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The climate crisis and gender-based violence
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12th September 2011 Geneva, Switzerland
Back to School
I’ve never liked this time of year. It always invokes my childhood dread of going back to school without having done any of my homework for the summer holidays. Each year I promised myself I’d change and be more organised the following summer. But I never was. On Monday the Human Rights Council begins its […]
12th September 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Foreign Office minister sees changes since his backpacking days
Jeremy Browne, FCO Minister of State, spent three days in Australia visiting Sydney and Brisbane. He commented that the country had changed since his last visit as a 19 year old backpacker in the 80s, but the welcome was just as warm. He noted that Australia is now the world’s 13th largest economy, a member […]
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11th September 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
The visa issue
Seeing off the group of young Jordanians who are going to the United Kingdom on scholarships is a time to celebrate the close links between Jordan and the UK when it comes to education. Britain is a place where many people want to study because of the high quality of its schools, colleges and universities. […]
9th September 2011 New York, USA
Preparing for the Tenth Anniversary of September 11th
In some ways, it feels presumptuous for me to write about the tenth anniversary of 9/11. At the time of the attacks, I wasn’t here yet – my posting in New York didn’t begin until 2008. It seems like so much has been written by people better qualified to reflect on the last ten years. However, […]
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9th September 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Andy Warhol and Ukraine
To the Mironova Gallery in Kyiv for the opening of the exhibition “Pop Art and its Kings”, featuring rare, recently rediscovered 1963 and 1964 photos of cult pop artists Andy Warhol and Robert Indiana by the photographer William John Kennedy. The black and white pictures are fascinating, showing the two artists on the eve of their […]
9th September 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Shoah by Bullets
What is a French Catholic priest doing uncovering mass graves from the shootings of Jews, gypsies and others in Ukraine in the years 1941-1944? It’s a question which Father Patrick Desbois asks at the opening of the exhibition “Shoah by Bullets: Mass Shootings of Jews in Ukraine 1941-1944” at the Ukrainian House in the centre […]
9th September 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
My first blog as Ambassador to the Holy See
This is my first blog entry as HM Ambassador to the Holy See – indeed, the first time a British Ambassador to the Holy See has had a blog. At a time when the Holy See is itself hosting meetings of bloggers from all over the world, and the Pope is tweeting, I think it […]
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8th September 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Paralympics are coming home
This morning I looked up at our Paralympic countdown clock, which is attached to the front of our Embassy, and realised that it is less than a year to the start of the biggest parasport event in the world. Today the UK hosts International Paralympic Day for the first time in Trafalgar Square in London; […]
8th September 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
UK celebrates International Paralympic Day
Today, September 8th, is International Paralympic Day. The main celebrations will be hosted right in the centre of London, in Trafalgar Square. The UK was the birthplace of the paralympic movement, and so the games will be coming home when the Olympic and Paralympic Games are held in London in 2012. There will be a […]
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8th September 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Boring but important
The last one was agreed in 1977, in very different circumstances. This morning I signed a Double Taxation Treaty between the UK and Hungary, on behalf of the British Government. Why is that important? Several reasons. It protects against the risk of double taxation where the same income is taxable in either of our countries […]