17th September 2012 New Delhi, India
The Science and Innovation Network in India travelled all over the country last week for the first part of the EU Science and Technology awareness campaign. We started with a busy day last Monday (10th September). Tom Wells, Deputy Head of the team, was presenting in Chennai. He was joined by Vimal Subramanian and Sam Kumar of the […]
11th September 2012 Cape Town, South Africa
It’s been a dreary old winter in Cape Town – lots of rain and wind. It’s probably not what the Speaker of the House of Commons, Rt Hon John Bercow was expecting on his recent visit to the South African Parliament (which, incidentally, for historical reasons is based here, rather than the country’s capital city, […]
7th September 2012 Beirut, Lebanon
Lebanon tends to be high on our August watchlist. This year there was no major single crisis, but five developments raised anxiety. Israel accused Hizballah of involvement in the Bourgas terrorist attack. A pro-Assad former Minister was arrested. Kidnappings returned in a dangerous 48 hours. Some Gulf countries told their nationals to leave. The Tripoli […]
10th July 2012 Cape Town, South Africa
I last blogged from Windhoek, Namibia, where I was covering for our High Commissioner Marianne Young. I’m now back on my more usual perch as Deputy Consul General, Cape Town. I thought I’d update you on what we’ve been doing in Cape Town recently to promote the UK and the GREAT campaign. (It’s no secret […]
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19th May 2012 Washington DC, USA
The road from the previous NATO Summit in Lisbon to Chicago has had some bumps, but what the NATO/ISAF Alliance will focus on this weekend is the degree to which we have stuck the course and remained committed to Afghanistan’s future. At Lisbon, NATO and ISAF allies agreed that we would remain in a combat […]
4th May 2012
I’m back in the UK for the annual Leadership Conference that brings together all our ambassadors from around the world, to be updated on the policy and corporate management priorities which will focus our work over the coming year. The strongest message was the importance of the Prosperity agenda, the work that our overseas FCO and UKTI […]
7th March 2012 Washington DC, USA
My mother’s mother was born early in the 20th century in a small Welsh mining village. She was the third of 11 children and she left school – illegally – at 12 to work in a factory. This was not uncommon – indeed only her very youngest sister finished school. Married at 17, to avoid […]
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22nd December 2011 London, UK
Nick Latta Former Deputy Head of Mission and Consul General, British Embassy Tripoli Last Christmas Eve, my mother came to visit us in Tripoli, via Tunisia, bearing the strange story of a man there who had set himself alight in protest at police intimidation and his own poverty. Little did we imagine how that sad […]
15th December 2011 USA
For those of us actively working toward successful international negotiations on climate change, the most recent meeting in Durban, South Africa seems like cause for optimism this holiday season. The UN climate talks wrapped up last weekend with over 120 countries (including major economies such as the United States) forming a coalition behind the EU’s […]
15th September 2011
Today is International Day of Democracy. In the UK we believe that democracy rests on respect for every individual in society, regardless of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation or other status. In fact this forms an indivisible part of our foreign policy. Through the work of the FCO we support not only electoral processes but […]