Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs

A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy

22nd August 2011 Toronto, Canada

The McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine

I was recently fortunate enough to visit to the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine, based at the renowned MaRS Discovery District here in Toronto. This visit was part of our ongoing follow-up from ISSCR 2011, and included our Consul-General, Mr. Jonathan Dart. SIN intern Lara Kaute also wrote about her experiences last week. The McEwen […]

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22nd August 2011 Nairobi, Kenya

by Matt Baugh

Ambassador to Somalia

Somalia: Guest Blog by James Hooley – Letter from Mogadishu

My name is James Hooley and I’m currently part of the British Office for Somalia team in Nairobi.  My boss, Matt Baugh, has very kindly lent me his blog so I can tell you a little bit more about our trip to Mogadishu on Wednesday with Andrew Mitchell, the UK Secretary of State for International […]

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18th August 2011

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by Paul Madden

British Ambassador to Japan

An Iftar dinner in Canberra

Last night, I was pleased to be invited by the Blue Star Intercultural Centre to celebrate the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, over a traditional Iftar dinner in a Muslim family home in the Canberra suburbs. Having lived for the last four years in Singapore where a sixth of the population are Muslim, I knew […]

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17th August 2011 New York, USA

New York Welcomes Susan Haird, Acting Chief Executive of UK Trade & Investment

Guest blog by Amita Randhawa, UKTI Regional Director, North-East USAThough August is traditionally a quiet month, New York has been positively buzzing over the past few weeks. Following the exciting arrival on 1 August of our new Consul-General, Danny Lopez, we welcomed Susan Haird, acting Chief Executive of UK Trade & Investment, last week for […]

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16th August 2011 Ottawa, Canada

The UK: After the Riots

If you’re like me, you’ll have watched the riots in the streets of London and other English cities with a mixture of shock, dismay and outrage. There was a great deal of criminality on display. Deeper analysis will follow, but there’s plenty to be done in the interim. In London, we’re well into what the […]

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14th August 2011

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by Greg Dorey

Diplomat

Sziget Music Festival Day 3 (part 8)

The online version of Nepszabsag, one of Hungary’s broadsheets, want to do a video interview with me. The journalist is the same one who interviewed me a couple of years ago when we launched a “Music Against Racism” initiative at the Festival – it is still going strong, now with a Hungarian coordinator. The interview […]

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14th August 2011

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by Greg Dorey

Diplomat

Sziget Music Festival Day 3 (part 7)

My day at the Sziget Festival started with participating in a press conference together with the Deputy Police Chief of Budapest. Our two British police officers, together with Netherlands, German and Polish counterparts, were present. I spoke about our long-standing bilateral police cooperation, going back to the early 1990’s. There was media interest in what […]

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13th August 2011

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by Greg Dorey

Diplomat

Sziget Music Festival Day 4 (part 10)

The Sziget Festival crowd are starting to look tired after several days here, but by tonight the adrenalin rush will have them partying again. On the Main stage today are Hadouken!, Kate Nash and the Kaiser Chiefs (we won’t worry about the non-British bands).  While tomorrow we look forward to white Lies and some traditional […]

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13th August 2011

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by Greg Dorey

Diplomat

The British Embassy Makes Waves

This morning the British Embassy swimming team all successfully completed a 1500 metre crossing of Lake Velence (the third largest in Hungary) to promote the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympic Games. Colleagues Andy, Kata, Melinda, Anna and Geory were joined by 2 Hungarian international paralympic swimmers, Tamas Toth and Judit Tarjanyi. Dani drove and took […]

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