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Reflect & Remember: Anzac Day 2024
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
23rd April 2024
Good English – A Key to Panama’s Future Success
21st March 2024
Forests in focus on International Day of Forests
29th June 2012 Washington DC, USA
Might as well face it, I’m addicted to Apps
Sometimes you don’t know you have an addiction until the thing you’re addicted to is suddenly snatched from you. This is what happened to me on moving to the US seven months ago, and finding myself embroiled in a lengthy procedure to get an American smartphone contract. My realisation happened insidiously. Getting ridiculously lost somewhere […]
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29th June 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
"Hopes of Ethiopia"
Last night we held the world premiere of a short film commissoned by the British Embassy, Addis Ababa, called “Hopes of Ethiopia” – which features 3 young Ethiopian athletes as they overcome obstacles to prepare to compete at London 2012. The showing was attended by Ambassadors, senior officials and sports and media personalities. But we […]
29th June 2012 London, UK
Supporting democracy in Pakistan with the EU
I’ve been thinking about how Pakistan is another area where EU collective action and UK foreign policy complement each other in a country that matters to us. As the world’s largest single market, diplomacy based on trade is a major strength for the EU. As a block formed of 27 states, the EU is able […]
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29th June 2012 Paris, France
Franco-British Cooperation on Defence
Franco-British Cooperation on Defence is very much in the news at the moment, with visit and speech by Minister for Europe David Lidington. The ambassador reflects on the CSDP and the key advantages of Europe, in particular France and the United Kingdom, in the domain of international security. The ambassador speaks of David Lidington’s video message and visit […]
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28th June 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
New Approaches to Economic Challenges
The most common question I get in this job is “So what exactly does the OECD do?”. By the end of this blog I will have suggested that part of the answer is “it takes new approaches to economic challenges”. But let me start my answer by recalling the OECD’s founding mission, in 1961, “to promote policies designed […]
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28th June 2012 Guatemala City, Guatemala
GREAT British music: Going for Gold
“Going for Gold”, by Shed Seven if you remember them? A British indie band that was part of the Britpop scene back in the 90s. They’re still going strong, but “Going for Gold” was arguably their most successful song. It’s relevant this week because we’re gearing up to send off Guatemala’s Olympic athletes with a […]
27th June 2012 Washington DC, USA
Olympians get a star send off from Washington
I was fifteen years old when I watched Edwin Moses become an Olympic champion in the 400 metres hurdles, breaking both the Olympic and world records with a time of 47.63 seconds. After those 1976 Montreal Olympics, I followed his progress from afar as he re-wrote the record books in a fashion that no-one would […]
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27th June 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
In praise of Brits in Ukraine
A tall tree shades the audience from the sun. An orchestra and choir wait in silence. A huge derelict building, windows broken and decorated with (fake) radiation warning signs, towers over us. The conductor raises his baton and exquisite baroque music rings out. I am at “Master Klass”, a cultural centre and language school in […]
27th June 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Rediscovering Jordan
This week the British airline easyJet named one of their aircraft “Petra 200” commemorating the time 200 years ago when the first Western tourist, Burckhart visited Petra. easyJet have given very few of their 204 planes names, so this was a rare event. It was also an event of great significance. easyJet is the biggest airline […]
27th June 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Australia looks forward to a great Olympics in one month’s time
Over the last few weeks I’ve attended Olympic send-off ceremonies in all the major states, culminating with the national event – the Prime Minister’s Olympic Dinner– in Melbourne on 23 June. They have been a fantastic showcase for the UK, as well as a demonstration of the Olympic enthusiasm in this sports mad country. The […]
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