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
3rd July 2013 London, UK
Breaking the Sound Barrier with BEDB
First of all I would like to convey my sincere gratitude to the British High Commission to Brunei Darussalam for giving me the opportunity to post an article on the British High Commissions’ blog regarding my view on the Innovation Forum: UK-Southeast Asia Innovation, Design and Technology Forum which was held on Friday, 7th June 2013 in Singapore.
2nd July 2013 Kingston, Jamaica
Scattering and Gathering: Thoughts on Diasporas
I’ve always liked the word ‘diaspora’, which comes from Greek and means scattering or dispersion. Before I came to Jamaica I thought of the Diaspora as referring mainly to the worldwide Jewish community. And indeed, that community is represented here, with its roots in the immigration from Europe of those forced to convert to Christianity […]
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2nd July 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Homage to Orwell
I’ve discovered that I might have a tendency to “Gladwellian” prose, as practised by Malcolm Gladwell, a Canadian-British journalist who wrote “The Tipping Point”. This is the reduction of complicated issues into simple terms. I came across the term while reading a critique of the “plain and clear language” of George Orwell in the New […]
2nd July 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Shadow Foreign Secretary visits… in an interesting week in Canberra
Last week Shadow Foreign Secretary, the Rt Hon Douglas Alexander MP, visited Australia as a guest of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The Australian government arranged the programme for him, but we gave him an in-depth briefing at the High Commission, and I hosted a dinner to discuss foreign policy with MPs, officials […]
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1st July 2013 London, UK
Europe in the world in 2023 – what will it look like?
Ten years ago, the world was a very different place. No one had heard of Twitter and there was no Facebook. Ten years before that, we didn’t even have the World Wide Web. Given the pace of change, what will the world look like in ten years’ time, and what does this mean for Europe?
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1st July 2013 Harare, Zimbabwe
Prime Minister Cameron Praises the Achievements of Staff at the Helmand Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT)
David Cameron visited the Helmand PRT on Saturday 29th June as part of a grueling three country tour also taking in Pakistan and Kazakhstan. His day in Afghanistan started at 06.30 at Camp Bastion, took in a Forward Operating Base just outside Lashkar Gah, a visit to Main Operating Base Lashkar Gar (where the PRT […]
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1st July 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
A T-TIPping Point?
Among the outcomes of last week’s G8 in Lough Erne, the formal launching of negotiations on an EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (or ‘T-TIP’) may prove to be one of the most historic. With the promise of new jobs and lower prices, it has the potential to make a real and positive impact for […]
1st July 2013 Vientiane, Laos
Laos through my eyes – Peter Banwell
It was almost by chance that I first visited Laos in 2008. My plan to visit Myanmar with my wife Catriona had been cancelled at the last moment due to changed advice from the Foreign Office.
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1st July 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
A Call to Public Service
One of the UK’s most eminent public servants, Sir Suma Chakrabarti, gave an address to students in Bucharest last month, making the case for a career in public service. Sir Suma is now President of EBRD, but before then he had a long and distinguished career in the British civil service. I worked with him […]
29th June 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
OECD at the G8 table
I wanted to sincerely thank everyone at the OECD who helped the UK host a successful G8 Summit. The setting was Northern Ireland’s beautiful Lough Erne, where on the eve of the Summit the British Prime Minister refreshed himself with a bracing swim, avoiding the nibbles of the pike that a certain recently-retired OECD Director […]