Tag: britain

16th June 2017 Kolkata, India

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by Bruce Bucknell

Former British Deputy High Commissioner Kolkata

The end of purdah

Sometimes a name sticks. We’ve just had elections in Britain. As a general rule, British government officials should not show bias to any political party, because we serve our political leaders when they hold government office, and not in their political party role. In the period between the announcement of elections and when they are […]

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8th May 2017 Stockholm, Sweden

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by Judith Gough

British Ambassador to Sweden

Will this year’s Eurovision in Ukraine spread “a little peace”?

“Yeeeeesssss”! That was my ecstatic 1:30am tweet on seeing Ukrainian entry Jamala win Eurovision 2016. Not only was I delighted for Jamala, but also Ukraine. After 3 years of conflict and crisis, Eurovision now offered Ukraine the opportunity to show another face to a global audience of more than 200 million viewers. For many, Eurovision […]

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31st March 2017 Kolkata, India

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by Bruce Bucknell

Former British Deputy High Commissioner Kolkata

The next generation

The cross over point is arriving soon, at some point early in 2021. This is when India becomes the world’s most populous country, according to population projections produced by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, of the United Nations. As of 2015, those in the cohort aged 25-29 years in China were the last […]

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24th March 2017 Kolkata, India

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by Bruce Bucknell

Former British Deputy High Commissioner Kolkata

Tea garden

I can’t find a good explanation for why they are called gardens. However, I’ve just seen a tea plantation or estate, as we tend to call them in Britain, and can understand why they are called tea gardens in India. Last weekend, I visited a tea garden in Assam, one of the main tea production […]

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2nd December 2016 Kolkata, India

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by Bruce Bucknell

Former British Deputy High Commissioner Kolkata

White revolution

There are about 123 million cattle in India, so the Kolkata based Telegraph newspaper informed me recently. The paper was citing India’s 2012 national cow census. That’s a lot of cattle, or roughly one for every ten Indians. The equivalent number in Britain is 1.9 million. This is the size of the total dairy herd […]

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21st October 2016 Kolkata, India

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by Bruce Bucknell

Former British Deputy High Commissioner Kolkata

Another football

One of the surprises of Kolkata for me has been to discover how keen Kolkatans are on sport, and how many sports are played in and around the city. I knew that Kolkata is the home of one of the world’s great cricket grounds – Eden Gardens. As I expected, there is huge interest in […]

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9th September 2016 Kolkata, India

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by Bruce Bucknell

Former British Deputy High Commissioner Kolkata

From Belarus to … Bengal!

Last December, I flew in for the last time to Minsk, the city of my previous posting. As the aeroplane descended through the clouds, a pale whitish landscape emerged – there had been a light snow fall. Like many Britons, the sight of snow cheers me – I think it’s because we see it only […]

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25th April 2016 Stockholm, Sweden

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by Judith Gough

British Ambassador to Sweden

Chernobyl – 30 years on

“Good evening, there has been no nuclear accident anywhere in Russia today particularly not in Chernobyl. No one is feared dead in the incident, which did not happen The rescue services have not been called out because obviously, that would be stupid considering there isn’t a vast nuclear cloud drifting across Northern Europe. So, no […]

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