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 July 2014 Toronto, Canada
An update on the Internet of Things
As we look forward to Toronto’s Smart Week 2014 in October, it’s worth reviewing what’s been going on in the UK around the Internet of Things. Briefly, the term Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the rapid proliferation of network-enabled devices and the Internet-like structures that enable them to communicate with each other. For example, […]
4th July 2014 London, UK
Surviving a forced marriage
Guest blog by Preet, who is a survivor of a Forced Marriage and Honour Based Abuse. Here is her story. I was born a British Citizen into a very strict and orthodox Sikh family, outside of the UK. My upbringing was very oppressive and the family culture was also suppressive towards the women in the […]
4th July 2014 London, UK
A Day in The Forced Marriage Unit
Sophie Lott is a case worker in the Forced Marriage Unit of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The first thing I do when I get into work is check for my case updates on the computer – hoping that Nina* did attend the British High Commission overseas where my colleagues could check she was ok […]
4th July 2014 London, UK
Assisting forced marriage victims: the overseas perspective
Neelam Farooq: senior Consular Assistance, British High Commission Islamabad. It’s Monday morning and I walk into the office with yesterday’s rescue still echoing in my mind, which was in essence a cry for help from a teenage girl Yasmeen*, who is a potential victim of forced marriage. We deal with over 100 cases of Forced […]
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4th July 2014 Sofia, Bulgaria
Our Bulgarian Life
by Mel Barber Mel Barber fell in love with Bulgaria, the Bulgarian people and the Bulgarian way of life almost straight after coming to the country. After spending only a month in their recently-bought holiday house in Bulgaria, Mel and her boyfriend decided to move to the country permanently. Today, five years later, they enjoy life in the […]
4th July 2014 Havana, Cuba
Can the internet spur economic growth in Cuba?
One of the more unusual visitors to Havana in the last week was perhaps Eric Schmidt, the Chair of Google. His visit coincided with the news that the Cuban economy is growing more slowly than hoped – at only 0.6% in the first six months of 2014, the coming into effect of the new foreign […]
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4th July 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Why We Should Celebrate the Freedom to Be Ourselves
On a Saturday evening in June 2012, as my wife and I stood in our kitchen, the peace was shattered (literally) by a bottle thrown from the street, which broke our window. It was quite a shock. A man was arrested, spent a night in a police cell and has now been fined 1000 BGN. […]
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3rd July 2014 Toronto, Canada
Canadian science news: 23-29 June 2014
Trouble reading this story or moving through pages? Check it out on Storify here: https://storify.com/SINCanada/canadian-science-news-23-29-june-2014 [View the story ” Canadian science news: 23-29 June 2014″ on Storify]
3rd July 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
The Anglican Centre: an essential presence in Rome
The recent visit of the Archbishop of Canterbury – Justin Welby’s second since he and Pope Francis began their respective missions in the same week in March 2013 – placed in the spotlight the relationship between the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church across the world. One of the key instruments of that relationship […]
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3rd July 2014 Warsaw, Poland
Innovation is GREAT
By the time you read this post, UKTI will just have launched the ‘Innovation is GREAT’ campaign in Warsaw. The campaign, which is very close to my heart, is designed to support cooperation between Britain and Central & Eastern Europe (CEE) to drive innovation, R&D and commercial partnerships in the life and hard science sectors. […]