22nd December 2025
Continuing to grow the global alliance for women and girls
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
17th December 2025
MAKING LIFE SAFER, FOR EVERYONE
9th December 2025
Why We Need Data, Courage, and Community
31st December 2013 Athens, Greece
2014 – A year of opportunity?
On the banks of the magnificent Rhine, in my room on the sixth floor of the Hyatt Hotel, I’m watching the comings and goings of the container boats that ply their trade between the industrialised cities of the Rhineland. From above it’s as if they’re gliding effortlessly, bearing their cargo without sound, without propulsion. The […]
31st December 2013 New Delhi, India
Review of 2013
2013 has been quite a year for the UK Science and Innovation Network and our partners in India. In January, we took part in the visit of UK Health Minister, Anna Soubry. Health was a major theme of our work this year, which covered medical devices, regulations, an MoU signing, and preparations for workshops on […]
31st December 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
New Year Honour for Founder of Hospices of Hope, Romania
This New Year, HM The Queen has recognised the achievements of one of the most remarkable Great Britons in Romania. Graham Perolls is made a Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in the New Year’s Honours List, an order of chivalry reserved for those who render extraordinary service in a foreign […]
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31st December 2013 New Delhi, India
Interview with Dr Venki Ramakrishnan
As Swati has mentioned, over the course of December and January, we’ve been lucky enough to have a number of UK Nobel Prize winners visit India to give lectures. We’re particularly grateful to Dr Venki Ramakrishnan, who will be spending over a month here and giving lectures in five cities. I caught up with Dr […]
30th December 2013 Havana, Cuba
Delivering on our commitments to human rights in 2014
In July 2011 in a ‘Declaration on Bilateral Co-operation’ the British and Cuban governments agreed that human rights are a ‘priority for co-operation’. Both countries have recently been elected by the UN General Assembly to the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) for a three year term beginning on 1 January 2014. The HRC is the […]
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27th December 2013 Beirut, Lebanon
A Talisman for Tolerance – Lebanon loses Mohamad Chatah
Lebanon lost Mohamad Chatah and many others today. As at other such moments, the embassy went into a high gear – checking staff were safe, searching hospitals for Brits, updating travel advice, considering a public response, assessing the facts, analysing the implications. In between, like so many others here, we try to deal with the […]
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26th December 2013 Brasilia, Brazil
The word of mouse
Nowadays, communication includes the freedom to express opinions in the Internet information environment and the freedom to discover them. That is to say, the freedom to speak and to hear. Moreover, this online environment gives a new perspective to what was once referred to as “word of mouth”. Now we might be tempted to call […]
24th December 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
A British Christmas
Christmas is coming. I’m looking forward to it as I’ve been busy recently, and need a break. What is so special about Christmas in Britain? As it is the time when many of us Christians remember the birth of Jesus, Christmas is above all for our children. This is the time when we celebrate them, […]
24th December 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Communicating the Good News
Pope Francis places great emphasis in his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Guadium on communication. In large part, he declares, communicating the Gospel is the Church’s principal mission statement. This is not, of course, a new message, although the emphasis may be. But it was perhaps no coincidence that the Holy See recently announced that the means of communication […]
24th December 2013 London, UK
Making Progress
A little over a year ago, the Economist wrote a piece analysing Britain’s place in Europe. There wasn’t a lot of good news. Efforts to reform the way Brussels works were simply “making things worse” as “other countries are tiring of British demands”. The best we could hope for, it was argued, was to “rediscover […]