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21st December 2012 Budapest, Hungary
The best thing I’ve done in Budapest
I helped offer a Christmas lunch to the least well-off in Budapest today. It was the best thing I’ve done since I arrived here. The Hungarian Interchurch Aid organisation ran the event, with support from local companies, and I went down with a small group from the Embassy to do what we could to contribute. […]
21st December 2012 Washington DC, USA
2012 and all that. A GREAT year for Britain
According to Wikipedia, Prosperity is the state of flourishing, thriving, good fortune and / or successful social status. Prosperity often encompasses wealth but also includes others factors which are independent of wealth to varying degrees, such as happiness and health. It’s also (with a capital ‘P’) the word the Foreign Office uses to describe one […]
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21st December 2012 Paris, France
Bye bye 2012… Welcome 2013!
Christmas is a time to look back at the year and also forward to the next year, and this has been an exceptional year for the UK in many ways. For me it finished on a high note because I was able to be in the Foreign Office in London when The Queen came for […]
21st December 2012 London, UK
Realizing a dream – Abdul Matiin’s Guest Blog
Realizing a dream It was such an honour to have been awarded the Chevening Scholarship. I remember during my high school years reading articles in the Borneo Bulletin about scholars being awarded the prestigious Chevening grant every year. Never in a million years would I have thought that one day I would be following in […]
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20th December 2012 London, UK
The future of digital in the Foreign Office
Today we’ve published the Foreign Office Digital Strategy. The process of writing that strategy has been an intense one. We organised workshops with policy and service delivery staff, held teleconferences with …
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20th December 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
A GREAT 2012: see you on the other side (hopefully!)
(Guest blog by David McNaught, Charge d’Affaires) Fingers crossed that the doomsday predictions are wrong about the end of the 13th Maya Baktun! We’re banking on it marking the start of a new era because we’ve got a lot planned for 2013. First though, let’s reminisce about a GREAT 2012! There were many highlights. The […]
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20th December 2012 Washington DC, USA
Reducing UK presence in Afghanistan, implementing the move to full Afghan control
Yesterday, the UK Prime Minister announced to Parliament plans for a reduction in UK military forces in Afghanistan in 2013. The decision to “draw-down” our forces from 9,000 to around 5,200 reflects the significant progress in transitioning security responsibility to the Afghan government. This is a positive outcome and testament to the effort put in […]
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20th December 2012 London, UK
Consular Christmas blogs: Piñatas and Posadas – A Mexican Christmas
Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year in Mexico. There are lights hanging everywhere, everyone is buying Christmas presents and arranging a family reunion with a fancy dinner. Our Mexican celebrations are the fusion of indigenous and Spanish traditions, seasoned with a bit of influence from the USA. The celebration starts with our […]
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20th December 2012 Athens, Greece
Four years in Athens: Reflecting on Commercial Affairs
Despite the economic crisis, Greece remains an important market for British goods and services. Greece is the UK’s 39th largest export market and in 2011 bilateral trade in goods was worth £ 1.77 bn. Although the value of UK exports of goods to Greece dropped, as a result of the continuing five year recession, Greece […]
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20th December 2012 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
An Extraordinary Year…
I board a flight this evening to spend Christmas with my wife’s family in Brisbane and I finally have a chance to reflect on what was, by any measure, the most extraordinary year for the UK-Malaysia bilateral relationship. A year which has seen our links across virtually all sectors, from education to trade, grow to […]