8th November 2024
Ecolabels: A Catalyst for Sustainable Food Choices?
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
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OSLOBOĐENJE BEOGRADA
11th October 2024
Busting the gender myths – women and organised crime
21st February 2017 London, UK
0 to 50 in 3 years
Many of us have had second-hand cars that take that long to get from 0 to 50! But add a “K” to the 50 and you have a description of the British Ambassador to Turkey, Richard Moore’s Twitter journey since he arrived in Turkey in January 2014. Richard was recently proclaimed by Turkey’s biggest selling […]
21st February 2017 Vienna, Austria
Up and down the mountain: a guide to Tyrolean Dialect
My introductory video from last September noted the importance of visiting all parts of Austria; and of the dialects spoken in different regions. You can watch me attempting to learn the wonderful and challenging Tyrolean dialect in the video above. Clearly it’s easier in a snowstorm; up a mountain; in the cable-car going down; or, […]
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20th February 2017 Geneva, Switzerland
Championing Trade
Any day now, something called the Trade Facilitation Agreement will enter into force. There will be no meeting of Presidents, no gala summit. World leaders are unlikely to give speeches. And yet it will unlock economic opportunities for millions of people around the world, reduce poverty and spur economic development. It is estimated that the […]
20th February 2017 London, UK
When it comes to TV and film, Britain has got it all
Watching a gripping drama play out on a cinema screen can be transporting, taking your imagination on a journey to places new, exciting and unexplored. But what about when a film literally takes you somewhere, when you can walk onto the set? Film – and, increasingly, television – is a growing driver of tourism in […]
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16th February 2017 Montreal, Canada
From Blackberries to basketball: why we work with Canada in science
The answer likely isn’t obvious, but both were either discovered or invented by a Canadian researcher. The former relates to the 2015 Noble Prize in Physics awarded to Prof. Arthur MacDonald, whereas the latter is the game invented in 1891 by Dr. James Naismith.
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16th February 2017 Vienna, Austria
More about that Tyrolean Squirrel’s Tail
The wind is whistling at the top of the Hungerbergbahn. But my teacher is encouraging. ‘It’s bärig,’ she says. ‘Innsbruck ist bärig’ (‘Innsbruck is terrific’). I repeat; and repeat; and repeat again. I’ve written before about the variety of Austria. A country dissected by great mountains and steep valleys has developed, over centuries, a patchwork of […]
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16th February 2017 London, UK
Researching user research
(User research in project phases – courtesy of Leisa Reichelt) One of the first tasks I was given upon joining the Digital Transformation Unit within the Foreign Office was devising a strategy for user research. User research is at the heart of digitising government services. Everything we do should be designed with the user in […]
15th February 2017 Holy See
Tackling Modern Slavery together
Last week Offer Stern-Weiner, Head of the Modern Slavery Unit at the Home Office, and I journeyed out of Rome to visit a small and tranquil convent in a historic town set in the beautiful Italian countryside. The reason we were there? To meet five young Nigerian women who had been trafficked from Nigeria to […]
15th February 2017 Colombo, Sri Lanka
Staying safe in cyberspace
The UK and Sri Lanka are both island nations. This doesn’t mean much, however, when it comes to cyber security. Earlier today, I addressed a group of nearly 50 Chief Information Officers and IT Directors from across the Sri Lankan civil service. This was as part of a project the UK is funding with our […]
14th February 2017 Tokyo, Japan
First month in Japan
Well, I’ve now completed my first month in Japan. It’s been interesting comparing my experiences with the first time I was posted here more than 25 years ago. It’s hard to make direct comparisons because coming back as Ambassador after a long Foreign Office career, is different from arriving on your very first overseas posting. […]