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
18th July 2013 USA
Video Games: From the Basement to the Boardroom
I can fondly remember my first interactions with video games – first the Commadore 64 and then on Nintendo and SEGA. We crowded round them at the house of the lucky kid in our neighbourhood and all dreamed that we might own one someday. Remarkably for my brother’s generation everyone did seem to own at […]
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18th July 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Farewell to Mumbai (Part 2): Doing better than we think
Some UK visitors to India, and British newspaper headlines, seem to consider that business here should be ours by “divine right”, as if it is Britain’s for the taking. We have, the argument goes, a special relationship with India – language, law, cricket, immigrants – which means that we must have an advantage on the commercial playing field. […]
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18th July 2013 Cape Town, South Africa
Celebrating Mandela Day
A blog by Nick Monkhouse, British High Commission Pretoria. Today, 18 July 2013, is Nelson Mandela’s 95th birthday. It is also Nelson Mandela Day, recognised by the UN and around the world as a day which seeks to inspire people to take action to help change the world for the better. As South Africa and […]
17th July 2013 Montreal, Canada
Life Cycle Assessment: from cold water washing to cotton bags (by guest blogger Roland Clift)
This post is written by Roland Clift , Emeritus Professor of Environmental Technology in the Centre for Environmental Strategy at the University of Surrey, who was keynote speaker at the Montreal conference on Social – Life Cycle Assessment held in Montreal last May . . .
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17th July 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Justice for all
Working at the UK mission to the UN in New York often meant late nights. But only once was I in the office until three in the morning. It was the morning after the night before, the night the Security Council had voted, around midnight, to refer the crisis in Darfur to the International Criminal […]
17th July 2013 Chevening, UK
My year as a Chevening scholar
I’m lucky enough to be studying at Imperial College London, reading a Masters in Petroleum Engineering, something the Chevening Scholarship has made possible.
17th July 2013 Toronto, Canada
Canadian science news: 8-14 July 2013
[View the story ” Canadian science news: 8-14 July 2013″ on Storify]
16th July 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Innovation
The 2013 Global Innovation Index lists Sweden and the UK as two of the world’s top three countries for performance in innovation, based on a survey of 84 different measures in 142 countries. The British Olympics team had the motto “better never stops”. Similarly with innovation, I think: it’s when you’re at or near the […]
15th July 2013 Kingston, Jamaica
Myths vs facts: Deportation
Deportation is a topic that evokes a great deal of emotion particularly in Jamaica. A common perception amongst the Jamaican population is that the UK deports large numbers back to the island. Many feel their deportation was not fair or justified. Although Jamaicans constitute the second highest number of foreign national offenders, Jamaicans do not feature in our […]
15th July 2013 Vientiane, Laos
Laos through my eyes – Kate Hall
I moved to Laos from the UK 6 months ago with my partner James. We both work in the travel industry and Laos offered us the opportunity to work in a location where tourism is still very much developing and arguably in its infancy.