9th December 2025
Why We Need Data, Courage, and Community
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
2nd December 2025
In cybersecurity, there are no limits – only new voices ready to lead
14th October 2025
Lost and Found (but mostly lost)
24th January 2014 Mumbai, India
Plasma research by the Sabarmati
Fluorescent lamps; flat-panel displays; sterilisation devices for medical tools – what’s common among these items? They all have plasma in them! Plasma is the fourth state of matter; the others being solid, liquid, and gas. It is formed when a gas is heated to extremely high temperatures. Recently, I visited the Institute for Plasma Research […]
23rd January 2014 Havana, Cuba
CELAC and the Falkland Islands – the right to self-determination
Next week the CELAC Summit will be held in Havana and the Cuban government will be in charge of finalising the language in the Summit declarations. Inevitably there will be one on the Falkland Islands and I suspect it will ignore the referendum held on the Islands last year when 99.8% voted in favour of […]
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23rd January 2014 Washington DC, USA
23 years of the UK economy in approximately 650 words (and the next 23 years in just 30)
“Is it just me or has everything shrunk?” That was the principal thought running through my head on January 15th as I walked into my old high school – the Inverness Royal Academy – for the first time in 23 years. The Head of the Economics Department there, Ian Stewart, was the first person to […]
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23rd January 2014 Lima, Peru
Lima as the Key Stage Towards a Global Agreement
By Sir David King, Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative for Climate Change If we all, together, continue to emit greenhouse gases at the present rate, 1.8% per annum, by 2040 we will have burnt up the entire planet’s budget for carbon. Exceeding that budget means that we face a global warming temperature rise of more than 2°C, […]
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23rd January 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Tourism in Ethiopia – One Park, Many Worlds
I spent last weekend in the Bale Mountains National Park, in a top quality lodge newly opened by a British entrepreneur (one of two such lodges in the country). The Park itself is stunningly beautiful and full of rare and endemic species of flora and fauna, including the endangered Ethiopian Wolf (of which we saw […]
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22nd January 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Economics and the Pope
The World Economic Forum opens every year in January in the Swiss resort of Davos. Britain, as usual, will be sending a strong delegation led by the Prime Minister. It is one of the principal opportunities during the year when government, business, journalists and thinkers can gather to discuss the state of the world’s economy […]
22nd January 2014 Mumbai, India
Vibrant PDPU
That Gujarat and vibrancy go hand in hand became evident to me when I recently visited the Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU), established in Gandhinagar, capital of Gujarat, by the Gujarat Energy Research & Management Institute (GERMI) as a private university. A 30-minute drive from the Ahmedabad airport, PDPU is situated between the cities of […]
22nd January 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Cleaning up the Country
Cleanliness is close to Godliness. Godliness is probably little more than a distant aspiration for most of us. But cleanliness is easy, on a personal level and in our communities. Keeping our neighbourhoods clean is good for everyone. It is good for our souls because it increases our feeling of dignity. It is good for […]
22nd January 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Turkey and Britain: Open to Export
The first click brings up a Turkish company seeking bids to repair a turbine generator system. Further down there is an analysis of recent economic developments in Turkey; and a question (and answer) about how to open a cupcake store with English recipes. Welcome to the Turkey page of the ‘Open to Export’ website. Open to […]
22nd January 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
War and Remembrance
This year marks the start of a whole series of commemorations to mark the 100th anniversary of the First World War. There are active current debates in both Australia and Britain around the way school curricula deal with history. But one thing is clear, we are both committed to remembering the sacrifice of the millions of […]