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Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
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2nd December 2025
In cybersecurity, there are no limits – only new voices ready to lead
14th October 2025
Lost and Found (but mostly lost)
7th November 2012 Washington DC, USA
Why We Wear the Poppy
Sunday marks the ninety-fourth anniversary of the Armistice which ended the First World War. The guns on the Western Front finally fell silent at eleven o’clock on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918 after four years of fighting which had claimed the lives of sixteen million and maimed a further twenty million. […]
7th November 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Another British bank in Turkey
This week has brought the exciting news that British bank Standard Chartered is expanding in Turkey. Standard Chartered has bought the bank Credit Agricole Yatrim Bankasi Turk (“CAYBT”), a fully-owned subsidiary of Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank. Announcing the move, the CEO of Standard Chartered for the UK and Europe noted that Turkey was […]
7th November 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Fair + Trade = Fairtrade
Fairtrade – what a great organisation! Since the launch of their ethical lable in 1988 they have advanced to a position in which they support over 1.2 million farmers in over 66 countries – including over 700,000 producers and agricultural value chains in 29 African countries. The UK is the most supportive nation of Fairtrade […]
7th November 2012 Budapest, Hungary
Bond is GREAT Britain
We arranged a screening of the new Bond film, Skyfall, last week. On the same day it premiered here in Budapest. And we invited our closest contacts and friends to share the evening with us. It was great to see members of government, politicians, people from ministries, NGOs and just friends of the Embassy relaxing […]
7th November 2012 New Delhi, India
Spotlight on open calls
From our survey back in June, we know many of you have a strong interest in the finding out about UK-India funding opportunities. So, thought we would write a special ‘Spotlight On’ blog to tell you about the current open calls. Hot off the press, last week the UK’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council […]
6th November 2012 London, UK
Croatia, and why EU enlargement matters
In my last blog, I was looking back at the changes that came about as a result of 20 years of the single market. But for Croatia’s 4.4 million inhabitants, the last two decades have seen change of an even more profound variety. In 1992, the year I entered Parliament, war was still raging in […]
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5th November 2012 USA
Mountain West energy pragmatism
Every time I have the good fortune to venture outside the Beltway, I am amazed at the sheer amount of interesting and innovative technological and policy-related work going on around the US energy industry. A recent visit to Colorado did not disappoint. The state is blessed with an abundance of energy resources, both fossil and […]
5th November 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
A time to study…
As you may have spotted on the Embassy’s front page today, applications are now being accepted for the next round of the Chevening Programme – a prestigious full scholarship for a year’s Master’s degree study in the UK. We’re privileged to have sent a number of excellent students on this programme in the past, and […]
5th November 2012 Washington DC, USA
Washington, New York, and the Blustery Day
Last weekend while sitting in the TEDx MidAtlantic conference, I found myself feeling edgy. I kept compulsively checking my e-mails and Twitter feed for mentions of “Sandy”. After almost a year in Washington DC, hurricane Sandy was my first experience of extreme weather in the US. Which is why, as photographs of empty DC grocery […]
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5th November 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Travelling to the UK: Priority Business Visas
Business is booming between the UK and Turkey. We are well on track to meet the commitment made in 2010 by Prime Ministers David Cameron and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to double trade between our two countries by 2015. Part of boosting business is getting our visa policy right. That’s why earlier this year we introduced […]
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