11th May 2026
The Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Bill: turning a global ocean agreement into UK law
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
9th April 2026
The Gulf, Berlin and the Commission on the Status of Women: building global alliances to advance women’s progress
26th February 2026
Different Memories, Shared Futures: Why Inclusive Remembrance Matters for Serbia and the Region
14th July 2017 Vienna, Austria
How to start a new job with thousands of Twitter followers
(joint blog with @stevenxhardy, Social Media Manager, FCO) Imagine you are starting a new job where you want to communicate with people using the social media tool Twitter. Your predecessor, who is about to leave, has thousands of Twitter followers, who would doubtless be interested in what you have to say after you arrive. How you […]
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13th July 2017 Beijing, China
Who are the Newton Fund Alumni?
The China Newton Fund Alumni are a diverse bunch. Professor Tida Ge is working on carbon sequestration and nutrient efficiency in crops such as rice. Professor Lei Shi is studying a medical condition affecting newborn babies. Professor Zhixun Xie has just been awarded a research and development grant to support his work on infectious disease […]
13th July 2017
Smog Chasing – the UK and China team up on air pollution
On a scrubby patch of land in Beijing’s north-west, over which the capital’s original Mongol citadel’s walls would have once cast an imposing shadow, nine pristine white shipping containers surround a slender meteorological gantry. Erected by the Chinese government in 1979, supposedly after President Richard Nixon noted the Chinese capital’s appalling levels of air pollution, […]
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5th July 2017 Skopje, North Macedonia
Do we have eyes for equality?
In a society where stereotypes and prejudices are much present, one of the main challenges is to work on social cohesion of the vulnerable groups. Often it is a challenge itself to explain to people what is social cohesion, and what is diversity? Social cohesion is when we look at what all of us can […]
5th July 2017 Vienna, Austria
Football unites: Austria, the UK and “FCO FC”
I was delighted last week to attend the match between the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Football Club (“FCO FC”) against the Austrian Foreign Ministry Team (“FC Außenamt”). FCO FC have been touring for years. I hosted them when I was Ambassador in Kiev in 2011 in the beautiful setting of the Dynamo Kyiv stadium when […]
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4th July 2017
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Postcard from Ukraine
I recently travelled to Ukraine with 26 other OSCE ambassadors, visiting Kyiv, Kharkiv, Kramatorsk and Slovyansk. This was an important visit for us. In our diplomatic meetings we devote a lot of time to Ukraine and management of the conflict in the Donbas that has already cost over 10,000 lives and disrupted millions more. We […]
4th July 2017 Tripoli, Libya
Tolerance and Coexistence
Last week I had the opportunity to visit Kairouan, a Tunisian city that has been a centre of scholarship and Islamic science for hundreds of years. With some of the scholars, we talked about tolerance and co-existence, values that the city and its university have been promoting for generations. The city was founded in 670 […]
4th July 2017 Hanoi, Vietnam
The smarter the journalists are, the better off society is
Those of you who follow our UKinVietnam Facebook page closely will know that the UK believes strongly in the value of a vibrant and dynamic media. The media plays a vital role in providing reliable and accurate information, and giving people the opportunity to discuss and debate issues freely. That is why I’m proud of […]
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3rd July 2017 Geneva, Switzerland
The End of a Cycle
The Council came to a hot and weary end last Friday with some good results on the issues that mattered. Most importantly the EU and the African Group reached agreement on an investigation into reports of serious violations in the DRC. The Council also passed strong resolutions on violence against women, discrimination against women, child […]
3rd July 2017 Kolkata, India
Almost a year, almost 70 years
We now have the ability to surround ourselves with images that we record on our mobile phones. But the best images remain in your head. The monsoon rains have arrived in Kolkata. I was in my official car travelling through the city in the middle of a heavy storm last week. We passed an old […]