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
25th August 2014 Athens, Greece
Tragedy and the tragic
Ten days ago, I attended the last performance at this year’s Festival of Epidauros, Nikaiti Kondouri’s production of Aeschylus’ Persians. There were more than 6,000 people on the beautiful marble seating of the ancient theatre. The atmosphere beforehand was lively, expectant, talkative. But once the drama began, this huge audience fell mute and minutely attentive. […]
21st August 2014 Toronto, Canada
Canadian science news: 11-17 August 2014
Trouble reading this story or moving through pages? Check it out on Storify here: https://storify.com/SINCanada/canadian-science-news-11-17-august-2014 [View the story ” Canadian science news: 11-17 August 2014″ on Storify]
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21st August 2014 British High Commission, Kingston, Jamaica
My Chevening Experience : Glenn Edward McPhee
My academic pursuit at the University of Buckingham was dominated by intellectually stimulating lectures and tutorials. The MA in Security and Intelligence Studies, offered a unique degree of practitioner-led expertise to relate academic and historical analyses of contemporary security and intelligence environments in Western democracies, with a focus on the United Kingdom.
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21st August 2014 Colombo, Sri Lanka
Bringing us all together
Education has been on my mind recently. On a personal level, my daughters are settling into school and nursery. But the last ten days in the office have also been a crash course in the links between Sri Lankan and UK educational establishments, and an opportunity to chat to an inspiring mix of past, present […]
20th August 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Helping Palestinian Refugees
How to help refugees is a major issue in Jordan. As a country, Jordan has offered sanctuary to generations of refugees from many neighbouring countries, most recently from Syria. But the presence of over 2 million refugees from Palestine also presents a major challenge to the country. That is where the role of UNRWA comes […]
20th August 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
World Humanitarian Day
As I write, I am representing the #UK in an open session of the Africa Union’s #(AU) Peace and Security Council #PSC in Addis Ababa to commemorate World Humanitarian Day #WHD2014 – a date which marks, of course, the horrific bombing of #UN Headquarters in Baghdad in 2003. It seems today that the humanitarian system is being stretched […]
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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