25th September 2012 London, UK
Brand new bed linen from one of the department stores for which London’s Oxford Street is famous. Unwrapping the layers of packaging I noticed the label: made in Pakistan. I wondered if it had come from the factory whose owner I had met in Lahore, where we discussed everything from electricity shortages, to labour law […]
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24th August 2012 Calgary, Canada
My family and I have just celebrated two months in Alberta. Arriving just prior to Stampede was thrilling. Being the first British Consul General resident in Calgary is a huge honour. Identifying a clone to pack everything in (we cover Saskatchewan and Manitoba too) is an increasing priority. To me, Alberta is a Province of […]
27th July 2012 Washington DC, USA
As the UK Government’s Chief Economist in the US, one of the things people ask me about most frequently is the Olympics. This line of discussion comes from all kinds of angles – which restaurants should people visit, what will the weather be like? But one of the most tantalising questions has to be from […]
27th July 2012
Trade and development. In the UK, it’s a single subject. Just take two examples. First, the UK’s trade policy unit is staffed by officials from both the Department of Business and the Department for International Development. Second, whilst two-thirds of the UK’s Trade and Investment White Paper is about boosting UK exports and attracting more […]
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17th July 2012 Washington DC, USA
The Boston area is home to many of the most famous sites of America’s break from Britain – the Old State House, where the royal governors sat; the Old North Church that launched Paul Revere’s famous ride; the harbour where the first tea party took place; and battlefields like Bunker Hill, Lexington and Concord where […]
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9th July 2012
It is estimated that 750,000 people are killed each year in armed violence. Millions more lives are blighted through injury, displacement and destroyed livelihoods. Much effort in multilateral negotiation goes in to the control and regulation of weapons of mass destruction. But, in fact, it is the so-called small and conventional arms that are the […]
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5th July 2012
The following is a guest post by Thomas Whitehead, Trade Policy Advisor at the British Embassy in Washington covering information communications technology and intellectual property policy. As innovation, talent, creativity, and knowledge become ever bigger drivers of the US and the UK economies, intellectual property (IP) is increasingly important as a means for delivering prosperity and growth. […]
Read more on Patently Superb – Major EU Intellectual Property Development Contributes to UK Growth | Reply (1)
26th June 2012 Athens, Greece
First week of June 2012 and the international shipping community turned its attention to Greece for Posidonia, the largest international gathering in the shipping calendar. It is a high profile bi-annual shipping exhibition/conference with exhibitors from over 85 countries and about 18,000 visitors. This can be easily understood, as Posidonia is a reflection of the […]
Read more on British presence at Posidonia 2012 – Reaffirming close links in shipping | Reply
15th June 2012 London, UK
The UK and the Netherlands have always been close, not least since the Revolution of 1688 when William III, Prince of Orange, and his wife Mary were invited to ascend the English throne as King William III and Queen Mary. The links continue to this day – with the Netherlands being one of the UK’s […]
Read more on Anglo-Dutch Cooperation: Past, Present and Future | Reply
30th May 2012
Why buying a second-hand jag puts you in good, competitive company… In the business pages of this Sunday’s Washington Post, Michael Lennox asked whether an aspiring global competitor from a developing economy could use the acquisition of an established Western business to grow its earnings and diversify. Michael’s case in point was Tata’s acquisition in 2008 of […]