9th December 2025
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Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
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2nd December 2025
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14th October 2025
Lost and Found (but mostly lost)
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
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
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
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 […]
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 […]
16th August 2011 Ottawa, Canada
Ottawa Science and Technology Counsellors Network!
It’s always a sad time in the office, when we have to say goodbye and send our interns on to their next adventures. Rasna, one of our most recent interns here at the High Commission is off, but not far from our minds. I have a few blogs that she had written for us that […]
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14th August 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
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 […]
14th August 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
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 […]
13th August 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
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 […]
13th August 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
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 […]