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
29th November 2013 Mogadishu, Somalia
Creating hope for victims of gender based violence
As part of our support to the 16 days of activism campaign, I have invited some of our partners to share their stories. Sagal Sheikh-Ali is a program Coordinator at the Somali Women Development Center (SWDC). The organisation strives to minimise the number of women who are subjected to violence by empowering them through access […]
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29th November 2013 New Delhi, India
Designing Together | UK and India sign MoU on Design Collaboration
Creative Industries and Design is a relatively new area of interest for the SIN-India, but it has been a regular topic on our blog over the last year and a new call was announced this week to support people to attend the Unbox Festival on Future Cities. Here’s some more hot-off-the-press news on Indo-UK Design […]
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28th November 2013 New York, USA
A Thanksgiving Carol – Or, How I Learned to Quit Grousing and Love the Turkey
Turkey is a dull meat, and for years I associated its blandness with my general apathy towards Thanksgiving. Granted, it’s a day off, but it is also marks the start of the holiday season in the US with the horrid mayhem of Black Friday. And while it has an edge over Christmas in that you are more […]
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28th November 2013 Ottawa, Canada
Canada-UK: A healthy relationship
I was at the beautiful Cumberland Lodge near Windsor, UK, last week for the 2013 Canada-UK Colloquium. The Colloquium is an annual event, taking place alternately in each country, bringing together British and Canadian parliamentarians, public officials, academics…
28th November 2013 Madrid, Spain
Why bother to blog?
I’m still a newcomer to the world of blogging. So I’m particularly grateful to those who have taken the time to read my early blog posts. And thanks also to those following me on Twitter. But one question that has been put to me a few times is: “Why are you bothering? Wouldn’t your time […]
27th November 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Lundy Island English paradise: my second Turkish video blog
Here is my second video blog in Turkish. It’s about my favourite obsession (who can spot the film reference?): tiny, hidden Lundy Island, Atlantic Ocean. I would say – go and visit the island! But I’d rather it remained, as now, far off the beaten track… If you like the sound of Lundy you might […]
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27th November 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
The Holy See as a global (soft) power
From time to time, I continue to receive queries from well-meaning people asking why we have an embassy to the Holy See. It’s not a nation state, they suggest. So what can our interests be? I would hope that regular readers of this blog or our twitter feed have a pretty good idea by now […]
27th November 2013 Mogadishu, Somalia
16 days of activism
I’d like to welcome you to my first blog as the UK Ambassador to Somalia. I have spent my first six months learning about this wonderful country and travelling to as many places as I can. As this week marks the start of the 16 Days of Activism campaign, I thought it was a perfect […]
27th November 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Rail Networking
Sir David Higgins is one of those Australians who have moved seamlessly between the two countries, holding top positions in each. In Australia he’s best known as former CEO of Lend Lease. In the UK he’s the man who played a hugely important role in the fantastic success of London 2012 as head of the Olympic […]
26th November 2013 Washington DC, USA
AmericanEnglish
For me, the transatlantic relationship is personal. 16 years ago on Sunday, my family and I (and our dog Matty) emigrated from Huntingdon, near Cambridge, to Chico, California. Of course, there are more extreme contrasts than the UK and California, but as a twelve year-old, everything was so different. When we moved in November 1997, […]