30th July 2014
Mumbai, India
In 1928 the world celebrated the invention of penicillin by the British scientist Alexander Fleming and rightly so, as it brought about a revolution in the field of medicine and enabled treating life-threatening diseases like pneumococcal pneumonia, meningitis, etc. Unfortunately today, with growing strains of bacteria that have developed resistance to antibiotics, the world once […]
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25th June 2014
Ottawa, Canada
Dementia is a top priority for the UK and Canada. Today, more than 40 million people worldwide are living with dementia and, with ageing populations this number is set to double every 20 years. The economic costs of this are astonishing, with US$604 B spent in 2010 alone (of which approximately 70 per cent was […]
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20th March 2014
Toronto, Canada
SIN Canada, in partnership with UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) and Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences, will be running an exciting hackathon-type event on dementia in the summer/autumn of 2014. The UK is strongly committed to improving care for people with dementia, launching the National Dementia Strategy in 2009 and the Prime Minister’s […]
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28th November 2013
Ottawa, Canada
I was at the beautiful Cumberland Lodge near Windsor, UK, last week for the 2013 Canada-UK Colloquium. The Colloquium is an annual event, taking place alternately in each country, bringing together British and Canadian parliamentarians, public officials, academics…
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19th November 2013
Paris, France
As part of Britain’s chairmanship of the G8 group of countries, we thought it would be interesting here in France to ask young, secondary school pupils what they thought were the really big issues facing our world.
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6th November 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Today, I participated in the 2013 Africa Clearing House (ACH) meeting at the Headquarters of the African Union (AU) here in Addis. The UK co-hosted the event with the AU as part of our G8 Presidency. The ACH began in 2004 and aims to “provide a multi-lateral forum to exchange information on security assistance and […]
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2nd October 2013
Washington DC, USA
Earlier this month I had the opportunity to travel to NATO headquarters in Brussels to attend a course put together by my colleagues in the UK Joint Delegation to NATO. The course is designed to give staff a thorough introduction to NATO and an understanding of its place at the centre of the UK’s defence […]
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28th September 2013
Ottawa, Canada
September 2013 marks the second World Alzheimer’s Month, reflecting the growing urgency and concern over the health, social and economic burden of the disease. Alzheimer’s disease is a common form of dementia. Today, it is estimated that over 35 million people worldwide currently live with the condition, and this number is expected to double by […]
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22nd July 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
My Embassy hosted a panel discussion under the theme ‘G8: Tax, Trade, Transparency – What does it mean for Africa?’ last week. The Department for International Development’s Chief Economist Stefan Dercon was among the panellists and shared his views on the so-called “3T’s”, which have proved relevant not only to G8 countries but worldwide. Prominent […]
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5th July 2013
Athens, Greece
At Lough Erne in Northern Ireland recently, leaders of the G8 discussed some of the fundamental questions facing our societies and economies. They came up with a short list of practical steps to take. Those steps are set out in a remarkably short and punchy declaration, which you can find here. Representing half of the […]
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