25th April 2024
Reflect & Remember: Anzac Day 2024
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
23rd April 2024
Good English – A Key to Panama’s Future Success
21st March 2024
Forests in focus on International Day of Forests
5th February 2019 Skopje, North Macedonia
Open Data in Macedonia – towards a culture of openness
Macedonia is firmly set to use open data to continue its path towards more accountable and transparent state institutions. The current government has upgraded the already initiated process by not just committing to the Open Government Partnership, but also by drafting an Open Data Strategy with Action Plan, by adopting the International Open Data Charter […]
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5th February 2019 Vienna, Austria
Shadowing in the FCO: One week in Vienna
Guest blog by Amit Thapar, Senior Policy Advisor, Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU) Last autumn I participated in the cross-Whitehall Senior Civil Service shadowing scheme for Grade 6/7 BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) civil servants, which allows for BAME staff at G6/7 to shadow a senior colleague in order to gain insight […]
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28th January 2019 Vienna, Austria
Bringing The Third Man home
I am fortunate to live in Vienna in a historic residence. In addition to being used constantly for events by our three missions in the city, the house also has several bedrooms which are used for visiting ministers and officials. When I arrived in Vienna, these bedrooms did not have names. So I ran a […]
23rd January 2019
The spy who saved 10,000 Jews
I have been lucky enough to meet two of my heroes. The first was Nicholas Winton. In the days of single TV households I often found myself watching a programme I didn’t particularly like; That’s Life was one of them. But it launched the career of Victoria Wood and occasionally featured interesting stories, so I […]
21st January 2019 London,UK
Marmalade
One of the more unusual invitations I have received of late came from Jane Hasell-McCosh, Founder of the “World’s Original Marmalade Awards”, to a reception last week at the Japanese Embassy to launch the 14th edition of the awards. It turned out that the awards have their spiritual, indeed physical, home in Dalemain Mansion, a […]
17th January 2019
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
A New Start
Happy New Year, everyone. This is an exciting time of fresh beginnings, renewed energy and commitment to the challenges in front of us. I cannot say it was a full break from work, because sometimes a claim is so ridiculous that you have to respond – protests in Banja Luka were organised by the UK […]
16th January 2019 Geneva, Switzerland
Disarmament Blog: Disarmament In 2019
After a good break over Christmas and the New Year, I’m back in Geneva feeling refreshed for what will be a busy year in disarmament. Here’s a flavour of some the issues that will be on my mind in 2019. (I’ll look at some of them in more detail in future blog posts.) 2019 marks […]
16th January 2019 King Charles Street, London
Science over Brexit: UK-Romanian Policy Dialogue on Continued Cooperation in Science and Innovation.
Last month I attended the last in a series of round-tables events about the opportunities for UK and EU collaboration in science after Brexit. UK Embassies across Central and Eastern Europe hosted academics and policy-makers to discuss the future of UK and EU collaboration on science after we leave the EU. Through my internship at […]
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15th January 2019 King Charles Street, London
From the Einstein Archives to the Scientists of the Future – Lord Winston visits Israel
Last month the UK Science & Innovation Network in Israel (SIN) hosted the Lord Professor Robert Winston, a passionate advocate for UK-Israel cooperation in Science. Lord Winston is co-chairing the UK-Israel Science Council – a body of 25 leading scientists from the UK and Israel, who help guide our efforts to use science, research and […]
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11th January 2019 Auckland, New Zealand
The Far Side
That term has practically slipped away into the ether since the retirement of the wonderful cartoonist Gary Larsson in 1995. But as all space watchers will be only too acutely aware it is a term that has dominated the electronic and print media since the landing of the Chang’e 4 Rover on the South Pole-Aitken […]