8th November 2024
Ecolabels: A Catalyst for Sustainable Food Choices?
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
17th October 2024
OSLOBOĐENJE BEOGRADA
11th October 2024
Busting the gender myths – women and organised crime
12th February 2013 Dushanbe, Tajikistan
Parties, Plov and Perseverance
The following is a post by Robert Price, a Philosophy and Politics undergraduate at the University of Exeter who has recently completed an internship at the Embassy. Give Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Tajikistan, Robin Ord-Smith, a karaoke machine, and he will show you that he has the voice of an angel. This is just one […]
12th February 2013 New Delhi, India
How smart is your power?
Did you know that the Indian network operators have an average generating shortfall of 7% (peak >10%) and power demand is growing by 7% per annum, resulting in many areas receiving power for only 6-8hrs per day? I got to learn many such interesting facts when I met a group of organisations involved in Smart […]
11th February 2013 Washington DC, USA
55th GRAMMYs Show That GREAT British Music is Here to Stay
Throughout the telecast of last night’s GRAMMY’s show, viewers saw an exciting showcase of British music – the show included big British names performing and taking home top prizes, making the night a reminder of what makes British music GREAT. Beyond great music was a little taste of another one of my favourite topics to […]
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11th February 2013 Houston, USA
‘Spidey Silk’ – Spider-Man would be jealous!
When I read that scientists had created a real life “Spidey Silk”, I was curious to say the least. The new material was named that because it is both incredibly strong and equally flexible – just like the webs that Spider-Man shoots from his wrists. It sounds revolutionary in itself, but when you really understand […]
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11th February 2013 Warsaw, Poland
Power is GREAT – a week long UK Roadshow focused on promoting Emerging Europe’s GREAT Power opportunity
With this in mind UKTI organised a week long UK roadshow 4-8 February focused on promoting the opportunity and holding in depth meetings with UK companies interested in expanding their business in the region. The week kicked off on Sunday evening with an inaugural dinner of the Emerging Europe Energy Council hosted by UKTI Business […]
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11th February 2013 Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Parliament
On Friday I met two officials of Uzbekistan’s parliament who were about to set off to London to spend a week there learning about Britain’s parliament and how it is run. They will meet the clerks who keep the work of Parliament running smoothly and support the work of its committees as they examine legislation […]
11th February 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Bob Carr talks about human rights at our Magna Carta Lecture
I was privileged to chair Foreign Minister Senator Bob Carr’s Magna Carta lecture, an annual event organised by the British High Commission here. Each year we ask a prominent figure to speak about a modern issue relevant to the values enshrined in the 1215 charter, often described as the greatest constitutional document of all time. […]
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8th February 2013 Washington DC, USA
Financial Reform: The Long and Winding Road
Banks. Bankers. Financial Services. Bail-outs. LIBOR. Bonuses. You are probably a bit fed up of hearing all those terms. Haven’t we been talking about banks and the financial sector non-stop for five years? Isn’t this stuff meant to be boring Wouldn’t we rather be talking about Beyonce at the Superbowl instead? These issues are hugely […]
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8th February 2013 Toronto, Canada
Making the most of scientists and engineers in government
The UK government employs a lot of scientists and engineers, often in positions not directly related to their professional training. In order to take advantage of possibly-underused skills and push evidence-based policy, the Government Science and Engineering (GSE) community was set up in 2008. It is open to any civil servant with a science or […]
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8th February 2013 New York, USA
Super-Duper Bowl
My first Super Bowl experience was transcribing the lyrics of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s half-time show in 2009 for Sky Sports’ subtitled output back in the UK. This, fortunately, required zero knowledge of how (American) football works – and played to my eternal love of The Boss. Since I moved to the […]