3rd December 2024
RENEWING OLD TIES: THE NEW BISHOP OF LONDON
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
25th November 2024
The climate crisis and gender-based violence
8th November 2024
Ecolabels: A Catalyst for Sustainable Food Choices?
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 […]
8th February 2013 Boston, USA
Suggesting New Solutions for "Making Science Work"
I’m a pretty reserved person most of the time, but I can get completely geeked out by celebrities. There is something completely fascinating about the fact that so much of their lives are on display, and yet we really know so little about them. I often wonder what they are REALLY thinking and who they […]
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8th February 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Aggiornamento: Every Institution needs It
50 years ago, everyone in Rome was talking about “aggiornamento”. There is no English word that translates it perfectly, but in prosaic terms it means “bring up to date”, as well as “revision” or “renovation”. The word was used by Pope John XXIII to describe and set out the task of the Second Vatican Council. […]
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8th February 2013 Beirut, Lebanon
Beirutopia
Diplomats hate making predictions. Churchill once said that you could ignore every other page of Foreign Office advice, because it tended to be in the form of ‘on the one hand’ and ‘on the other hand’. The files are full of pre-election telegrams that hedge their bets. There are good reasons for this. We don’t […]
8th February 2013 London, UK
Jobs in the FCO digital team
We’ve just advertised two jobs in the FCO digital team in London. They are: Social Media Manager Digital Communications Manager (Middle East, North Africa and Global Security) I’m biased of course, but these are two amazing roles. If you’re interested in how digital can deliver foreign policy objectives, have a passion for social media, want […]
8th February 2013 Paris, France
Debating on gay marriage in France and in the UK
One of the striking things about Britain and France is that our two societies are often dealing with very similar issues at the same time. There is a clear example of that this week where, in both the British Parliament and in the French National Assembly, the issue of gay marriage (or “mariage pour tous” […]
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8th February 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Wet snow
Snow has been on the ground in Belarus since early December. But temperatures have varied markedly. So while it was -18°C late on 23rd December when I drove out to Minsk airport, by the evening of Christmas Day (ie 25th December) it was above freezing. I shouldn’t be so surprised at the range of temperature. […]
7th February 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
How bad is corruption in Turkey?
This seems to be the time of year for international comparative indeces. I blogged recently about the latest statistics on press freedom. Now someone has pointed out that I didn’t cover the latest Transparency International Corruption Index, published in December. The Transparency International figures are controversial. The full name of the index is “The Corruption Perceptions […]
7th February 2013 Chevening, UK
Getting to Know the Home of Australia's Head of State
The following is a guest post by Cal Viney. Cal is the 2012/13 Chevening Scholar from Australia. He is currently pursuing an LL.M. in Public Law (focused specifically on Constitutional Law and Theory) at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Cal is an Australian Lawyer. Welcome to Heathrow. Rain. Welcome to the London […]
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