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 March 2014 San Francisco, USA
How GREAT is Innovation?
Earlier this month, the best and brightest minds in innovation, creative media, and tech landed in Austin for the annual SxSW conference and trade show. Every year I am impressed by the UK companies that attend SxSW, and this year was no different. My colleagues at the British Consulate in Houston support loads of UK […]
24th March 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Helping to preserve our reefs – because it is the right thing to do
The idea of volunteering, doing something for society without pay, took leaps forward during the Olympic Games at Sydney. Thousands of people worked for no pay to help man the Games, and provide help and guidance to the thousands of overseas visitors. I can remember meeting firemen and others who had given up a week’s […]
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24th March 2014 Warsaw, Poland
WHERE’S MY CHEESE? – The GREAT British Food Tour 2014 (part 8)
We’ve stopped for an afternoon smoke at the only remaining smoker on Anglesey. We’re talking award inning bacon, fish and eels. Well worth a look – smacznego! DeriMon – Anglesey’s only traditional Smokehouse DeriMon (translated from Welsh means ‘The Oaks of Anglesey’) – the name is derived from the fact that our property – Deri […]
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24th March 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
“Digging for truth: the uses and abuses of language”
I was honoured to be invited to the Nobel Museum on Friday by my friend and colleague, the Irish Ambassador, James Carroll, to take part in a celebration of the life and work of the Nobel prize winning poet Seamus Heaney. The poem I chose to read was “Digging”, in which the young poet expresses […]
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24th March 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Humanitarian crisis
Since mid-December, over 70,000 refugees from South Sudan have fled the violence there into the Gambella Region of Ethiopia, seeking to escape insecurity and a lack of food. The numbers are growing all the time. The UK Government is extremely concerned about this situation. This week I visited a new camp for refugees (currently known […]
24th March 2014 Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei
Integration of Transferable Skills in TVET Curriculum Workshop
We have another guest blogger this month. Dr Paryono is the Deputy Director for Professional Affairs cum Research Specialist at the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation Regional Centre For Vocational and Technical Education and Training (SEAMEO VOCTECH) based in Brunei. Its workshop on the Integration of Transferable Skills in TVET Curriculum, Teaching-Learning, and Assessment […]
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23rd March 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
How not to hold a referendum
The Crimean referendum of 16 March falls far below recognised international standards. To begin with, it is unconstitutional. Ukraine’s constitution clearly states that the status of any part of the country’s territory can only be changed as the result of a nationwide referendum. No one objected to the idea of a referendum as such. And […]
23rd March 2014 Warsaw, Poland
The GREAT British Sunday Lunch po Polsku
The GREAT British Sunday Lunch po Polsku Well I’m just back from a mega week long culinary trip round the UK and you know what I had a GREAT time tasting some pretty cool food. What matters is the ingredients and how you cook them. It’s not good enough to dismiss the Brits as having […]
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21st March 2014 Havana, Cuba
When Winston Churchill went to war in Cuba
In a week when Russian aggression in Eastern Europe has brought back memories of the Cold War, it seems appropriate to write about Sir Winston Churchill, the great British statesman who coined the term ‘the iron curtain’. Churchill’s inspiring, determined, brilliant leadership during the Second World War is known to all. Less well-known are his […]
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21st March 2014 Sofia, Bulgaria
From Three Months to a Decade
by Paul Wright Paul Wright is a British businessman who first came to Sofia ten years ago, only temporary, for three months. Ten years later Paul is still here and married to a Bulgarian woman; they have one child. In his #100UKBG story, Paul talks about Bulgaria and his Bulgarian life. The simplest thing to say […]