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Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
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23rd April 2024
Good English – A Key to Panama’s Future Success
21st March 2024
Forests in focus on International Day of Forests
26th November 2012 Paris, France
The UK and the EU budget
I want to talk to you about two things this week. First of all, the European Union budget. You may have seen in the press last week, in the run up to the European Council at the end of the week, a lot of stories suggesting that Britain was isolated. I saw one headline in […]
26th November 2012 Athens, Greece
Searching for growth in Greece
“Where can Greece find growth?” is perhaps the most frequently asked question here (and beyond) just now. One answer might be: on the internet. As part of Britain’s drive to establish a more comprehensive European Single Market, British Embassy Athens has been working closely with Greece’s burgeoning digital sector, the Government and the EU Commission […]
26th November 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Protecting Human Dignity: Violence against Women
25 November was the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. It is shameful that crimes by humans against other humans are, it seems, an inevitable element of the human condition. The use of rape as a weapon of war, or human trafficking as a lucrative trade by organised crime, are all too […]
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26th November 2012 Cape Town, South Africa
Prevention of Gender Based Violence
I have just returned from a visit to South Africa’s Eastern Cape – one of the three provinces we cover from the Consulate-General in Cape Town (the Western and Northern Capes are the other two provinces). As well as Port Elizabeth and East London, I visited the rural towns of Craddock, Bedford and Graaf-Reinet, talking […]
26th November 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
From the Communism we never had to the Capitalism we’ll never achieve
I gave a lecture to a very engaged and smart group of students at the Institute for International Relations at Cluj University on Wednesday last week. You can find the text here. It draws on my experience working in countries in transition over the last twenty years, and draws the conclusion that the concept of […]
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26th November 2012 Kingston, Jamaica
Tars and Tarps
My job in the last week has involved discussions with ‘tars’ (or sailors) about ‘tarps’ (or tarpaulins). When posted to Singapore I had the opportunity to visit a number of other nations’ ships, which often stopped at the naval base for a few days. Last week in Kingston we had a short-notice visit from a […]
25th November 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Stop gender based violence now
We are living in modern times, where women are respected, right? Women have reached leadership positions across the world. In Africa, we have women presidents. This year, Dlamini-Zuma was elected as the African Union’s first female Chairperson. But still too many women and girls live in fear, facing unacceptable risks of violence and having no […]
25th November 2012 Dublin, Ireland
Preventing sexual violence including in armed conflict
The following is a guest post by Stana Buchowska PhD on the serious issues of human trafficking and violence against women. It is an admirable analysis of a complex problem. Let me add a word on our Foreign Minister’s initiative on preventing sexual violence in armed conflict. When we think of armed conflict, we think […]
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23rd November 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
The International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
Guest blog by Jenny Söderqvist, Political Attaché at the British Embassy in Sweden This Sunday is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women – a UN initiative to raise awareness about this complex and serious problem. The date – 25 of November – has not been chosen at random, but marks the […]
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22nd November 2012 London, UK
Brunei’s ASEAN Chairmanship
I have just got back from a meeting of British High Commissioners and Ambassadors in ASEAN countries, timed to coincide with this week’s ASEAN Summit. We talked about the UK’s relationships with each member state, about our understanding of ASEAN as a whole, and about how our bilateral relationships with ASEAN countries – all strong, […]