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?
20th July 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
An exceptional person
If she had lived, we would be celebrating her 90th birthday today. But sadly Hannah Senesh (born Aniko Szenes) was murdered in 1944. Disturbed by the Hungarian education system’s increasing discrimination on religious grounds, Hannah Senesh decided to emigrate from Budapest to the British Mandate of Palestine at the outset of World War II. She […]
20th July 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Kyiv beaches and gas #3
In June 2009 I wrote a blog extolling the virtues of Kyiv’s beaches and noting the challenges Ukraine was then having paying its monthly bills for gas from Russia. I noted the views of the international financial institutions (IFIs) that it would be easier to help Ukraine if the financial arrangements in the gas sector […]
19th July 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Green Energy
Our growing electricity needs, and the way we waste our energy, are one of the principal clauses of global warming in the world. All governments are grappling with the problem of rising demand and the contradictory need to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Bolivia is not immune. The British government recently published an Electricity Market Reform […]
19th July 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
The Road to Democracy in North Africa
Guest blog: Deputy Head of Mission Esther Blythe attended last week the start of a three-day workshop hosted by the Romanian Foreign Ministry for Tunisian and Egyptian officials on the experience of democratic transition – focusing in particular on the practical challenges of managing the first post-transition elections. Here is what Esther thought of the […]
19th July 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Odesa Film Festival
The red carpet heaves with talent including John Malkovich, Russian filmmaker and actor Nikita Mikhalkov and many legendary Odesa comedy stars including the “Masks” of Chaos Shakespeare fame. Above, gleaming gilt cherubs frolic. I’m at the fabulous Odesa opera house for the opening of this year’s Odesa International Film Festival. With six British films on […]
19th July 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Commonwealth Law Ministers in Sydney
It was an unusually “legal” week for me in Sydney last week, with Lord McNally, Minister of State for Justice attending the Commonwealth Law Ministers Meeting, and later in the week the Rt Hon Dominic Grieve MP, Attorney General, participating in a separate Quint meeting with his opposite numbers from Australia, the US, Canada and […]
18th July 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Britain and Ukraine – Partners for Reform
Who said the following? – “Ukraine knows that it can count on Britain as its friend in the European Union. We are, and will remain, enthusiastic advocates of Ukraine’s closer integration with the rest of Europe”; and – “It is the responsibility of true friends to speak honestly when they see something which concerns them”. […]
Read more on Britain and Ukraine – Partners for Reform | Reply
18th July 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
388 reasons why US investors agree that Britain is the easiest place in Europe to do business
Investment stock can be a more accurate and less volatile indicator of inward investment than flow, but the UK’s Office of National Statistics reported last month that the UK attracted £32bn in the inward investment in the first quarter of 2011 – it’s strongest quarter for over 3 years, and a huge leap from the […]
Read more on 388 reasons why US investors agree that Britain is the easiest place in Europe to do business | Reply
18th July 2011 Ottawa, Canada
Our New SIN Intern at the British High Commission in Ottawa – Alexandra Weirich
What better way to explore a new experience, while figuring out what you want to do with the rest of your life than doing an internship with the British High Commission in Ottawa (or in other posts around the world, where opportunities arise)? It is once again my pleasure to introduce you another of our […]
Read more on Our New SIN Intern at the British High Commission in Ottawa – Alexandra Weirich | Reply (3)
18th July 2011 Ottawa, Canada
Our New SIN Intern at the British High Commission in Ottawa – Rasna Sherchan
It’s my pleasure to introduce you to our newest SIN Intern, Rasna Sherchan. Rasna is bubbly and enthusiastic and a pleasure to work with. She has had lots of variend and interesting experience that she will be able to build on with us as part of the Science & Innovation team in Canada. To date […]
Read more on Our New SIN Intern at the British High Commission in Ottawa – Rasna Sherchan | Reply