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
4th September 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Human rights and trade
A blog co-authored with Nadia Hashmi, human rights lead at the British Embassy in Ankara Did you know that diamonds are the most tightly-regulated trade item in the world? The reason is to combat human rights violations which could potentially be involved in their acquisition. Human rights and trade can seem strange bedfellows. Sometimes people argue […]
4th September 2013 Beirut, Lebanon
Ambassador 2020
I’ve posted before about Naked Diplomacy and why diplomats must ride the digital tiger. Last week I was scheduled to join Foreign Minister Bildt for a Q&A session on innovative diplomacy with Sweden’s ambassadors. I was looking forward to learning from them, as the first Foreign Ministry to put all their envoys on Twitter. But […]
4th September 2013 Vientiane, Laos
Laos through my eyes – Mark Ratter
This article is part of a series of guest blogs contributed by Brits who have lived and worked in Laos, or who have other interesting links to Laos. “Where’s that?” was the response I was often met with when I told people of my interest in Laos when I was younger. From the age of […]
4th September 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Syria: What Next?
The world’s media has been dominated by the politics of how to respond to the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons against civilians on 21 August. As often happens, the facts are obscured by false claims and rumours. The main question is whether the United States will launch a military attack. The United Kingdom has […]
4th September 2013 Bucharest, Romania
Guest blogger Charley Ottley, writer and presenter of ‘Wild Carpathia’
I am thrilled to have Charlie Ottley as a guest blogger to share his thoughts on filming “Wild Carpathia” and on discovering the fragile beauty of Romanian landscape. Before its European premiere tomorrow, here’s a glimpse at the second episode “From the Mountains to the Sea”. While Wild Carpathia 2 is screening in Romania and across the […]
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3rd September 2013 Toronto, Canada
Canadian science news: 26 August-1 September 2013
[View the story “Canadian science news: 26 August-1 September 2013” on Storify]
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3rd September 2013 Washington DC, USA
Coming to America
Today is my first day as Britain’s Deputy Ambassador to the United States. It’s a real privilege to be starting my new role. Partly that’s because it’s simply a terrific job. I’m in charge of making sure that the Embassy and the UK’s ten other posts in the US work together smoothly, which will be […]
3rd September 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Why Culture Matters
I returned from an extended Eid holiday last week. We stayed in Khartoum for the first day of Eid, sharing in Sudanese culture marking the end of Ramadan. After that we left for two weeks holiday in Europe, where I had the opportunity to re-immerse in my own culture. Cultures are important. They are the […]
3rd September 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
UK and Holy See: It’s Time to Act Together
One of the highlights of the United Nations General Assembly in September will be an event hosted by Foreign Secretary William Hague and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to launch a high level political and ambitious declaration on the need to keep up the international momentum on tackling sexual violence in conflict. This event follows […]
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3rd September 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
British Natural Beauty
Often in this blog I write about Turkey and its terrific qualities. But today I’m going to write about the United Kingdom. The reason is that I recently saw a survey suggesting that people in Turkey did not rate the UK highly for “natural beauty” compared with other European countries. This surprised me, because I […]