25th April 2024
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
22nd February 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
What the Dickens?
I hosted a lunch yesterday for celebrated British actress Miriam Margolyes who is touring Australia with her show “Dickens’ Women”. With her hugely varied and successful career across stage, TV and film she is one of our best loved actresses. Miriam has a lifelong passion for Charles Dickens, perhaps Britain’s greatest ever novelist, and she spoke entertainingly about […]
21st February 2012 Toronto, Canada
SIN podcast: Jason Hall-Spencer on ocean acidification
With the 2012 AAAS Annual Meeting just wrapping up in Vancouver, news stories and features from the leading edges of research are starting to percolate out into the mainstream media. One timely example is that of Dr. Jason Hall-Spencer, a marine scientist at the University of Plymouth who was featured on the BBC at the […]
Read more on SIN podcast: Jason Hall-Spencer on ocean acidification | Reply (1)
21st February 2012 Nairobi, Kenya
Why a stable Somalia is in our interests
As the first British Ambassador to Somalia for twenty years, people often ask me why we should get involved with Somalia at all: haven’t we got enough to worry about? Somalia has an unenviable record as a failed state. Its twenty-year civil war has brought lawlessness and chaos at a massive human cost: one million […]
Read more on Why a stable Somalia is in our interests | Reply (39)
20th February 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
70th Anniversary of Darwin bombing
I travelled up to the Northern Territory to participate in a weekend of commemorations for the 70th anniversary of the WWII attack on Darwin. 19 February 1942 was not of course the start of the war for Australia. Australian diggers had been fighting alongside their British comrades for two years and five months by then. […]
20th February 2012 Warsaw, Poland
UK and Poland – lots of opportunity to work on a growth agenda!
Since the global economic crisis started in September 2008, the story for Europe has been one of a stalling engine which has consistently failed to restart. Mired in mediocrity and wading through a bog of single market regulation, more than half of Europe’s member states are today less competitive than they were a year ago. […]
Read more on UK and Poland – lots of opportunity to work on a growth agenda! | Reply
20th February 2012 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
New Beginnings: Malaysia and Moderation
Welcome to my first blog from Kuala Lumpur. It’s hard to describe the excitement that I felt when I was offered my dream job as the Counsellor covering foreign policy and security issues at our High Commission. I couldn’t think of a more stimulating posting. And I can’t believe that I have already been in […]
Read more on New Beginnings: Malaysia and Moderation | Reply (6)
17th February 2012 Washington DC, USA
The science of romance (or the romance of science…)
I have become very fond of the US, despite having been here less than 3 months. But I have to acknowledge that life keeps foiling my penchant for romantic gestures. It’s not that, I should hasten to say, that the US itself lacks romance. I found the soaring skyline and raised L trains in Chicago […]
Read more on The science of romance (or the romance of science…) | Reply
17th February 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Less Emergency, More Order
The media are reporting today that the new Prime Minister Mihai Razvan Ungureanu has said the Government should make less use of Emergency Ordinances. This would be welcomed by British investors in Romania. One of the most common concerns I hear from British companies is the need for more predictability in the legislative environment. The […]
17th February 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Djibouti – An Important Ally
A few days ago I was in Djibouti to present my credentials as the non-resident UK Ambassador. This is an good example of how two countries can have an excellent and mutually fruitful relationship even in the absence of physical Embassies (though in our case at least with an extremely good and well-connected Honorary Consul […]
16th February 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
British Ministers visit the Holy See
A very intensive 24 hours this week saw the strongest ever delegation of ministers from the United Kingdom – 7 in total, including 4 Cabinet Ministers – paying an official visit to the Holy See. As Baroness Warsi, the leader of the delegation, noted in her speech at the official dinner hosted by Secretary of […]