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Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
15th July 2025
International Day of Women in Diplomacy: UK Special Envoy for Women and Girls visit to Geneva
1st May 2025
The UN Commission on the Status of Women: My first visit as UK Special Envoy for Women and Girls
5th February 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
World Press Freedom Index: Turkey
This time last year I wrote a blog about freedom of the media in Ukraine reporting on the latest press freedom index released by the international media watchdog Reporters Without Borders. So I was intrigued to see Reporters without Borders publish their 2013 World Press Freedom Index recently. Since I arrived in Turkey a few months ago, Turkish journalists […]
5th February 2013 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Digitalising Diplomacy in Malaysia
What does a Diplomat do? My friends and family often ask me this question, and it’s not so easy to answer. The Oxford English Dictionary describes diplomacy as “…the profession, activity, or skill of managing international relations” and a Diplomat as someone who “…typically represents a country abroad“. But, of course it’s a lot more […]
5th February 2013 New Delhi, India
Great chemistry between UK and India!
A former SIN Team member, Rajesh Parishwad, left to work for the Royal Society of Chemistry a couple of years ago. But we don’t like to lose touch with old friends and with Rajesh this isn’t difficult to achieve: he still sits in our office in Bangalore! Anyway, we asked Rajesh to bring you some […]
5th February 2013 New York, USA
And the “Crunchie” goes to…
Last Thursday evening, I joined the UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) team in San Francisco and the “who’s who” of the technology and start up communities at the “Crunchies,” the veritable Oscars for tech companies. I’m not quite sure what I was expecting at an awards ceremony with 2,000 tech-gurus, but what I witnessed was […]
4th February 2013 Toronto, Canada
Up-Goer Five: Land-to-other-lands-thoughts-and-ideas-person
Can you explain a hard idea using only the ten-hundred most used words? One well-known try is “Up-Goer Five“. You can try it yourself here. Here, I try to explain my job (land-to-other-lands-thoughts-and-ideas-person): Very few people have a job that is like mine. It is quite hard to explain, even using words that are not […]
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4th February 2013 London, UK
Piktochart: an experiment in explaining our work through visualisation
My blog on visualisations: Last week, the UK Team of Experts on preventing sexual violence in conflict came to the Foreign Office for the first time, and met Foreign Secretary William Hague. Recruited from many professions, the Team will be deployed to several conflict-affected countries during 2013 to carry out vital work – from providing […]
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4th February 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Green deal and greener dealing
Last week, two notable “green” events came to my attention. First, the UK government launched The Green Deal. This encourages property owners to make energy-saving improvements by allowing them to off-set costs against reductions in their bills. In other words, you can now pay for the the improvements over time on your electricity bill, rather […]
4th February 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Peacemaking and Martyrdom in the Pacific
On 1 February, I attended a special event in a special place. The Basilica of San Bartolomeo all’Isola in Rome was dedicated in 2000 by Pope John Paul II to the new martyrs of the 20th and 21st centuries. The moving memorial, managed by the Sant’Egidio Community, is significant because it is ecumenical. The martyrs […]
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4th February 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
The accessibility of language
After I found out I was coming to Belarus, I soon discovered that there was the Belarusian, as well as the Russian, language. Unfortunately, the British tax payer can only afford to pay for me to learn one language, and that is Russian. I’ve learnt a few words of Belarusian. I’ve enjoyed the months: Студзень […]
4th February 2013 Dushanbe, Tajikistan
Learning Dari and Pashto in Tajikistan
Our Embassy often assists the British Defence School of Languages in arranging in-country Language and Cultural Training for students of Farsi and Pashto. The latest trip of three weeks included five students of Dari and two of Pashto. The following is a guest post by Fiona MacFarlane, one of the language students. We arrived in the […]
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