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 November 2013 New Delhi, India
UK and India collaborate to innovate
George Bernard Shaw said “If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples, each of us has one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange ideas, we each have two ideas.” The sharing of ideas is essential for any knowledge economy. India […]
Read more on UK and India collaborate to innovate | Reply (1)
25th November 2013 Chennai, India
Anniversaries: From India to Dallas to Istanbul
It feels as if it’s been a month of anniversaries, some happy, some sad. On the positive side, we celebrated the Prince of Wales’ 65th birthday in Kerala – a date which, as he said, he proudly shares with Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru. On Friday, I was asked to open the 2013 Cultural Festival for the […]
Read more on Anniversaries: From India to Dallas to Istanbul | Reply (3)
22nd November 2013 New York, USA
Doctor Who: Child of the Enlightenment
This weekend Doctor Who celebrates his fiftieth birthday. “Ha!” cries my nine-year-old self. “Any Whovian can tell you that he’s actually somewhere between 900 and 1200 years old!” Current Who writer-in-chief Steven Moffat maintains that the Doctor probably lies when asked about his age. At any rate, 23 November marks fifty years since the show […]
22nd November 2013 Brasilia, Brazil
COP-19: nearly the end but running into overtime
This week Ministers and other authorities joined the nineteenth Conference of the Parties (COP-19) here in Warsaw. During the High-Level Segment, opened by the Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban-Ki Moon, Ministers and representatives from member countries made their statements which set out their expectations for Warsaw, Lima and Paris. In his speech, the Secretary […]
Read more on COP-19: nearly the end but running into overtime | Reply
22nd November 2013 Kingston, Jamaica
What are Embassies for Anyway?
I was very interested to see a letter last month in The Jamaica Gleaner newspaper with the above title, expressing confusion and scepticism as to the purpose of Embassies. Given that I work in one (a High Commission is just the name for an Embassy between Commonwealth Countries), this set me thinking. I love my […]
22nd November 2013 London, UK
Digital Diplomacy in El Salvador
Within the context of a globalized environment, each institution, whether public or private, needs to take the maximum advantage of social media channels, which usually include very low costs and have a wide range of coverage. In an embassy like ours in San Salvador, the digital work and maximization of resources takes great relevance because […]
22nd November 2013 Athens, Greece
Countdown to the Greek Presidency of the European Union
On New Year’s Day 2014, Greece will pick up the Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers, and run with it for six months. The last time Greece presided was 2003. That Presidency broke new ground: it created a new vision and new prospects for EU enlargement in the Western Balkans, and, at the same […]
Read more on Countdown to the Greek Presidency of the European Union | Reply
22nd November 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Full access and full choice
Last July, London hosted the historic 2012 London Summit on Family Planning, which reestablished family planning as a top global health priority. Last week 3000 advocates, researchers, health professionals and political leaders from over 100 countries came to Addis Ababa for the third International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP). The theme was “Full Access, Full […]
21st November 2013 London, UK
Foreign Office Twitter Alerts: Supporting British nationals in a crisis
During a crisis Twitter has proved essential for the dissemination of critical information. Building on this reputation Twitter launched a new service called Twitter Alerts in the US, Korea and Japan in September 2013. Twitters have now released the service in the UK and the Foreign Office has signed up to take part. The service […]
Read more on Foreign Office Twitter Alerts: Supporting British nationals in a crisis | Reply
21st November 2013 Beirut, Lebanon
Dear Lebanon: An Open Letter
Tomorrow I’ll hand a letter from Prime Minister Cameron to President Sleiman, with formal congratulations on Lebanon’s 70th anniversary. The wonderful people at Rag Mag also asked me to write an open letter to mark the day. This is a tough and precarious assignment, and it will annoy or anger some people. But I’ve had […]