20th January 2021 Geneva, Switzerland
I feel a bit sheepish about not doing a blog at the end of the last session. By the time we’d finished in October it really felt like the less said about the non-stop misery fest that was 2020 the better. I’ll put the fact that not a single person mentioned it down to collective […]
12th September 2018 Vienna, Austria
A young couple descend from a train at Völs station and take a post bus up the valley. Their destination is the village of Gries im Sellrain in Tyrol, where they will spend a romantic honeymoon. The couple are my parents, and the year is 1951. After my father died in 2013, my mother moved […]
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13th July 2018 Vienna, Austria
Update: for the UK Government’s guidance on Living in Austria as a UK national, see Living in Austria. Please sign up for email updates on that page to get the latest information as and when anything changes. A team from the Department for Exiting the EU visited Vienna recently to talk to UK ex-pats and […]
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28th June 2018 Vienna, Austria
A medium-sized1 EU country takes on the Presidency of the Council of the European Union during a busy period in Europe. In addition to Brexit, migration and asylum policy are at the forefront, along with tense long-term EU budget negotiations. Although people in this country are famously modest, everyone knows that they have run two […]
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5th June 2018 Vienna, Austria
The car is bright red – and silent. It is, perhaps, the best electric car in the world. I recently had the privilege to attend the launch of the new Jaguar i-Pace in Graz, a couple of hours south of Vienna. Graz is one of my favourite Austrian cities, with a huge student population, a […]
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28th March 2018 Vienna, Austria
As a British diplomat in Austria (I am Second Secretary for Economic and EU issues), I have found one of the most surprising things about Austrian politics is how people feel about trade. Austria’s export ratio (i.e. goods exports as a ratio of GDP) is high – 52%, compared to the High Income Country average […]
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23rd March 2018 Vienna, Austria
What are the greatest treasures in Vienna? What can you see? And what is lost? I was privileged recently to attend a press conference at the Jewish Museum in Vienna at which Victor de Waal and museum Director Danielle Spera announced important news which connects the UK to Austria. The de Waal and Ephrussi families […]
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1st February 2018 Vienna, Austria
Where did the clock come from? How old is it? I would like to know. My Vienna wall-clock, bought broken at the Naschmarkt flea market in Vienna in 1985, was the inspiration for my #ViennaMemories blogs. I treasure it because: It is old. I do not know its date, but surmise the 1950s. I would […]
12th January 2018 Vienna, Austria
I recently attended the annual diplomatic reception for ambassadors given by Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen. Result: a minor social media storm. Why? And why was this a good thing? The President’s annual diplomatic reception has taken place for years; someone recently sent me a picture of Kaiser Franz Josef meeting the diplomatic corps […]
4th December 2017 Vienna, Austria
During my first posting to Vienna 1984-87, as now, I used to admire the number of fascinating exhibitions in the city. Occasionally, I would be so impressed that I bought a souvenir. One such souvenir was this poster advertising an exhibition of the works of the famous Austrian photographer Ernst Haas, from October 1986. He […]
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