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Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
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25th November 2024
The climate crisis and gender-based violence
8th November 2024
Ecolabels: A Catalyst for Sustainable Food Choices?
19th March 2012 Washington DC, USA
The essential relationship — faster, higher, stronger
It was pretty much impossible to look at a newspaper, news programme, tweet or blog last week without being met by numerous photographs of David Cameron and Barack Obama sharing a joke, or their quotes about the essential relationship shared by the US and UK. They even wrote a piece together for the Washington Post. […]
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19th March 2012 Geneva, Switzerland
Good Manners and Bad Behaviour
It’s been a strange week. Even during the frenzied latter stages of a Human Rights Council session you expect the UN to be a courteous place. Anything less than model behaviour would feel out of place in an organisation devoted to peace and harmony and based in a country whose last outbreak of anything resembling […]
19th March 2012 Warsaw, Poland
Food and drink and much more – logistics. Let’s get really serious about retail!
If I were to ask you which is the most dynamic retail market of the 27 EU member states what would you say? I bet Poland would not top your list. Yes Poland is the most ‘on the move market’ in Europe in terms of sales growth, modernisation, sales and distribution systems and purchasing power. […]
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19th March 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Political space
Last week was a very busy week. There was a horrific attack on a bus in Gambella which left at least 14 dead. We heard rumours of His Excellency President Girma being ill. Ethiopian defence forces launched an attack on targets inside Eritrea. I called on several Ethiopian Government Ministers. And we prepared for a […]
16th March 2012 Toronto, Canada
High Commissioner visits Toronto Rehab
SIN Toronto had the pleasure of a visit by the High Commissioner last week, and took the opportunity (with the Consul-General) to get a tour of the state-of-the-art facilities over at Toronto Rehab. After a cordial chat covering research collaboration, rehabilitation science and the Paralympics (Dr. Gaétan Tardif, Chief Medical Officer at Toronto Rehab, is […]
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16th March 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Girls allowed
I blogged recently about the good example set by women ambassadors, and about the growing number of British women ambassadors. Those interested in these issue (NB – should be all of us) may wish to check out the fine blog “Girls Allowed” by my colleague Sian MacLeod, ambassador in Prague. Not only does it present […]
16th March 2012 London, UK
Estonia and Latvia: steadfast allies
I recently made my first visit to Estonia and Latvia as Europe Minister. During the visits I was pleased to meet the Foreign Ministers of both countries and discuss a wide range of bilateral issues and international interests, on many of which we share similar views. In Estonia I met Members of Parliament, opinion formers […]
16th March 2012 Beirut, Lebanon
Reconciliation and coexistence: five ideas for Lebanon from Northern Ireland
Yesterday, I joined an inspirational conference on reconciliation and coexistence, led by interfaith NGO Adyan. It reminded me of the great Margaret Mead line – ‘Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has.’ Beirut is of course the […]
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15th March 2012 Windhoek, Namibia
Commonwealth celebrations in Namibia
I have just returned from hosting Namibia’s first ever Commonwealth Day celebrations in Parliament where I shared British fish ‘n chips with the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, SWAPO Chief Whip, Toivo ya Toivo and other local VIPs. The British High Commission in Windhoek rallied together the eight other Commonwealth missions accredited to Namibia to hold […]
14th March 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
The Archbishop of Canterbury in Rome
It is often easier to say what divides religion than what unites. And that is certainly the emphasis given by media reporting from the “front line”, be it sectarian violence in Nigeria or historic resentments in Northern Ireland. Sometimes, regrettably, religious division is real, and does lead to violence. But very often it is the […]
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