29th March 2012
Ottawa, Canada
On Monday evening the High Commissioner and I attended a reception at the Canadian House of Commons to celebrate the opening of a Library exhibit commemorating 70 years since Churchill’s world-renowned “Some chicken! Some neck!” speech. Few Canadians, I know, will be confused by that reference. But for the uninitiated, this was from Winston Churchill’s […]
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28th March 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
This week the Bucharest Stock Exchange established a partnership with the largest financial market in the world – the London Stock Exchange. When the UK’s Trade and Investment Minister Lord Green met the Foreign Investors Council in Bucharest earlier this month, one of the participants, Adrian Rosca of Chemco, made the far-sighted proposal that Romania […]
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27th March 2012
Ottawa, Canada
I was at GLOBE 2012 in Vancouver, from 14-16 March. The conference looked at environmental, energy and sustainability issues. I’ve recorded a short video blog, which touches on the subjects and talks briefly about the London Olympics. Do watch it, and I hope it’s of interest. Many thanks. Andrew
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8th March 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Today I opened the new service centre of Stanleybet, one of the most established British investors in Romania and one that is now expanding its operations here. Stanleybet has chosen Romania from the eight countries in which it operates as the location for its service centre, dealing with customers in Italy, Germany and Cyprus. Why? […]
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8th March 2012
Ottawa, Canada
Today is International Women’s Day – a day that has been observed since the early 1900’s – a time that saw great expansion and turbulence in the industrialized world, and women’s inequality and oppression was starting to spark debate and active campaigning for change. The day has now become recognised globally – across developed and […]
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25th January 2012
Ottawa, Canada
January the 25th is Burns Night, an anniversary globally celebrated. It’s right and proper, therefore, to reflect for a moment on the Scottish contribution to Canada. I was given a book the other day, modestly titled: How the Scots Invented Canada, by Ken McGoogan. It points, not without evidence, to the seminal contribution made by […]
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9th January 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
As Britain’s Ambassador in Bucharest, I would like to extend an invitation to everyone in Romania to visit the United Kingdom this year. Over a hundred thousand Romanians visit the UK each year, but 2012 is going to be a special one with more reasons than ever before to make a trip to London and […]
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1st December 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
3 December is the International Day of People with Disability. I celebrated it a few days in advance with a reception at the Residence for Romania’s paralympic athletes who will be going to London next year. Romania is sending its biggest ever team to the Paralympic Games in London. Whereas in Beijing there were only […]
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24th November 2011
Bucharest, Romania
British philanthropist Graham Perolls and his superb team at Casa Sperantei have been supporting Romanian charity sector for almost two decades now. As British Ambassador Martin Harris commented recently, Casa Sperantei is a British strategic investment in humanness. Graham is sharing with us details of his latest project aimed at helping terminally-ill patients in Bucharest […]
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10th November 2011
Ottawa, Canada
11 November is Remembrance Day. Along with many of my diplomatic colleagues, I’ll be laying a wreath at the War Memorial in Ottawa, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, when the guns finally fell silent on the Western Front in 1918. This will be particularly poignant for me, as […]
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