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Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
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25th November 2024
The climate crisis and gender-based violence
8th November 2024
Ecolabels: A Catalyst for Sustainable Food Choices?
29th June 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Go Cats: Watching Aussie Rules Football
I was invited to watch a holiday weekend footy match, another Australian tradition. I had decided that I needed to choose an Aussie Rules team to support, so I opted for the Geelong Cats (on the personal advice of the State Premier of Victoria, where the game is mostly played). Geelong President Colin Carter filled […]
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28th June 2011 Islamabad, Pakistan
Recognizing fallen martyrs
On Thursday, I visited the Police Lines headquarters in Islamabad. I was accompanying the UK Foreign Secretary, William Hague, who wanted to pay his respects to the fallen martyrs of the Pakistani police service and to publicly recognise their sacrifices in serving Pakistan and its citizens. Mr Hague laid a wreath at the police monument […]
27th June 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
A Euro 2012 warm-up at Dynamo Stadium
After a day of thunderstorms the sun emerges. The wet grass glistens as the teams run out. The bright blue terraces sparkle against an ominous dark sky. We’re at Kyiv’s exquisite Dynamo stadium, home of the legendary Dynamo Kyiv, for the first in a series of matches between a volunteer team from the Foreign and […]
27th June 2011 Bucharest, Romania
European boost to SMEs
European leaders meeting in Brussels last week agreed that the regulatory burden on SMEs needs to be further reduced, something that the UK has very strongly argued for in its agenda for growth. The European Commission will therefore undertake to assess the impact of future regulations on micro enterprises and to screen the acquis to […]
27th June 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Trooping of the Colours in Canberra
I represented Britain at the Trooping of the Colours on 11 June. In Australia, the Queen’s Birthday weekend is a public holiday. It was a crisp sunny day but cold, and the backdrop of Lake Burley Griffin, around which Canberra is sited, looked spectacular. Australia’s Royal Military College, Duntroon, is celebrating its centenary this year, […]
25th June 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Lifting the burden on business
When President Basescu and David Cameron met in Downing Street on 6 June they agreed to work together to promote new growth in the European economy, including by reducing the regulatory burden on business. We took the first steps to implement this agenda at the European Council yesterday. Romania and the UK worked together to […]
24th June 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Saving Children from Disease
13 June saw an extremely significant meeting in London, co-hosted by the British Government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It was especially important for children in developing countries. On that day, an addition $4.3bn was raised to replenish the Global Alliance on Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI). This will mean that GAVI can immunise […]
24th June 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Wonderful kids in Ukraine
What do Arsenal Football Club, British and Ukrainian charities, the Chernihiv regional authorities and former British ambassadors in Kyiv have in common? Answer: all have helped support a remarkable institution, the Chernihiv “Revival” centre for the social and medical rehabilitation of children. I’m visiting Chernihiv to help celebrate the 15th anniversary of the “Revival” centre. […]
24th June 2011 Geneva, Switzerland
Rewriting the unwritten rules
Life is full of unwritten rules which help determine the limits of acceptable behaviour and which help you avoid making embarrassing and sometimes costly mistakes. The peculiar world of the Human Rights Council is no exception. No one tells you these little bits of conventional wisdom like, don’t deliver the first 2 minutes of your […]
24th June 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Oranges and Sunshine – a deeply moving film
With a group of colleagues from the High Commission I attended the Canberra opening of a new film “Oranges and Sunshine”. It’s about the 7,000 child migrants who were sent to Australia between 1945 and 1967, and the heroic role of Nottingham social worker, Margaret Humphreys (tautly played by Emily Watson) in helping many of […]
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