5th November 2026
United Nations General Assembly: championing women and girls’ rights
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
1st October 2026
A Year Too Big for Two Suitcases: Notes From a Chevening Scholar
11th May 2026
The Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Bill: turning a global ocean agreement into UK law
22nd August 2019
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Creativity – It’s Good Business
This week, like many others, I have been enjoying the Sarajevo Film Festival (SFF). I feel particularly lucky that my first as UK Ambassador was the 25th SFF (I will admit to having sneaked in unofficially last year, just before I began my mandate). I am still star struck after seeing two of my favourite […]
19th August 2019 Guatemala City, Guatemala
Saving the Planet
In my last blog I talked about the power of British film and TV (and music). Today I want to make a very ambitious claim – that British TV is saving the planet, or at least helping to save the planet. In 2017 the famous British naturalist and broadcaster David Attenborough made a programme – […]
13th August 2019 Stockholm, Sweden
International Collaboration for a Flexible Energy System
Joseph Schumpeter’s concept of creative destruction describes perfectly the low carbon transformation of the energy system across Europe. Institutional frameworks and infrastructures are being disrupted as new clean energy innovations, business models and market players make inroads. Yet, the clean energy transition is not nearly moving fast enough for to meet the Paris agreement (much […]
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7th August 2019 London,UK
The Westminster Abbey Institute Fellows’ Programme
The splendid Gothic structure of Westminster Abbey dominates the southern side of Parliament Square. The nineteenth-century reconstruction by Charles Barry of the Palace of Westminster, home of the houses of parliament, continues the Gothic theme along its eastern side. There is another point of commonality which unites the neighbours around the square: public service. To […]
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6th August 2019 Geneva, Switzerland
Inaugural Conference for Alumni of UN International Law Seminar
Shortly before the summer break, I had the privilege of co-hosting at the Palais des Nations the first ever conference for the alumni of the UN’s International Law Seminar (ILS). Since 1965, the ILS has been organised at the Palais to coincide with the session in Geneva of the International Law Commission (ILC). Every year […]
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2nd August 2019
5 Steps to Making Your Event Free From Single Use Plastics
When planning an event there are lots of factors to take into consideration and it is becoming ever-more important to think about how to protect the environment as a part of this planning. It is our responsibility to look after our planet and there are ways we can all contribute with just a little extra […]
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2nd August 2019 Tokyo, Japan
Japan in Northern Ireland
Many Japanese don’t know much about Northern Ireland, although the recent media reporting on the “Irish backstop” issue has made them more aware that the island of Ireland is divided into Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK, and the Republic of Ireland. Japan will shortly be welcoming teams from all the constituent elements […]
1st August 2019 Guatemala City, Guatemala
Music is GREAT, and so is film, drama, education….
I am often asked what I have enjoyed most about being British ambassador to Guatemala. A really really difficult question, because there are so many things – and so many people –which make this role a great privilege and great fun. It has to be said though that being in Tikal Futura listening to Guatemalan […]
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1st August 2019 London,UK
Food and Power
The Oxford Food Symposium has not always held an obvious link to foreign policy, but diplomacy was there at its conception. It was co-founded by a diplomat named Alan Davidson, whose Foreign Office career ended as Ambassador to Laos in the early 1970s. It was while on a posting to Tunisia that Davidson, frustrated at […]
31st July 2019 Vientiane, Laos
Ambassador Hugh Evans Receives Honorary Doctorate Degree from University of Nottingham
On 28 July 2019, UK Ambassador to Laos Hugh Evans received an Honorary Doctorate Degree from the University of Nottingham for his dedication to and successes in the education sector in Lao PDR. He accepted his degree at the University of Nottingham’s Malaysia campus, with the following speech. ‘Prof. Graham Kendall, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University […]
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