9th December 2025
Why We Need Data, Courage, and Community
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
2nd December 2025
In cybersecurity, there are no limits – only new voices ready to lead
14th October 2025
Lost and Found (but mostly lost)
20th November 2012 London, UK
Export Week
It’s not often that I blog about football, but this week I came across a truly inspiring story. Terry Nelson is a former Paratrooper who invented a suit that enables athletes to recuperate in water. He himself has represented our country and won a gold medal at the World Transplant Games in Vancouver in 1993. […]
20th November 2012 Paris, France
Deputy Prime Minister in Paris
I said last week that I would talk to you about our Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s visit on 14 November. Nick is the leader of the Liberal Democrat Party in the UK. He is a former member of the European Parliament, speaks fluent French and so is able to have his lunchtime discussions with […]
20th November 2012 Washington DC, USA
Austin Triumphs with Formula One
There is always a bit of uncertainty, even apprehension, when you embark on a big new adventure. So it was a real pleasure to witness on Sunday the great success, under a cloudless sky, that was Austin’s first ever Formula One Grand Prix motor race. A brand new racetrack, with a design which had rave […]
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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