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16th February 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
The Britain Brand
Last night the Embassy was full of tour operators, agencies and attraction owners from Hungary and the UK, but also from Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Serbia and Slovakia. They had spent the day in a seminar and tailored meetings organised by Visit Britain – the organisation that markets Britain overseas and develops the […]
11th February 2011 New York, USA
Treading the boards off Broadway
Guest Blog: Peter Tear, MBE Peter Tear, Executive Producer at the New York Theatre, 59E59, was awarded an MBE in 2010 for services to US and UK cultural relations in bringing the best of small British theatre productions to New York City – a unique niche that is not duplicated anywhere else in the United […]
11th February 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
The green race
Presidency work at the British Embassy in Budapest is not confined to formal Presidency calendar events. We are also assisting with the intensive bilateral engagement of UK Ministers and senior officials with their Hungarian counterparts. Thanks to the heightened UK interest in all things Hungarian these days, these exchanges often go beyond immediate EU policy […]
10th February 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Trade and Investment: the case for open markets
I wrote recently in the Bolivian newspaper La Razon about the importance of free trade and the Doha Round of trade negotiations. As Prime Minister David Cameron has said, 2011 is a “make or break” year: we go forward, boosting free trade and global prosperity, or backwards to the dark ages of protectionism and beggar-thy-neighbour. […]
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10th February 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
The King’s Speech
The King’s Speech is the film of the year, with 12 nominations for the Oscars and it goes on general release in Romania on Friday 11 February. I had a privileged pre-viewing at the Movieplex Cinema on Monday evening. I loved this film! It is a very moving story of a figure in British history […]
9th February 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Delivering on Trade and Investment
Today the British Government launches its Trade and Investment White Paper. This is our statement to our trade and investment partners across the world, including Hungary, about how we plan to work together for mutual benefit. It’s about: Maximising the opportunities for businesses in the UK to trade and invest, and attracting investment to the […]
9th February 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Creating jobs the practical way
On Friday the Embassy was packed with Mayors and Deputy Mayors from across the country, engaging with senior staff and managers from Tesco. It was a chance for this British-based company to thank them for all those two-way, mutually satisfactory arrangements that exist in many Hungarian towns and cities where there are Tesco stores. And […]
9th February 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
How to create wealth
At a recent press conference at the residence about the British Business Days in Ukraine a journalist asked me when the UK would actually start making investments in Ukraine in factories that produced things. I said there were a number of examples of such production, whether in manufacturing, agriculture or energy production; but that one […]
7th February 2011 New York, USA
Super Brits
Guest blog: Catrin Brace, Board Member at BAFTA New York Photo credit: BAFTA East Coast. The Sheriff of Nottingham, Hannibal Lecter and even Jeremy Iron’s portrayal of Scar in The Lion King are all British villains, but it seems we are not the rogues anymore. Gone are the days where the Brits are the ‘baddies’. […]
7th February 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Skills for millions
A guest blog from Margaret Jack, Director, British Council Ukraine Sixty Education Ministers developing policies for half a billion young people to help ensure that progress beyond the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals will improve the competitiveness of nations. This was the World Education Forum in London last month. Education Ministers on the steps of […]