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Reflect & Remember: Anzac Day 2024
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
23rd April 2024
Good English – A Key to Panama’s Future Success
21st March 2024
Forests in focus on International Day of Forests
20th June 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Budapest Pride Week
Some weeks ago I blogged about the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. This week (11-19 June) the Budapest Pride Festival is taking place, with the annual March due tomorrow. The police have pledged that the March will be secure and safe (though there has been an announcement about a possible far right counter-demonstration in […]
17th June 2011 New York, USA
British entrepreneurship – inspiring Ga Ga and creating Zsa Zsa
The UK’s reputation in innovation is longstanding, well-founded and diverse – reaching back to the industrial revolution and still going strong. At New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Costume Institute’s Alexander McQueen – Savage Beauty, celebrates the work of one high profile, provocative, innovative, rule breaker. A Londoner, McQueen learnt his craft on Savile Row, […]
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16th June 2011 Ottawa, Canada
Heading to Canada’s north
I head off on Friday for a week in Canada’s vast Arctic north. With other heads of mission and Canadian officials, we will travel from Iqaluit and Pond Inlet in the east, to Dawson City, Whitehorse and Yellowknife out west, en route back to Ottawa. It’s an adventure on many levels: a chance to learn […]
16th June 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Oil and Gas boom in the ‘Top End’: Visit to Darwin
I visited Darwin, capital of the Northern Territory this week. Although NT covers a vast land area, as seen in the Nicole Kidman film “Australia”, it represents only about 1% of Australia’s population and GDP. Once a sleepy backwater, Darwin is poised to become a major oil and gas hub for the vast offshore reserves […]
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16th June 2011 Bucharest, Romania
Meet a Brit – media training coming soon
As economic recovery and competitiveness are at the heart of the European agenda, the British Embassy plans to run a media training programme on this heavyweight issue in the autumn. The idea is to bring a senior British business journalist to Romania to share from his/her experience in reporting and commenting about the challenges and […]
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15th June 2011 Chevening, UK
Chevening and the Global Scholars Symposium
On July 6 and 7, two Chevening Scholars attended the Global Scholars Symposium held in Oxford. The event brought together more than 150 postgraduate scholars studying in the UK on a variety of scholarships (including Rhodes, Marshall, Churchill, Clarendon, Gates, Fulbright) to discuss world challenges. The two days were intense, with whole group and small […]
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15th June 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
ما رأيك في العرض حتى الآن؟
قبل عدة سنوات كان هناك برنامج تلفزيوني كوميدي محبوب جدا. و في منتصف البرنامج كان أحدهم الممثلين يسأل : "ما رأيك في العرض حتى الآن؟" فيصرخ الآخر:" زبالة!" و لكن أدرك أن الشخص قد لا يفهم الفكاهة إذا لم يحضر البرنامج. و لكن هذه العبارة التقطت لتستخدم في المزاح الشعبي. فبعد أربعة أشهر […]
15th June 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
What do you think of the show so far?
Many years ago there was a television show with two well-loved comedians. Half-way through the programme one would ask “What do you think of the show so far?” The other would shout “Rubbish!” You had to be there to appreciate the joke, but it is a catch-phrase that has stuck in popular banter. So after […]
15th June 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Ambassadors in high heels #2
How much should an ambassador know about Louboutins? My recent blog Ambassadors in high heels prompted some interesting comments (eg from one female British diplomat: “there is no doubt that when I joined up as a young woman in the 1970s the expectation was that I would marry and leave”, but… “I have never not […]
14th June 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Celebrating The Queen
This Thursday 16 June, the British Embassy in La Paz will hold its annual Queen’s Birthday Party to celebrate the ascension to the throne of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. It is an opportunity for the embassy to thank the many Bolivians, British, and people of other nationalities who help us in our work over […]