15th February 2013 Washington DC, USA
Last year I bemoaned the lack of romance bought by spending Valentine’s Day evening with the otherwise charming British Government’s Chief Scientist, Sir John Beddington. (Of course in reality I secretly enjoyed it. Though that’s not something I admit to Layla.) But this year, Layla and I agreed we would determinedly avoid any event connected […]
15th February 2013
As Carl Bildt underlined in the Riksdag, the US is Europe’s main international partner, on the security and prosperity agendas. So the UK government welcomes, as Sweden does, President Obama’s call in his State of the Union Speech last night for what he called “a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership” with the EU. Britain has […]
8th February 2013
50 years ago, everyone in Rome was talking about “aggiornamento”. There is no English word that translates it perfectly, but in prosaic terms it means “bring up to date”, as well as “revision” or “renovation”. The word was used by Pope John XXIII to describe and set out the task of the Second Vatican Council. […]
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25th January 2013
As you will have seen, the British Prime Minister made an important speech on the future of the EU in London on 23 January. The PM’s speech reiterates his commitment to keeping the UK in the EU, at the heart of the Single Market, but also leading EU action on energy, climate change, development, foreign […]
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24th January 2013 Dublin, Ireland
You will of course be aware that David Cameron, our Prime Minister, delivered a major speech on Europe in London on 23 January. It has received a lot of coverage in the Polish media and Foreign Minister Sikorski commented on it on 24 January. The speech is a very clear commitment to keeping the UK […]
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21st January 2013
A guest blog by Peter Spoor, Head Press and Projects Team at the British Embassy in Ankara, Turkey My first impression on exiting the airport departure lounge is intense cold. I’m in Erzurum, where winter temperatures can drop below minus 25 degrees. I’m in town with colleagues from the Turkish EU Ministry to make the […]
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8th January 2013
First and foremost, happy New Year. I hope 2013 is a great year for all of you. Late 2012 marked the mid-point of the UK Coalition government’s five year term and this week the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister published the Government’s own mid-term review. Given the interest in Sweden on the UK’s approach […]
18th December 2012 New Delhi, India
Keeping in line with the many ‘highlights of the year’ lists that are released during December we thought we would do a ‘best bits of 2012’ blog. It has been a busy year with a huge number of visits facilitated, workshops run, events attended and collaborations formed. My highlight has been getting the opportunity to […]
13th December 2012 Tashkent, Uzbekistan
On Monday evening I attended a concert at the Tashkent Conservatoire by the Conservatoire Students’ Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. It was an excellent concert, with a series of show-pieces to show off the students’ skills. I always enjoy hearing young orchestras and choirs performing at this sort of level. They tend to have a special […]
10th December 2012
Britain joined the EU (or the EEC as it then was) on 1 January 1973. To say the least the EU (and the UK) has changed a lot since then. For most of that period there’s been a lively debate on what the impact of EU membership is on the UK. Our government is clear […]
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