3rd December 2024
RENEWING OLD TIES: THE NEW BISHOP OF LONDON
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
25th November 2024
The climate crisis and gender-based violence
8th November 2024
Ecolabels: A Catalyst for Sustainable Food Choices?
5th October 2018 London,UK
Open House
Now on its 27th edition, the Open House London weekend is a celebration of this great city, and above all of its bricks and mortar. The focus is both on the new arrivals on the London skyline and on understanding and appreciating the histories of the older buildings which make up its complex urban fabric. […]
2nd October 2018 Geneva, Switzerland
Growing Up
When the US walked out of the Council last session, there were plenty of doom-mongers foretelling the multiple ways in which everything would fall apart, drawing on the Council’s darker moments of its stuttering early years, before the US joined. There may be more testing times ahead, but this was the Council’s most successful session […]
2nd October 2018 Vienna, Austria
“Lower Austria” is not “low”
“So,” said my senior visitor. “You are going walking in Lower Austria. I guess that must be pretty flat?” “Er, no,” I said. “Bits of Lower Austria are flatter than bits of some other Austria provinces; but Lower Austria has plenty of mountains.” My visitor looked at me sceptically. Lower Austria is the largest of […]
28th September 2018 Beijing, China
Newton Fund improves early flood warning
On 16 September Severe Typhoon Mangkhut battered Hong Kong, Macao and the Pearl River Delta of Guangdong Province, leaving a trail of damage, flooding, hundreds’ injuries and a few deaths in its wake. Pictures posted on internet, showing the extent of floods were shocking: the river water flooded out; cars soaked desperately; car parks turned […]
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25th September 2018 Vienna, Austria
A visit to an Islamic school in Vienna
The questions come thick and fast. Then the selfies. I take every opportunity I can to visit schools and universities in Austria. Talking about the UK, Brexit and UK-Austrian relations helps to get across the message that the UK is open for business. Getting in touch with people who perhaps do not often meet diplomats […]
24th September 2018 Geneva, Switzerland
Growing Awkward
I’ve often thought that children make the best negotiators. Kids seem to know better than anyone how to stay focussed on what they want and strike home when defences are down. If you ever need a lesson for succeeding in a multilateral negotiation, I’d recommend spending some time observing supermarket check-out queues on a Saturday […]
21st September 2018
World Rhino Day – Journey into the Rhino Horn War
The South African duo who risked EVERYTHING to film the illegal trade in rhino horn in Africa and Asia South African filmmakers Susan Scott and Bonne de Bod sold their homes and moved back in with their parents to undertake a dangerous three-year-long investigation into the murky underground world of the illegal trade in rhino […]
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17th September 2018 Geneva, Switzerland
Growing Intolerant
Over the summer, I have grown a little bit more intolerant. Not to family holidays, heatwaves or even World Cup exits, but to all things dairy. In many countries, this wouldn’t be especially problematic, but in Switzerland, I am having to rethink my breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as my usual Council mood-enhancer – […]
12th September 2018 Vienna, Austria
The perfect honeymoon destination – in Austria
A young couple descend from a train at Völs station and take a post bus up the valley. Their destination is the village of Gries im Sellrain in Tyrol, where they will spend a romantic honeymoon. The couple are my parents, and the year is 1951. After my father died in 2013, my mother moved […]
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7th September 2018 Vienna, Austria
When Austrian German is the best?
The quote that “Britain and America are two nations divided by a common language” is often attributed to Sir Winston Churchill. A version I hear often in Vienna is “nothing unites Austrians and Germans so much as their divided language” (“nichts verbindet Österreicher und Deutsche so sehr wie ihre geteilte Sprache”. Austrian German is full […]