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31st January 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
My first 5 months – a look ahead
I have been in Romania for five months. 2010 was a difficult period for the Romanian economy, and for the British economy. But I am optimistic about 2011. Bilateral trade is rapidly increasing and last year showed the highest levels since Romania joined the EU, with an increase by more than 30%. I have seen […]
31st January 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Multiple Burns
Tonight I’m at the “Big” Burns Supper in central Budapest. The first such large-scale celebration of Robert Burns took place here in 1997 and since 2005 they have been run by the Robert Burns International Foundation – the British Ambassador is one of the patrons of the RBIF. This evening is one of the largest […]
28th January 2011 New York, USA
“I’m a legal alien…”
Sting’s song about Quentin Crisp celebrated one British ex-patriate who made a home here. Last week, we honoured another. In June 2010, Her Majesty The Queen honoured former Mountbatten Director Michael Billett with the award of an OBE. Michael has been working with the Mountbatten Programme for 15 years. Mountbatten provides young British, Indian and […]
27th January 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
London 2012
It may seem only yesterday that the Beijing Olympic and Paraolympic Games ended, but we are now less than two years away from London 2012. The euphoria that followed the award of the Games to London was rapidly converted into the hard work of preparation, construction and planning, and the results can already be seen. […]
27th January 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Relations between Bolivia and Britain
In my New Year blog I set out the wide range of areas in which this Embassy is active in promoting good relations between our two countries. The recent visit of Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca to London provided an opportunity to further strengthen that relationship. The principal themes of the meetings in London were two […]
27th January 2011 Ottawa, Canada
November Field Trip to Newfoundland
Welcome blog readers to our first billingual guest blog posting! In this posting, Nicolina, our Science Officer in Montreal discusses her trip to Newfoudland, looking into renewable energy. This blog was written by our guest blogger in french, and translated to english for the complete Canadian billingualism experience (french and english being Canada’s two official […]
27th January 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
‘Let’s show booming India that we know our onions!’ Boris Johnson
Two senior figures in British politics were in Mumbai in January – Vince Cable and Boris Johnson. Boris Johnson and Peter Beckingham Two senior figures in British politics were in Mumbai in January – Vince Cable, Cabinet Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills, and Boris Johnson, The Mayor of London. They don’t […]
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26th January 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Scottish soft power
252 years after the birth of Robert Burns – voted in a 2009 poll the greatest Scot of all time – I attend two very different events on a snowy Kyiv evening to mark Burns night. At the Gergel School in Pechersk, dozens of children of all ages in tartan-themed best clothes are celebrating in […]
25th January 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Scottish Romantic celebrated in Romania
Today, 25 January, Scots around the world mark the birthday of Scotland’s greatest poet, Robert Burns. And not just Scots. Robert Burns is a poet with universal appeal. Like Romania’s national poet Mihai Eminescu, Burns was a Romantic whose poems describe experiences that we all share, and which have been translated into many different languages. […]
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24th January 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Is Ukraine free?
Which is the country which is most free in the CIS? Can we say confidently that it is Ukraine? Or how about a new pretender to that crown – Moldova? There are many ways to measure freedom, some more objective than others. As I noted in a recent blog on human rights, one can often […]