8th November 2024
Ecolabels: A Catalyst for Sustainable Food Choices?
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
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17th October 2024
OSLOBOĐENJE BEOGRADA
11th October 2024
Busting the gender myths – women and organised crime
19th February 2013 Kingston, Jamaica
Coming Home to Jamaica
Just over a week ago the British High Commissioner to Jamaica, Mr Howard Drake, officially launched the Coming Home to Jamaica DVD at his residence. The DVD showcases the work financed and implemented by the British High Commission, in partnership with the Jamaican Government, to safely return, reintegrate and rehabilitate deportees returned from the UK. […]
19th February 2013 London, UK
Innovation Nation
Britain has a proud history of innovation. In the field of medicine and the life sciences, we’ve brought the world penicillin, unravelled the mystery of DNA, sequenced the human genome and developed MRI scanning. UK scientists have been awarded more than 70 Nobel Prizes. Most recently, in 2012, Cambridge Professor John Gurdon was recognised by […]
19th February 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
How to boost investment in Kyrgyzstan
My recent blog about our South Caucasus and Central Asia regional conference in Istanbul noted the importance of helping British and local businesses to grow across the region. Encouraging this to happen is one reason I was appointed to Istanbul as Consul General and Director-General of Trade and Investment for Turkey, South Caucasus and Central […]
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18th February 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Flying the flag and making friends
The Embassy is buzzing with British Week 2013 activity. We have so much going on this year open to the public that I wanted to highlight the opportunities so you don’t miss out! It some ways it feels like we are trying to do a year’s worth of events in one week. But the team […]
18th February 2013 Paris, France
Creating growth and jobs in our economies
All of us are looking for growth in our economies and the creation of jobs. From that point of view, it was very good news that President Barack Obama, in his State of the Union message, said that he was clearly in favour now of completing the work for a free trade commercial agreement between […]
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18th February 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
European diplomacy in action
In last week’s Riksdag debate on foreign policy, Carl Bildt highlighted the progress that the EU has made through the Eastern Partnership – a Sweden/Poland initiative, of which the UK has been a strong supporter. That support will be seen in action this week when British Foreign Secretary Hague makes a joint visit to Moldova […]
18th February 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
A taxing issue…
The Prime Minister’s speech at Davos, and the Chancellor’s article in yesterday’s Observer, describe how the UK is working with OECD experts to push reform of the international tax system – to reduce tax base erosion and the shifting of profits by global corporations. I remember being struck by this issue at an Economic Club lunch in Washington […]
15th February 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Benedict XVI and the UK
The news that Pope Benedict XVI was stepping down led to messages flowing in to Rome from all corners of the world. Amongst the warmest have been many from the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister sent Pope Benedict the best wishes of Her Majesty’s Government. Foreign Office Minister of State Baroness Warsi wrote a moving […]
15th February 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Our prosperity
Prosperity is one of the major priorities of the UK government worldwide. We define it not just about increasing exports and investments (though both are important), but we also want to open markets up and promote sustainable growth. Belarus isn’t our largest market in the CIS but, in 2011, British exports to Belarus totalled £125m. […]
15th February 2013 Washington DC, USA
Valentine’s Night with the Obamas
Last year I bemoaned the lack of romance bought by spending Valentine’s Day evening with the otherwise charming British Government’s Chief Scientist, Sir John Beddington. (Of course in reality I secretly enjoyed it. Though that’s not something I admit to Layla.) But this year, Layla and I agreed we would determinedly avoid any event connected […]