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
4th December 2014 Madrid, Spain
Talking about foreign policy with Master´s students
It was a real pleasure to welcome a group of Masters students from the Universidad Europea Madrid to the Embassy last week. With a number of my colleagues I was able to explain the work of the Embassy and Consulates across Spain. We discussed a range of foreign policy and global issues, before concluding with […]
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3rd December 2014 Singapore
6 Tips for Preparing Your Bid
A new member of staff recently asked me how the annual bidding round works and more importantly what makes a strong bid stand out. As I was talking through it I realised this was a blog post in the making. So I thought I would share with you six tips to increase the chances of […]
3rd December 2014 London, UK
What is civil society?
Last Friday I met members of the FCO’s “Youth Inspiration Group” – nine young people, between 18 and 25, from diverse backgrounds. With a combined network of over 3,000 (via the youth organisations and individual contacts they have) this group lends their time to the FCO, as a sounding board for our ideas. To help […]
3rd December 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Romanian Revolution through British Eyes/Nigel Townson: ‘Remember, remember, that distant December’
‘I had already made the flight from Cluj to Bucharest on a number of occasions and it was rarely, if ever, a joyful occasion. The trip on 21st December 1989 was no exception as there was tension amongst the passengers, the airport staff and the flight crew. Even my Securitate-sponsored minder, technically a colleague in […]
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3rd December 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Successful Australian UNSC Presidency in November
Australia has just completed its second period as UN Security Council Presidency, in November. It’s up to each member how much they want to make of their month of rotating Presidency. So it was good to see Australia being both ambitious and effective. It enabled strategic consideration of some important thematic issues, alongside dealing with […]
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2nd December 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Turkey, the EU and NATO
I wrote a blog last year called “Why Turkey can be confident”. The point of that blog was to say that, given that Turkey was a large country with a trillion-dollar economy playing an influential role in world affairs, I couldn’t understand why some people argued that events inside Turkey were determined to a large […]
2nd December 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
6 Months to Elections (Here and There…)
Recently we learnt the date of next year’s election in #Ethiopia – 24 May 2015. So last Monday marked the 6 month countdown. I know that the National Election Board, #NEBE, are already very busy making preparations. This will be only the fifth opportunity Ethiopians have had to chose their government through the ballot box: […]
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2nd December 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
World Dementia Envoy visits Australia
330,000 Australians, 900,000 Britons and 44 million people around the world are living with dementia. These numbers are set to at least double over the next 30 years. It’s not only a human tragedy for those who suffer, but there are big economic and social costs for society. For 70% of Australians in their fifties, it […]
1st December 2014 Brasilia, Brazil
Time to reflect
Today is World AIDS Day. It is a great opportunity to reflect on what has been achieved in the fight against HIV/AIDS in the last 20 years. The devastating Ebola outbreak in West Africa is a reminder of what it was like when AIDS started. Stigma, misunderstanding and discrimination were widespread. People were scared and afraid […]
1st December 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Help BiH farmers sell their products in the EU
Since I took up my post in Bosnia and Herzegovina this summer I have taken every opportunity to travel around the country. The beauty and diversity of the rural landscape is the first thing that strikes the newcomer, and from every highway one can see the distinctive, beehive-shaped haystacks and crops and livestock tended by […]
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