17th May 2024
Reflections on IDAHOBIT: International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
13th May 2024
Value with Values: UK Commitment to Climate Partnership
25th April 2024
Reflect & Remember: Anzac Day 2024
25th July 2012 Guatemala City, Guatemala
Guatemala meets Charles Dickens, sort of
If you’re in Guatemala City, or nearby, and not completely wrapped-up in the London Olympics (if not, why not?!) then consider popping into the Guatemalan International Book Fair (FILGUA). It’s on until July 29th. We’ve been supporting it, and earlier this week a Brit living here, and linguist, Dr Neville Stiles MBA PhD BA, gave […]
Read more on Guatemala meets Charles Dickens, sort of | Reply
24th July 2012 Washington DC, USA
Yellow Jerseys and Gold Medals
Cycling has always been one of the sports that Great Britain has hung its hat on. At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, 14 of our 47 medals came on two wheels. The legendary Chris Hoy won three gold medals, making him the first British Olympian to win three gold medals in a single Games […]
24th July 2012 Washington DC, USA
Dreams of the final frontier, realized
Many children dream of being an astronaut – but it wasn’t til I had qualified as a lawyer and worked for some years as a civil servant that the realisation hit me. It happened during my honeymoon, at New York’s Natural History Museum monthly SciCafe. Astrophysicist and Hayden Planetarium Director Neil deGrasse Tyson delivered an […]
23rd July 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Pope Benedict prays for the London Olympics
There is no Vatican Olympic team, at least not this year (though I recommend that you see the recent film “Cento metri dal Paradiso” to see what could happen if the Vatican decided to enter…). But the Holy See and the Catholic Church have been fully involved in the preparations for the 2012 London Olympics […]
Read more on Pope Benedict prays for the London Olympics | Reply
23rd July 2012 Harare, Zimbabwe
Prime Minister David Cameron’s visit to Helmand
Prime Minister David Cameron visited the Helmand PRT on Wednesday 18th July. This was his ninth visit to Afghanistan, having failed to get to Helmand on the last two occasions – the first time because a soldier sadly went missing and air assets were prioritised to search, second because of the infamous Helmand sandstorms. So we […]
Read more on Prime Minister David Cameron’s visit to Helmand | Reply (1)
23rd July 2012 Washington DC, USA
British Defence and building our forces for the future
British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond was in the US last week. Nothing unusual there you might expect. British Defence Secretaries do indeed see their American counterparts pretty regularly. What struck me about this visit though was the focus on the future. For ten years we have been the closest partners in the military operations of […]
Read more on British Defence and building our forces for the future | Reply
23rd July 2012 Windhoek, Namibia
Team Namibia Olympic send off to mark the final countdown to London 2012
It has been a whirl of Olympic activities this week in Windhoek – as we enter the final countdown to the start of the London 2012 Olympic Games this Friday – now only 4 days away! I joined members of Team Namibia, made up of the remarkable ‘qualified’ young Namibian sportsmen and women and representatives […]
Read more on Team Namibia Olympic send off to mark the final countdown to London 2012 | Reply (1)
23rd July 2012 Budapest, Hungary
Better together
I’m very proud of how inclusive a place the UK is. We welcome all kinds of people: whatever their race, religion or minority group. And there are great benefits from doing that. I believe this attitude is not just good for the people who come to the UK or who live there and are not […]
23rd July 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
A Queen’s tribute to a Queen
I spent last weekend with friends in Bran, the favourite mountain refuge of Queen Marie of Romania in her later years. I’m reading her biography at the moment, and came across a lovely entry in her diary in 1934. Queen Marie was in the UK in the spring of that year to promote her book, […]
23rd July 2012 Dublin, Ireland
A GREAT Summer
Sorry to have been off the air but I spent much of last week visiting Budapest and Bucharest in my role as Director of the Central European Network, which brings together nine Embassies in Central Europe. It was fascinating to compare the situation in Poland with the situations elsewhere in the area. There are many […]