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Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
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The climate crisis and gender-based violence
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Ecolabels: A Catalyst for Sustainable Food Choices?
19th August 2014 Skopje, North Macedonia
Defence matters
Yesterday I accompanied the Ambassador to an event in the historic town of Ohrid to mark ‘18 August, Macedonian Army Day’. The ceremony was held at the Water Training Centre in a beautiful setting next to Lake Ohrid. As Commander-in-Chief the President headed a guest list of senior political, diplomatic and military guests. It was a great opportunity to meet with friends and […]
19th August 2014 Kingston, Jamaica
Crash Course in Road Safety
Forgive the pun but I learnt quite a lot about the efforts to reduce the number and severity of road accidents recently. Senior Advisor to Road Safety Support, Adam Briggs, visited Jamaica from the UK and was pleased by the willingness and efforts by Jamaica to reduce road accidents and fatalities. During his visit, he […]
19th August 2014 Dublin, Ireland
Historic exchange of Polish and British tanks in Bydgoszcz
Guest blog by Sarah Tiffin, Chargé d’Affaires a.i. In tough times, friends look out for each other. This has been a constant in the relationship between Poland and the UK. The brave Polish airmen who fought in the Battle of Britain have passed into legend, as have the heroic actions of the Polish troops alongside […]
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18th August 2014 Budapest, Hungary
Adventures on Sziget – Day 3 (and 4 and 5)
Guest blog by Ben Luckock, Head of Policy Team at the British Embassy in Budapest. Having read Theresa’s account of her two days at Sziget (Day1 and Day2), it was with great enthusiasm that I headed down to the Island of Freedom on Friday afternoon. Much of the mud had dried up and the […]
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18th August 2014 Sana’a, Yemen
World Humanitarian Day
Since the bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad in 2003, August 19 has been honoured as a day to remember those who face danger to help others. In 2014, more people than ever are in need of humanitarian assistance. With ongoing conflict in thirty three countries and an increasing number of natural disasters affecting […]
18th August 2014 London, UK
Consular appointments discovery – who, what, how?
Hi, I’m Mark, a Digital Transformation Manager at the Foreign Office. I’m working on a new service for booking consular appointments, and would like to share the findings of the discovery phase. As my colleague Phil has described previously, the FCO offers a range of services to the public, many of which are delivered at […]
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18th August 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Churchill Lecture in Brisbane
“You know, in the end, we are all worms, but I do believe I am a glow worm” Winston Churchill once told a friend. Paul Keating, speaking in 2008 agreed “He was a glow worm and he lit up the most miserable epoch of the miserable twentieth century like no one before or after him.” […]
15th August 2014 London, UK
HMA twitter maps
On the first floor of the Foreign Office main building, civil servants used to pull down maps from a burr walnut cabinet to pore over them and discuss the latest news from our embassies. Whilst the original maps have long ago been shipped off to The National Archives, the Foreign Office’s love of a good […]
15th August 2014 Budapest, Hungary
Adventures on Sziget – Day 2
Guest blog by Theresa Bubbear, Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy in Budapest. On Thursday the team and I headed back to Sziget for day 2 of our Embassy engagement. Budapest thoughtfully provided some British festival weather for us – it poured almost all day, and the mud came up as the rain came […]
15th August 2014 Skopje, North Macedonia
Join our Chevening network, study in the UK!
Some of you that are reading this blog post might be young professionals, public servants, leading or working in civil society organisations, enthusiasts about business and innovation, or maybe you see yourselves as future leaders in Macedonia? You might also be thinking about spending a year abroad, developing your skills in a quality international environment. […]
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