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20th November 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
20 November in Istanbul
20 November is an important and sad day for the British Consulate General and for the wider community in Istanbul. Nine years ago the Consulate General was the target of a terrorist attack in which ten members of staff, two police officers guarding the building and many members of the local community were killed. Numerous […]
20th November 2012 Nairobi, Kenya
Politics, partnership and patience.
So the final piece of the post-Transition jigsaw has finally fallen into place. Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon’s 10-person Council of Minister is now approved – overwhelmingly – by Parliament and with it, the final act of a two-month process to find Somalia’s new leaders. Put before Parliament last week, their near-unanimous approval of the […]
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20th November 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Public Sector Reform – the Australian experience
Advanced modern economies face similar challenges. How can governments respond to rising consumer expectations and ageing populations, against a backdrop of financial pressures? Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude came to discuss some of these issues with Australian counterparts. He visited a CentreLink in Sydney, the shopfront offices where Australians go for Medicare, social security and […]
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19th November 2012 Dublin, Ireland
Tolerant: we must be!
Friday was the International Day of Tolerance. To mark this occasion, we held a party in the Embassy, which also served as the launch event for a fabulous photo exhibition recalling the superb British and Polish performance at the London Paralympics. I underlined how important a role tolerance plays in any civilised society and how […]
19th November 2012 London, UK
British High Commission Fire Training "Away Day"
Safety is a key component of the Brunei Brand: “Abode of Peace”. For Brunei Shell, it’s a yardstick against which the whole operation is measured; because, they tell me, managers with a strong safety record tend to get the rest of the job right too. The High Commission also prizes safety. For us, the challenge […]
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18th November 2012 New Delhi, India
It’s time to get creative again…
Building on SIN’s initial work in the creative sector (see my earlier post), we are supporting an innovative cross-arts programme, the UnBox Fellowships. The programme is being run in partnership with the British Council, the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the UnBox Festival, and the call for applications are now open – but […]
16th November 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
London and Rome: Making the Networks Work
I have written in the past about the value of the complementary United Kingdom and Holy See global networks. One of the reasons we have an Embassy to the Holy See is that we can plug into global Catholic networks in the pursuit of achieving results on issues of priority to us. Two current examples […]
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16th November 2012 Kingston, Jamaica
Kingston: an eventful first month
I’m into my second month as Deputy High Commissioner in Jamaica. It’s my third diplomatic posting and first time in the Caribbean, which offers a real contrast to my previous assignments in Beijing and Singapore. Preparing for the posting, my husband and I attended many Jamaican events in London this summer and at a talk on […]
16th November 2012 London, UK
“Nature never did betray the heart that loved her”
It was my embarrassment and a Pakistani journalist’s passion for the English Lake District that got me there. I was dressed head to toe in waterproofs, having climbed 500m, and the rain was turning to hail and sleet. The crags in the peaks behind me were being smoothed out by the first snowfalls. In the distance England’s largest […]
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16th November 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
How football can teach you English
One of the things I know for sure after attempting to learn many languages over many years is that each person learns languages differently. Here in Istanbul there are countless institutions teaching English. Many are excellent. But did you know that there are also some fantastic interactive English language-learning sites on the Internet available free […]