12th October 2022 Geneva, Switzerland
I’ve always had a fond attachment to the number 51. It was my house number growing up in Manchester, as little Robert. My first memory there was my parents bringing my newly-born baby sister home from the hospital. And my mum was born in the year ’51 (as well as some more famous but less […]
8th April 2022 Geneva, Switzerland
On 8 April 2002, I started working at the UK Mission to the UN. I’d had no diplomatic experience. At all. And I’d never been to a UN meeting. I’d only ever been to Geneva once – for my interview, which I started off by spilling water all over the table (I’ve always had a […]
8th March 2017 London, UK
I am always dubious about so-called silver bullets that allegedly solve a host of problems. “Life can’t be that simple,” I think. “Surely there must be a catch?” But there is one step that would improve countless lives — and make the world an infinitely better place — if only every government summoned the will […]
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3rd September 2014
On Thursday 4 and Friday 5 September the UK will host the NATO Summit in Newport, Wales. It will be the largest gathering of international leaders ever to take place in Britain. It will also be the first UK-hosted NATO Summit since the London meeting in 1990, which marked the end of the Cold War. […]
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28th June 2013 USA
I’m about to leave Chicago after three fascinating and rewarding years as Consul General promoting the UK across 13 states of the US Midwest – an area bigger than western Europe and with an economy the size of Germany’s. People in Chicago often ask what a Consul General does. So here are five lasting impressions […]
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12th May 2013 Harare, Zimbabwe
I’m back from Helmand for a couple of weeks for some R&R, to attend the FCO leadership conference, and to do a ground-truthing session at NATO in Brussels. As always, I’m spending plenty of time persuading friends, colleagues, and anyone who will listen, that: no, it isn’t all going fall to pieces after 2014. Progress […]
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27th March 2013 Dublin, Ireland
It has been a busy time for both me and the wider Embassy team. A recent Tuesday found me trying not to confuse the financing of energy investment in Poland with a trilateral Afghan, Polish, British roundtable on progress and next steps in Afghanistan. Both are really important. Poland and the UK both need to […]
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22nd March 2013 Washington DC, USA
A British soldier who died in southern Afghanistan last year as he protected his platoon from a grenade blast is to be awarded the Victoria Cross. The UK’s top gallantry medal will go to Lance Corporal James Ashworth, 23, of Corby, Northamptonshire, who was serving with 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards. The Victoria Cross is the […]
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20th December 2012 Washington DC, USA
Yesterday, the UK Prime Minister announced to Parliament plans for a reduction in UK military forces in Afghanistan in 2013. The decision to “draw-down” our forces from 9,000 to around 5,200 reflects the significant progress in transitioning security responsibility to the Afghan government. This is a positive outcome and testament to the effort put in […]
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7th November 2012 Washington DC, USA
Sunday marks the ninety-fourth anniversary of the Armistice which ended the First World War. The guns on the Western Front finally fell silent at eleven o’clock on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918 after four years of fighting which had claimed the lives of sixteen million and maimed a further twenty million. […]