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Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
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9th December 2025
Why We Need Data, Courage, and Community
2nd December 2025
In cybersecurity, there are no limits – only new voices ready to lead
13th April 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
The Importance of Dignity
A word we hear a lot in the Arab world at the moment is “dignity”. We heard it in Tunisia in December and in Tahrir Square in Cairo in January. And we are hearing it in Libya and Syria now. Dignity is a fundamental foundation of Arab culture. The word of course means different things […]
12th April 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Ukraine in Oxford… and Europe
I recently wrote about the centre of Kyiv turning British. So it’s good to find the centre of Oxford turning Ukrainian. The occasion is the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Programme Oxford Model Ukraine Conference “Ukraine’s Domestic and Foreign Affairs: Quo Vadis” (“where are you going”), held in St Anthony’s College and New College, Oxford from 6-8 April. […]
11th April 2011 New York, USA
A Community United on Both Sides of the Atlantic
Saturday 9 April was pretty ordinary for me and my family. We enjoyed the spring flowers during a walk in Central Park. My daughter found new ways to get mud on herself. For Nuala Kerr, it was far from ordinary. She was looking forward to enjoying the next day, mothering Sunday, with her family. Nuala […]
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11th April 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Sport for all
Három, kettő, egy (3,2,1)…and thankfully the gun goes off when I squeeze the trigger, starting the family race in this year’s Vivicitta Budapest. (Vivicitta is an international running event held in April in more than 50 cities to promote “sport for all”.) The competitors – including my colleagues Eva and Levi – surge forward. Among […]
8th April 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
The Australian Climate Change Debate
The most controversial subject in Australian politics right now is climate change. The Labor government, with support from the Greens and some independents, is currently pursuing legislation aimed at introducing a carbon price leading to an emissions trading scheme. This is being heavily attacked by the Opposition coalition, who says it will increase the cost […]
8th April 2011 Toronto, Canada
The Royal Society: Knowledge, Networks and Nations
The Royal Society released an interesting report at the end of March, entitled Knowledge, networks and nations: Global scientific collaboration in the 21st century. Global scientific collaboration is excatly what the Science and Innovation Network is all about, and this report makes for encouraging reading. Here’s a quick summary: The scientific world is becoming increasingly […]
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8th April 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Remembering Katyn
In the bright spring Budapest weather a large group of us gathered together earlier today to witness the unveiling of a monument commemorating some 22,000 Polish victims of the Katyn massacre by Soviet secret police in 1940. Oaks were also planted as a sign of homage to Hungarian prisoners who had been executed in the […]
7th April 2011 Toronto, Canada
Yuri’s Night is April 12th
On April 12th 1961, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin aboard Vostok 1 made history by becoming the first person to orbit the Earth. Exactly twenty years later, the first reuseable spacecraft (Space Shuttle Columbia) made its maiden voyage. These two monumentous events are commemorated annually in Yuri’s Night, which in 2011 celebrates fifty years of human spaceflight. […]
7th April 2011 London, UK
Video: United Nations Visit
After starting the week in Washington where I discussed the shared European and US economic and security interests with senior US officials and opinion formers, I travelled to the UN in New York. As it was my first visit as a Foreign Office Minister I wanted to find out how the UK team works to […]
6th April 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Where are the new sources of growth?
Romania and the UK find themselves in similar economic circumstances. We are emerging from the economic crisis, we have had to bear down hard on public spending, and we need to find new sources of growth to sustain our economies in the decade ahead. This is true for many countries in Europe. And the need […]