9th October 2012 Toronto, Canada
Back in July, we announced our first ever Collaboration Development Award(CDA) programme. The CDAs are small mobility grants for researchers to travel between Canada and the UK and set out plans for longer-term collaborations in areas of strategic importance to SIN. The quality of applications was very high, with many proposals strong enough to qualify […]
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6th September 2012
Back in London again for the Paralympics, Australian Sports Minister Senator Kate Lundy this week fulfilled her side of the gold medals wager with her UK counterpart Hugh Robertson. When Hugh was here in March, Kate had promised to row the Olympic Rowing course at Eton Dorney if Britain got more gold medals than Australia. […]
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23rd August 2012
At 135 million years, the Daintree Rainforest is the oldest rainforest on earth. The Yalanji people have lived there for around 40,000 years. I was invited to visit the new indigenous eco-tourism development at Mossman Gorge, just north of Cairns, a week after it opened. Our local guide, Harold, was a mine of information as […]
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9th August 2012
Globalisation, advances in communications, the “shrinking of distance” do not mean the End of Geography, any more than the collapse of communism presaged the End of History, as Francis Fukuyama claimed. That was the thesis of a talk on “Geography and Diplomacy” I gave to the Royal Geographical Society of Queensland this week. The state’s […]
30th July 2012 Dublin, Ireland
Olympics opening day began early! I was at Polish Radio at 0700, fortified only by a double espresso. The toughest question by far: “Can you explain the rules of cricket?” I noted that it was the only game which could last two hours or five days and included a tea interval. But I am already […]
30th July 2012
Waiting to do a radio interview, I heard an ABC reporter in the slot before me say, “When you’re here in London with all the history and all the international connections, it really feels like it’s the centre of the world.” And, at least for the next few weeks, so it is. July 27 began […]
27th June 2012
Over the last few weeks I’ve attended Olympic send-off ceremonies in all the major states, culminating with the national event – the Prime Minister’s Olympic Dinner– in Melbourne on 23 June. They have been a fantastic showcase for the UK, as well as a demonstration of the Olympic enthusiasm in this sports mad country. The […]
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22nd June 2012
I had the opportunity recently to call separately on the Chief Ministers of two Western Indian States, Maharashtra and Goa. In most respects these states could not be more different but they are both important, in a variety of ways, to the UK. The Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Prithviraj Chavan, underlined one difference to the […]
21st June 2012
A group of senior MPs are currently visiting, to explore Australian thinking on Defence: Jim Murphy (Labour, Shadow Defence Secretary), Claire Perry (Conservative, PPS to the Defence Secretary) and Sir Bob Russell (Lib Dem, Member of the Defence Select committee). In Canberra they met the Australian Defence Minister and Opposition spokesman, as well as a range […]
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12th June 2012
Speaking at the opening of the 35th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ACTM) in Hobart, Tasmania, former PM Bob Hawke was passionate as he described his role in helping secure the 1989 Madrid Protocol on Environmental Protection. The meeting brings together 49 signatory nations, of which 28 are “consultative parties” which, like Britain, carry out research […]