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Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
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21st March 2024
Forests in focus on International Day of Forests
4th January 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Could Ukraine win the anti-corruption league?
Back in 2009 I wrote a blog entitled “How to win the anti-corruption league”. In that blog I lamented the fact that Ukraine now stood at place 146 out of 180 countries in the Corruption Perceptions Index published by Transparency International. I noted how corruption reduced inward investment, and how helpful it would be if Ukraine could […]
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3rd January 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Early days
I have been in Addis Ababa for approaching 3 weeks as British Ambassador, some of which has been taken up by “Feranji” (Westerner) Christmas and New Year holidays. What does an Ambassador try to do at the outset of a posting? There have been several priorities (aside from settling in my family): Getting to know […]
30th December 2011 Beirut, Lebanon
The Arc of History Bends Towards Justice
Several Ambassadors were asked by Le Revue Diplomatique for an article on the Middle East over the coming year. Here’s the short version of my thoughts. 2011 was a tumultuous and breathtaking year for the region. At our end of year shura of British ambassadors in the Middle East, it was striking how tired everyone […]
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30th December 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
12 blogs of Christmas
With the New Year looming, here are 12 of my blogs from 2011: January: Is Ukraine Free? (Freedom House rankings) February: MI6, Art and Freedoms (“A Year with MI6”) March: Brilliant British Business in Ukraine (British Business Days) March: Down Syndrome: “Let Us In!” (Down Syndrome in the UK and Ukraine) April: What I think […]
29th December 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
BBC Book of the Year
One of my favourite events in Kyiv is the BBC Book of the Year Award, sponsored by the BBC Ukrainian Service. I’ve presented the winner with the prize for the last four years, including in 2010 and this year — you can see a report on the prize, including details of the shortlist and the […]
23rd December 2011 New York, USA
GREAT Expectations
As 2011 draws to a close, with Christmas and New Year’s Eve just days away, many of us are busy with preparations for holiday cheer with family and friends. Here at the British Consulate-General in New York, we’re also quite busy with preparations for what will be the most exciting year in any Brit’s life: […]
23rd December 2011 Washington DC, USA
Peter Matheson on the Wall Street Journal’s Real Time Economics blog
In the spirit of the season, I offer up some gift suggestions that teach the most important economic lessons in a post for the Wall Street Journal’s Real Time Economics blog. Click through for more.
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23rd December 2011 Bucharest, Romania
Santa’s for everyone
Blog post by Cora Motoc and Peter Thomas from the Political team in the British Embassy As we all know Christmas is all about giving. So for the second year running the British Embassy was very pleased to participate in the “Santa’s for everyone” campaign by collecting toys and clothes to donate to urban and […]
23rd December 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Poverty matters
I arrived in Addis Ababa just a week ago, as British Ambassador to Ethiopia. And one of the first things I wanted to do was to see how British development assistance is working in this very poor country – but one that is making impressive progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals. So on Wednesday […]
23rd December 2011 Windhoek, Namibia
Looking back on my first six months in Windhoek
It is incredible to believe that I have now been in Namibia for six months. The time has flown by and it has really been a wonderful experience. The world has seen an extraordinary number of things happen on the international playing field in 2011: uprisings in north Africa, numerous natural disasters, some significant deaths […]
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