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Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
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17th December 2025
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18th May 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Freestyle Olympics
This morning I was again helping raise the London 2012 flag in front of our Embassy, to mark the arrival of the Olympic Flame in the UK. This time I was assisted by Yanet Siyoum, a young and promising Ethiopian swimmer, who is preparing not just for the Olympic Games but also her college exams. […]
17th May 2012 Washington DC, USA
A GREAT Embassy Open House
It isn’t every day that you walk out of your house to find 10,000 people on your lawn. But on Saturday, for EU Embassy Open House day, that is what happened to me. From the time gates opened at 10:00—with quite a queue already formed—until they closed at 4:00, a steady stream of visitors turned […]
17th May 2012 Athens, Greece
Visiting the Parthenon on the eve of the Handover Ceremony
Yesterday HRH The Princess Royal arrived in Athens to attend the Olympic Flame Handover Ceremony, which takes place in just a few hours at the Kallimarmaro Stadium. Early evening yesterday, accompanied by British Ambassador David Landsman, Minister for Sport and the Olympics, Hugh Robertson, and Mayor of London Boris Johnson, Princess Anne arrived at the […]
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17th May 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Olympic flame heading to London: The excitement is growing
The immediate run-down to the London 2012 opening ceremony has begun. During an hour-long ceremony at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, the Olympic Flame was handed to HRH The Princess Royal, who is leading a UK Delegation which includes Lord Coe, London Mayor Boris Johnson and Sport and Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson. The Panathenaic Stadium […]
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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 […]