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?
30th September 2020 Skopje, North Macedonia
A hidden gem in the Pelagonia region
Two years into my posting as British Ambassador to North Macedonia, September was my first month working for the recently merged Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the whole team coming back fully into the Embassy and adapting to the “new normal”. With my Embassy team, we have been working remotely and in groups from the […]
29th September 2020 Tokyo, Japan
Former British Consulate in Yokohama
The former British Consulate in Yokohama is a handsome stone building, reconstructed after the Great Tokyo Earthquake of 1923, just like the Embassy in Tokyo. Its location, amidst the downtown shops and offices of Japan’s second largest city, was once the bustling waterfront where East met West. Yokohama was one of several Treaty Ports, where […]
25th September 2020 Belgrade, Serbia
Windows on History
The Second World War finally came to an end just over 75 years ago. The memory of that war becomes more distant with each passing generation. This was the lived experience of my parents’ generation, experience and memories that our parents – or perhaps for some of you your grandparents – recounted to us as children, but which we can […]
22nd September 2020 Dublin, Ireland
Robin Barnett’s Final Blog as British Ambassador to Ireland
This is my last blog as Ambassador to Ireland. There are so many topics that I could cover but I wanted to focus on just 3 that are personal to me: GAA Before coming to Ireland, I had not appreciated the significance of the GAA but I quickly got an introduction to football at the […]
Read more on Robin Barnett’s Final Blog as British Ambassador to Ireland | Reply
21st September 2020 Belgrade, Serbia
The Online Diplomat
I was recently asked to open a conference on communications. Because of the public health situation the conference was held virtually, that is to say, online. It’s a dangerous thing to be an amateur opening a conference of professionals. To do so using their own medium was, to use typically British irony, ‘courageous’. I realised […]
17th September 2020 Vienna, Austria
Why the British Embassy in Vienna is proud to be green
Diplomats from the British Embassy are off to an important meeting in Vienna. The Ringstrasse, as so often, is gridlocked. No problem for our diplomats, who hop on an embassy bike and arrive not only on time, but in style. Our embassy bikes mean that British diplomats in Vienna make many journeys by bike which […]
Read more on Why the British Embassy in Vienna is proud to be green | Reply
7th September 2020 Vienna, Austria
How Austria has – and hasn’t – changed
‘You were a diplomat in Vienna in the ‘80s?’ My interlocutor scans me, perhaps wondering why I am still working, or alive. ‘It must have changed so much!’ ‘Well…’ I seek a diplomatic reply. ‘Yes and no.’ Oscar Wilde famously said “Comparisons are odious”. I often cite him when asked which of my diplomatic postings I have preferred out […]
Read more on How Austria has – and hasn’t – changed | Reply (7)
31st August 2020 Guangzhou, China
‘He that is thy friend indeed, he will help thee in thy need.’
In March, a large shipment of thousands of masks, gloves, overalls and goggles arrived in Birmingham. Stapled to the side of each of the crates was a quote, in both Chinese and English, attributed to William Shakespeare: ‘He that is thy friend indeed, he will help thee in thy need.’ (“岁寒知松柏，患难见真情.”) This consignment was one […]
Read more on ‘He that is thy friend indeed, he will help thee in thy need.’ | Reply
30th August 2020
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
The Search Continues
International Day of the Disappeared is not an abstract commemoration of a far off event. Many around us are living with a terrible curse, not only of losing a loved one, but of not being able to put them and their memory to rest. In my time in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), I’ve met many […]
28th August 2020 Vienna, Austria
How a British company keeps Austrian train passengers online
A train swoops at high speed through the Austrian Alps. Despite the stunning scenery, the passengers are – this being the twenty-first century – more interested in what’s happening on their screens as they work, browse the internet and use social media… also at high speed, thanks to a British company. Nomad Digital is the world’s leading provider of passenger and fleet connectivity solutions […]
Read more on How a British company keeps Austrian train passengers online | Reply