Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs

A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy

20th March 2014 Pretoria, South Africa

by Judith Macgregor

British High Commissioner to South Africa

Marking South Africa’s Human Rights Day

Friday 21 March is South Africa’s Human Rights day. It commemorates the Sharpeville massacre on 21 March 1960, when 69 people died and 180 were wounded after the police fired on a peaceful crowd that had gathered to protest against the restrictive pass laws imposed on non-white citizens. The protest was a stand by ordinary […]

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20th March 2014 Mumbai, India

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by Vijay Iyer

Senior Science & Innovation Adviser

Interview with Dr. Philip Earis, the Royal Society of Chemistry

Dr. Philip Earis has worked for the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Publishing since 2003. He is Executive Editor of the journals – Nanoscale, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, Green Chemistry, Catalysis Science & Technology, Faraday Discussions and Energy & Environmental Science. Prior to working for the RSC, he was at the University of Cambridge. Philip has […]

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20th March 2014

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by Paul Madden

British Ambassador to Japan

Behind the scenes at the museum

One of the issues that sometimes crosses my desk is the return of indigenous remains from western museums. So I went along to London’s Natural History Museum to call on Director Michael Dixon and his experts to find out more. More than half NHM’s human collection consists of British remains. They enable scientific research which […]

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19th March 2014 Vancouver, Canada

Rupert Potter

by Rupert Potter

British Consul General, Vancouver

An Energetic Discussion

A few weeks ago I found myself in a bar in Houston, Texas. Old Colt 45 pistols for door handles, animal skulls for wall hangings, a single guitarist playing a mournful country song – I’d walked into a cliché movie set (awesome)…

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19th March 2014 Cape Town, South Africa

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by Simon Atkinson

Deputy Head of Mission, Cape Town

PM Trade Envoy sees GREAT partnership opportunities in South Africa

Baroness Scotland at the GUILD International Design Fair in Cape Town

Guest blog by the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to South Africa Baroness Patricia Scotland As the UK celebrated the extraordinary life of former South Africa President Nelson Mandela with a vibrant service in Westminster Abbey I travelled to a very rainy Johannesburg to begin the latest series of engagements in my role as Prime Minister’s […]

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19th March 2014 Sofia, Bulgaria

Bittersweet Recollections of Bulgaria in the 70s

by Anne Clay  Anne Clay lived in Bulgaria between 1973-1975. Anne is Edward Clay’s wife, who was Second Secretary and Cultural Attaché at British Embassy Sofia in the same period. To reach Bulgaria, Anne and her husband, together with their fourteen-month old baby, crossed Europe by car. Before Bulgaria, the family spent two years in East Africa. […]

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19th March 2014 Warsaw, Poland

Martin Oxley, Head, UKTI Poland

by Martin Oxley

Director of UKTI Warsaw

WHERE’S MY CHEESE? – The GREAT British Food Tour 2014 (part 7)

My name’s Trevor and I’m a Bangor Mussel man. I beg your pardon sir….What I meant to say is that I produce and purvey the finest Welsh Mussels to prestigious Amsterdam and Paris tables. The French and the Dutch love mussels and so do we! Mussels have the most impressive nutritional profile of all shellfish. […]

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19th March 2014 Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei

Regional Southeast Asia Climate Analysis and Modelling (SEACAM) Workshops

This is a guest blog by Dr Saiful Azmi bin Hj Husain, a senior lecturer at the Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD). He has been taking part in the Southeast Asia Climate Analysis and Modelling (SEACAM) framework initiated by the Centre for Climate Research Singapore (CCRS) in collaboration with the […]

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19th March 2014

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by Peter Millett

Ambassador to Libya, Tripoli

Learning to Drive

Last week there was a nasty accident outside our house. We heard a loud bang and looked out to see two cars with severe damage and a driver slumped over the steering wheel. Fortunately no-one was killed, but both drivers were lucky to escape with their lives. The first person killed in a car accident […]

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