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Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
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International Day of Women in Diplomacy: UK Special Envoy for Women and Girls visit to Geneva
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The UN Commission on the Status of Women: My first visit as UK Special Envoy for Women and Girls
25th February 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
1 million Australian tourists spend £1bn a year in Britain
London in February is a bit on the chilly side. But London is great to visit at any time of year. That’s why over one million Australians visit Britain every year, spending £1 billion. This amount has doubled over the past decade. A significant number are travelling to visit friends and relatives, but others are […]
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22nd February 2013 New York, USA
Oscars wild!
It was during an Academy Awards ceremony presided over by Johnny Carson in 1982 that Colin Welland famously declared, “The British are coming!” Eeyores back home would have it that Welland’s battle-cry has turned out to be a bit of a damp squib, but the facts tell a different story. There’s actually been an awful […]
22nd February 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Live music
The best pleasures in life are those you least expect. I went to a concert of a British singer in Minsk last week. I was busy and hadn’t checked who it was that my colleague had suggested I go and see. The concert was given by the jazz singer Ian Shaw, with local jazz band […]
22nd February 2013 Vientiane, Laos
Nearly there!
The last few weeks have been particularly busy for us as we move into the final phase of our Embassy set-up. The renovation works on our new Embassy building (the former Australian Embassy building on Rue Nehru) are on schedule – if you are in Vientiane you may have noticed we have re-painted the building […]
21st February 2013 Washington DC, USA
Brit Brit hooray!
Watching the BRIT awards (the British Music industry awards) last night, I realised there was something different about them this year, something different… and yet very familiar. Then it dawned on me, just before the American musician Frank Ocean (who won best International Solo Male) said: ‘And thanks to Damien Hirst for the Polka Dots!’ […]
21st February 2013 Washington DC, USA
Of Congressmen and Penguins
It’s late afternoon and I am standing next to a Congressman on a warm, blustery day, surrounded by thousands of eyes looking inquisitively upon us. Despite our best intentions to understand them, their voices only get louder, squawking with unrestrained excitement. In late January, thousands of gentoo penguins are being introduced to a special visitor […]
21st February 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Mumbai: The PM has landed
Visits by the Prime Minister don’t come round too often to most FCO Posts, unless you happen to be in Brussels or Washington. Although I have met some “ex-PMs” in recent postings in Manila and Sydney, it’s more years than I care to remember when I was last involved in a visit by a current […]
20th February 2013 New Delhi, India
Towards an Indo-UK IP framework for research
The cold Delhi fog didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits at the Intellectual Property (IP) workshop on 1 February. The lively discussions focussed on the draft model agreements for managing IP in India-UK R&D collaborations. These will form an invaluable framework for businesses and universities to quickly and cheaply agree on how IP arising from an international […]
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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 […]