28th March 2012
In a recent blog, I noted after a visit to Northern Ireland the importance for British ambassadors abroad of understanding the country they represent. I spent last weekend in Edinburgh, at the kind invitation of the Scottish Catholic Bishops Conference. My programme included: meetings with the Catholic Bishops of Scotland, including Cardinal Keith Patrick O’Brien; […]
8th March 2012 Warsaw, Poland
Great job guys! I’ve just got home, put my feet up and am tucking into a great salmon sandwich, a cup of Harrogate green tea and you know what, I’m going to try some of my best single malt this evening. It’s been a great day. Let me tell you why. My expert colleague in […]
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13th February 2012 Dublin, Ireland
One of the UK’s great strengths is its diversity. That includes some great cultural traditions. One of the best of those is Burns night. To celebrate this, we held an event at the Embassy. Very few of our events feature a pipe band and a sword dance, performed by the outstanding pipe band from Częstochowa. […]
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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 […]
29th November 2010
It’s 9.30 p.m. and the Sancho Panza Restaurant is packed with Scots and Ukrainians in kilts and traditional embroidered linen shirts (actually most of the men in kilts are wearing Ukrainian shirts). A Scottish/Ukrainian band equipped with bagpipes, a harmonica, fiddles and a tsymbaly play Ukrainian and Scottish dance tunes accompanied by roars of enthusiasm […]
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1st October 2010 London, UK
On Wednesday 29 September I spent the day in Edinburgh. I visited the Chamber of Commerce, the University of Edinburgh and the Scottish Parliament. Find out more by watching my video blog below. See a full video of the speech I gave at the University of Edinburgh.