we reach the end of 2014. This Friday 26th December I will be in Phang Nga Province to take part in the Remembrance Ceremony […]

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24th December 2014 Colombo, Sri Lanka

Laura Davies » Deputy High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and the Maldives

by Laura Davies

Former Deputy High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and the Maldives

Through Hell and High Water: the drivers’ story

This morning we held a short memorial in the office to remember those whose lives were taken away or damaged by the tsunami, and those who worked so tirelessly and generously to rebuild Sri Lanka. So it seems appropriate for our eighth blog to tell the stories of five long term members of British High […]

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23rd December 2014

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by Edward Ferguson

British Ambassador to the Republic of Serbia

Recharging the batteries

Today, I will be flying home to the UK for Christmas to join Caroline and the children, who are already there. It will be my first proper visit home since I arrived in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in July, and I’m looking forward to catching up with family and friends. Looking back through my diary, […]

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