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Ecolabels: A Catalyst for Sustainable Food Choices?
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
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OSLOBOĐENJE BEOGRADA
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Busting the gender myths – women and organised crime
17th May 2012 Windhoek, Namibia
Chargéing’ in Windhoek
Guest blog by new British High Commission Windhoek Deputy High Commissioner Simon Atkinson: As a diplomat, there’s a (worrying) tinge of homeliness about airports. Not that I enjoy them much, more that they’ve become very familiar. As I perch on the latest bit of uncomfortable plastic (wishing the sense of homeliness would miraculously transform it into […]
17th May 2012 Budapest, Hungary
Holding back the tears
I’ve been away from Budapest for the last two weeks. For the first time I went back to London to the annual gathering of all British Ambassadors from around the world. It was my first time there and so I wasn’t sure what to expect. But the week was really good. The PM, Chancellor and […]
17th May 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
IDAHO in Ukraine
On the eve of the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO) I’m delighted to meet in Kyiv old friend Clare Dimyon, a British human rights activist whom I last met in June 2009. At that time, Clare was visiting Ukraine to coincide with the Second National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) conference in […]
17th May 2012 New Delhi, India
Visit to Indian Institute of Geomagnetism
Recently Science and Innovation team in India converged to Mumbai to assess how we fared against our team objectives for the year 2011-12. But that’s another story. Here I wanted to take the opportunity to tell you about an institute tucked away in a city known the world over for the Bollywood industry rather than […]
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17th May 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Let’s talk about equality
Today is International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. Many international events will take place this day, intended to raise awareness about discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and to promote respect for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. The UK Government is committed to the promotion and protection of the […]
16th May 2012 Guatemala City, Guatemala
Mixing business with pleasure
Our last blog previewed our visit to Guatemala’s second city, Quetzaltenango, or Xela as it’s also known locally, to participate in their First International Festival, “Xelaju es un Lugar Diferente”. Now that we’re back, we thought that we would share with you what a successful and fun time we had, disproving the theory that you […]
16th May 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Football and politics
The images are powerful. A woman prisoner displays bruises which she says were caused by mistreatment by prison guards. Allegations by ex-prime minister Yuliya Tymoshenko that she was physically mistreated by prison guards, followed by counter-claims by prison authorities that this never happened, have caused controversy in the rest of Europe. In an intense cycle […]
15th May 2012 Washington DC, USA
LA Environmental
If someone had asked me to picture a stereotype of Los Angeles prior to my trip there at the end of last week, I might have imagined sun bouncing off the Hollywood sign, towering above huge highways where massive cars roared by, conveying wannabe starlets through the smog to their latest audition or waitress interview. […]
15th May 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Commons Foreign Affairs Committee studies Australian thinking on Commonwealth
Back in Canberra after 28 hours of flights, and straight into a programme with visiting members of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC). Senior backbenchers were in Canberra as part of the Committee’s enquiry into the Commonwealth. Other FAC members were travelling to different parts of the world. We arranged a busy programme […]
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14th May 2012 London, UK
Europe – The view from across the Atlantic
After a week of change in Europe, it was no surprise what was on the minds of many of my contacts in the US this week. Both in Boston and in Washington I was quizzed about the new French President, Greek efforts to form a coalition, and most importantly – how all this was going […]
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