Tag: Paul Johnston

4th September 2014

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by Paul Johnston

Ambassador to Ireland

IT Startup communities in Stockholm and London: Never Mind the Gap

Last November I was in London with the Crown Princess and Prince Daniel. They visited Cambridge University, an inner-city London school, the Google Campus and Tech City in East London. It was the latter visits which inspired my Swedish counterpart in London and me to think about a follow-up event focusing on how the flourishing […]

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3rd September 2014

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by Paul Johnston

Ambassador to Ireland

NATO’s Summit in Wales: ‘Building Stability in an Unpredictable World’

On Thursday 4 and Friday 5 September the UK will host the NATO Summit in Newport, Wales. It will be the largest gathering of international leaders ever to take place in Britain. It will also be the first UK-hosted NATO Summit since the London meeting in 1990, which marked the end of the Cold War. […]

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9th May 2014

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by Paul Johnston

Ambassador to Ireland

Two Elections, One Day, One Europe

Britain and Sweden see eye to eye on the implications of the Ukraine crisis. Here’s a translation of the article I wrote for Swedish national newspaper Dagens Industri today. In less than three weeks’ time, the people of Ukraine go to the polls in Presidential elections that will determine the future direction of their country. According […]

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1st October 2013

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by Paul Johnston

Ambassador to Ireland

Climate change: an economic opportunity

Just over a year ago on a warm August afternoon, I paid a call on the Environment Minister, Lena Ek.  She had an idea she wanted to share with the UK about the campaign for action on climate change. Twelve months on, that idea has been launched as a major international effort in New York, […]

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27th September 2013

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by Paul Johnston

Ambassador to Ireland

Aiming for longer term growth: the UK’s Industrial Strategy

When our Business Minister, Vince Cable, was here this week, he talked a lot about the UK’s Industrial Strategy. As he noted, to some ears this sounds rather old-fashioned. In fact it’s the opposite, it’s an attempt to create long term plans to tackle some of the sources of recent economic weakness and instability in […]

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19th September 2013

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by Paul Johnston

Ambassador to Ireland

The Languages of Diplomacy

When I learned Swedish before coming out to Stockholm I did so at a language centre in the city of London. This week the Foreign Office has reopened its own language centre, part of our “Diplomatic Excellence” campaign, to improve  the skills of our people, the quality of our policy-making and the relevance of our […]

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16th July 2013

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by Paul Johnston

Ambassador to Ireland

Innovation

The 2013 Global Innovation Index lists Sweden and the UK as two of the world’s top three countries for performance in innovation, based on a survey of 84 different measures in 142 countries. The British Olympics team had the motto “better never stops”. Similarly with innovation, I think: it’s when you’re at or near the […]

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4th July 2013

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by Paul Johnston

Ambassador to Ireland

INVESTING IN A LOW-CARBON ENERGY FUTURE

It was a delight, as always to be in Visby this week for Almedalen. I spoke at a seminar on the “Swedish super-model” and attended several interesting discussions on Europe, defence policy, Swedish politics and economics. Energy policy and climate change were also themes, as they are for the UK government. Like all EU partners, […]

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23rd May 2013

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by Paul Johnston

Ambassador to Ireland

Relections of a Twitter virgin…

I confess to having been reluctant to embrace Twitter. But I confess myself a bit of a convert. The great TV critic Clive James once said about “Dallas”, “I came to mock but I stayed to pray”. I wouldn’t go that far, but I have found my first two weeks on Twitter (@hmapauljohnston) both fun and […]

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