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?
25th January 2012 Ottawa, Canada
Scotland’s gifts to Canada
January the 25th is Burns Night, an anniversary globally celebrated. It’s right and proper, therefore, to reflect for a moment on the Scottish contribution to Canada. I was given a book the other day, modestly titled: How the Scots Invented Canada, by Ken McGoogan. It points, not without evidence, to the seminal contribution made by […]
25th January 2012 Dublin, Ireland
London calling
I’m just back from a visit to the UK to promote the opportunities that Poland offers for British business and to discuss how to strengthen further the links between us after the successful Polish Presidency. London’s streets are hard on the feet. But everywhere I went, I found a lot of enthusiasm for more engagement […]
25th January 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Facing Africa
A team of British (and one Irish) volunter surgeons, anaesthetists, doctors and nurses is here in Addis Ababa this week to deal with a scourge that should not exist in the 21st Century. Noma is a gangrenous infection that mainly attacks poor and malnourished children. If undetected or untreated, it can eat away or distort […]
24th January 2012 Chevening, UK
London is proactive! And best of all, it makes you proactive!
Our new Chevening Conversations blog is by Lebanese Chevening Scholar Leena Ksaifi. Leena is studying for an MSC in Violence, Conflict and Development at the School of Oriental and African Studies. When you first arrive in London, everything is jaw dropping. Double-decker buses, shiny lights and flashy signs, bikers cycling, pedestrian buttons you press when you want […]
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24th January 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Communications, Silence, and Survival
It was interesting to see Pope Benedict speaking today about communications, in advance of the 20 May World Day of Social Communications. We are all in the business. From bloggers like me, to Foreign Ministries striving to get their “angle” across, from the frenzied activity of Twitter, to the simple conversation on the mobile. We […]
24th January 2012 London, UK
Working with the EU to help pursue UK foreign policy objectives
I have just attended the January meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels and have been reflecting on how the collective weight of EU members can be harnessed to promote the UK’s national prosperity and security. For example, at the December meeting, the Foreign Secretary discussed with all our European Union partners how […]
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24th January 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Social entrepreneurship in Ukraine?
On a deeply snowy winter’s morning I visit Pushcha-Vodytsya, on the outskirts of Kiev, to address the participants of a week-long training course on social entrepreneurship. The idea of most business activity is to earn profits which can be paid to the shareholders who invested in the enterprise in the first place. The difference with […]
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24th January 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Timket
Last week I was privileged with my colleague Betty to attend the annual Ethiopian event of Temket, the main festival for orthodox Christians in Ethiopia and the equivalent of our Epiphany. The concept of revelation is similar to all such ceremonies, but here in Ethiopia the focus is on Christ’s baptism and His first miracle […]
23rd January 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Enjoy beer (responsibly)
I love a good beer. Preferably a real ale (consumed responsibly, naturally). If I was back home in the UK, I’d order a pint of Spitfire, brewed by England’s oldest brewery, Faversham-based Shepherd Neame. So I thought I was going to be disappointed with the lighter offerings in the US, and have to resign myself […]
23rd January 2012 London, UK
Making the European Court of Human Rights work better
This week is a big week for the UK in Strasbourg. We are 11 weeks into our 6 month Chairmanship of the Council of Europe. We are pressing ahead with our wide-ranging Chairmanship priorities, in particular our ambitious package of reforms for the European Court of Human Rights (the Court). The Council of Europe was […]
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