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
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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15th August 2014 Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei
From Trash to Treasure
The British High Commission had an exhibition stand at the National Environment Conference on 13 August organised by Asia Inc Forum. The theme of our stand was from global to national to local action. To highlight the negative impact that unchecked climate change will have on the world, we displayed the Human Dynamics of Climate […]
14th August 2014 Budapest, Hungary
Sziget Adventures – Day 1
Guest blog by Theresa Bubbear, Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy in Budapest. In 2012 I blogged about my first experience of Sziget. Yesterday I went back to see what was happening and what had changed. This year’s festival is bigger and better than ever, with 400,000 visitors expected and some top […]
14th August 2014 Bucharest, Romania
Volunteers for the summer
On 19th July, Mark Flewitt and Tim Tofts – Trustees of The Libra Foundation – visited the embassy on to talk about the charity’s plans for the future. The charity volunteers and trustees were excited about a 5 week programme that was about to start, full of activities aimed at improving the lives of disadvantaged […]
14th August 2014 Mumbai, India
Workshop on Advanced Manufacturing in Bengaluru
As a follow up to the UK-India manufacturing round table held in New Delhi in April this year, I’m collaborating with my UKTI colleague, Venkatesh, to organise a one-day UK-India workshop on advanced manufacturing in Bengaluru on September 12, 2014. If you’re interested in finding about the outcomes of the round table meeting, you might […]
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