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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
20th March 2013 New Delhi, India
Framed at FICCI
Not me getting set up for a crime I didn’t commit, but a useful meeting entitled “Opportunities for creative collaboration between India and the UK” where we discussed case studies and new developments in both countries… Last week I was in Mumbai to attend the 14th chapter of FICCI Frames, one of the most noteworthy media and entertainment […]
20th March 2013 Washington DC, USA
SXSW diplomacy
Over the past year or so a lively community of ‘digital diplomats’ has developed in both Washington and New York, with ‘digital diplomats’ meeting on a monthly basis to share ideas and talk about their latest innovations. Social Media Week this year featured, in both cities, workshops and panels looking specifically at how governments can […]
19th March 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Farewell to Princess Lilian
It was an honour to attend the beautiful and moving funeral service for Princess Lilian, at Slottskyrkan on Saturday. It was a service with a strong British flavour, with the Palace Choir singing Vaughan Williams’ For All the Saints and a wonderful choral arrangement of Parry’s Jerusalem. The congregation sang Abide with Me (in English) […]
19th March 2013 Montreal, Canada
Green is growth
As a country that embraces the transition to a low carbon economy, the UK has very much adopted the idea that Green is what makes Britain GREAT. This is a concept that resonates not just with the UK but also with our valued partners, like Quebec. The challenge we face now is to convince people […]
19th March 2013 USA
“Snowquestration” and Innovation
On 6 March, the Washington DC weather forecasters were calling for a large snowstorm, duly named the “snowquester”, due to the unfortunate timing coming immediately after sequestration took hold on federal budgets. Unfortunately for my colleague from Atlanta and me, our long-awaited workshop on manufacturing innovation was set to take place the same day. As […]
19th March 2013 Warsaw, Poland
Entrepreneurs are GREAT!
A fundamental part of the UK’s growth strategy is to get British exports moving. About time – we have run a trade deficit for the last 40 years and we lag behind our EU peers in growing our international trade; 25% of French, German and Italian SMEs export. Looking at our region in particular, British […]
19th March 2013 New Delhi, India
Best of Engineering, Best of the Web
Louis Pouzin, Robert Kahn, Vint Cerf, Tim Berners Lee and Marc Andreessen were announced as the inaugural winners of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering (a £1m global engineering prize) this week. They were selected for their ground breaking work which led to the internet and world wide web. We’re pretty sure we can’t add much to […]
19th March 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Brits in Turkey: where to get advice
I was struck by a recent newspaper article saying that British nationals had bought over 1,300 properties in Turkey in the last nine months. Only German nationals (2,557) had bought more. It was a useful reminder of the strengths of the links between Turkey and the UK. Around 35,000 British nationals are resident in Turkey, […]
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19th March 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
High tech British industry behind the F1 pizzazz
I’m definitely not a “petrolhead”, but I am fascinated by all the razzmatazz that goes on around Melbourne’s iconic Grand Prix, bringing together the celebs, the politicians and the business suits. But the aspect which interests me most of all, is the extraordinary research-intensive industry that lies behind the world of F1, much of it […]
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18th March 2013 Budapest, Hungary
A passionate affair
I’m a big sports fan. So when the CEO of a British company asked if I’d like to go to a football match in which the Hungarian team they sponsor was playing in I said yes straight away. I’ve been in Hungary a year now and I hadn’t been to a game – and this […]