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
22nd October 2013 USA
American Football goes East, Football goes West
In the 1980’s, Channel 4 brought American football into teenage British living rooms. Mike Ditka, John Elway and William “The Refrigerator” Perry became household names as schoolkids started to “Go Long”, call “Set, Hut!” and grapple with the new language of football. Many were convinced that the novelty wouldn’t last. Fast forward 25 years and […]
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22nd October 2013 Toronto, Canada
Canadian science news: 14-20 October 2013
[View the story “Canadian science news: 14-20 October 2013” on Storify]
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22nd October 2013 Tripoli, Libya
يوم عمل المدونات 2013 : حقوق الإنسان
لقد مرت فترة من الزمن على كتابة آخر مدونة لي، وقد انتقلت بعدها من اليمن لتولي منصبي الحالي كسفير للمملكة المتحدة في دولة قطر. ويسعدني الآن أن أعمل في الدوحة، في هذا الوقت بالذات، خاصة وأن البلاد تمر بمرحلة تطور سريعة بالإضافة إلى لعب دولة قطر دورا دوليا أكثر أهمية من أي وقت مضى. لقد […]
22nd October 2013 Madrid, Spain
My first blog
This is my first blog. So I thought I should begin by explaining who I am and why I am blogging. I have been working at the British Embassy in Madrid since the middle of last year. I am the Deputy Head of Mission. Before coming to Madrid I spent 3 years working as […]
22nd October 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
What’s in a name?
As Shakespeare famously observed, “What’s in a name? …a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”. This is Juliet – as in Romeo and Juliet – talking to herself about the slightly inconvenient problem that the man with whom she had just fallen in love comes from the clan who are sworn enemies […]
22nd October 2013 Tripoli, Libya
Blog Action Day 2013: Human Rights
It’s been a while since I last blogged. Since my last post, I have left Yemen and moved to be the UK Ambassador to Qatar. I am delighted to be serving in Doha at a time when the country continues to develop fast and play an ever-more important role internationally. 16 October marked Blog Action […]
21st October 2013 Paris, France
EDF Agreement: A very important moment
This week is a very important moment for our two countries in terms of our commercial cooperation. We’re going to be making an agreement in principle between the government in London, EDF and Areva for the construction of a new nuclear power station site at Hinkley point in Somerset.
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21st October 2013 Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Protocol
Last week I spoke to members of the diplomatic course at the University of World Economy and Diplomacy about the British approach to protocol. I have twice worked in jobs directly responsible for protocol work – once when I revised the Foreign Office’s protocol guidance, to make it easier to read and to change things […]
21st October 2013 Brasilia, Brazil
Climate Change: no more room for scepticism
Part of my role is dedicated to international negotiations on climate change, and the science used to feed the policy discussions has equal importance. That said, I have spent quite a lot of time over the past fortnight going through the findings of the first volume of the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report, published on 27 […]
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21st October 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Climate Change: The Road to Paris 2015
In November the next UN Conference of Parties on climate change (COP19) will meet in Warsaw. There is an enormous amount of work to do in Poland and subsequently if we are going to get a global, legally binding agreement on carbon emissions that we committed to achieve at COP21 in Paris in 2015. In […]