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
19th August 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Learning about the Holy See from outside: Resilience and the Power of Music
A holiday always provides a useful opportunity for a diplomat to look at his posting from a different perspective. My leave away from Rome this August has been no exception. While Pope Francis has been working hard in Rome and Brazil, I have been in Slovakia, and on 15 August I visited the Slovak pilgrimage […]
Read more on Learning about the Holy See from outside: Resilience and the Power of Music | Reply
16th August 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Global issues, local interests
Recently I had the pleasure to be in London for the visit of Guatemala’s Foreign Minister, Fernando Carrera. His agenda covered a wide range of topics from drugs policy to the international sugar trade. I would like to highlight one topic in particular that he discussed with the Foreign Secretary William Hague – the Preventing Sexual […]
16th August 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Readers’ questions: the emotions of diplomacy
“How do diplomats behave if they get annoyed with a person during negotiations? Is it possible for diplomats to show their feelings or is there some technique they use to switch emotions?” — Lika Akubardia Dear Lika: thank you for your questions – and for all of those who responded to our competition. I hope to […]
Read more on Readers’ questions: the emotions of diplomacy | Reply (9)
16th August 2013 Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Heat
British people are famous for talking about the weather. But last week and the week before nobody in Tashkent seemed to be talking about anything else, with temperatures in the forties, and records being broken in Samarkand and elsewhere. The Ministry for Emergency Situations sent out, apparently for the first time ever, text messages with […]
16th August 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Why language matters: my first video blog in Turkish
Here’s my first video blog in Turkish. It’s about why language matters; and what I’m doing in Turkey. Comments welcome!
Read more on Why language matters: my first video blog in Turkish | Reply (8)
15th August 2013 Montreal, Canada
Creating-altering life – The Frankencell
The first film adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Novel Frankenstein was released in 1910. The story describes the ambitious work of Dr. Victor Frankenstein to create the most perfect human being the world had ever seen…
Read more on Creating-altering life – The Frankencell | Reply (1)
15th August 2013 Singapore
Smarter, Faster – Life Lessons from F1
One of the things which make this job so enjoyable is getting to bring really inspiring people to the region to talk about great UK innovation. This week we’ve hosted Mike Gascoyne, long-time Formula One technical director, and current CTO of the Caterham Group, who generously agreed to visit Singapore and Malaysia to talk about […]
14th August 2013 Windhoek, Namibia
An Anglo-German labour of love, devotion and educational excellence in northern Namibia
I have just spent the most fascinating evening with a remarkable Anglo-German family in Kunene Province, north western Namibia, en route to the far north to see the effect of this year’s drought emergency. Gillian and Reiner Stommel are based five hours drive north of Windhoek where they run Otjikondo School, which they founded in […]
Read more on An Anglo-German labour of love, devotion and educational excellence in northern Namibia | Reply
14th August 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
The Wisdom of Father Brown
The following is a guest blog by Steve Townsend, Deputy Head of Mission. It was announced this week that the Bishop of Northampton has started the investigation whether there is a case for canonisation for G K Chesterton. This prompted me to go back to his best-loved creation, and one of my favourite fictional characters, […]
13th August 2013 Havana, Cuba
From Honiara to Havana for health reasons
I met the Ambassador of the Solomon Islands a few weeks ago. The Solomons (Honiara is the capital) are in the Pacific Ocean over 13,000 km from Cuba and they only have a few embassies around the world so you might wonder why they have recently opened one in Havana. The Ambassador, Simeon Bouro, explained to […]
Read more on From Honiara to Havana for health reasons | Reply (4)