21st December 2012 Ottawa, Canada
We’re into that final pre-Xmas flurry of activity, and I’m sure you’re all frantically getting ready for the holiday season. I know I am, and I’m ashamed to say that I’ve bought most of my Christmas presents online this year, which removes some of the romance of shopping, but makes life a lot easier! But […]
19th December 2012 USA
I should confess that while I am not Scottish I would quite fancy being Scottish for a while. The Scots, like the Irish, are renowned for being people who love to live life to the fullest. They produce God’s finest water (Scottish whiskys are seeing their exports to the US and most others markets rocket […]
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18th December 2012 Vancouver, Canada
There’s a Chinese proverb that says: “When the wind of change blows, some build walls while others build windmills.” It reminds me of Darwin’s theory which states that it is the best adapted of the species that survives. Every change to the context of our existence provides an opportunity to flourish or the potential to […]
7th December 2012
Many people in London, and other parts of the UK, think they know a good deal about the Mayor of the capital, Boris Johnson: judging from the number of British tourists who greeted him in hotels or on the streets of Mumbai he must also be one of our most widely recognised politicians. Less well […]
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3rd December 2012 Beirut, Lebanon
Britain and Lebanon are great traders, on the edge of our continents. The Phoenicians were masters of global trade 7000 years ago. Our moment came several millennia later, but we also built our success, in the 19th century, on the back of a readiness to pioneer, to voyage, and to do business. Diplomats cling to […]
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30th November 2012 London, UK
The Rolling Stones may not have been foremost in the minds of Ministers as they agreed to open trade talks between the EU and Japan yesterday, but if the negotiations are successful, they could be among those that benefit. The decision to open negotiations between two of the world’s largest economies was a major success […]
30th November 2012
Why does trade between countries help prosperity? Many people might say that the answer depends on your politics. But the most open trading economies in the world do tend to be comparatively wealthy. Most of those which seek to cut themselves off from the rest of the world (I won’t name them but you know […]
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26th November 2012 Athens, Greece
“Where can Greece find growth?” is perhaps the most frequently asked question here (and beyond) just now. One answer might be: on the internet. As part of Britain’s drive to establish a more comprehensive European Single Market, British Embassy Athens has been working closely with Greece’s burgeoning digital sector, the Government and the EU Commission […]
21st November 2012
Next year Britain chairs the G8, the group of the world’s most developed Western economies. So what you might ask? Some people ask: does the G8 still matter, when we have a G20, embracing also the emerging powers, including Brazil, India and China? The UK’s answer is “Yes”. The G8 is a group of like-minded […]
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16th November 2012 London, UK
It was my embarrassment and a Pakistani journalist’s passion for the English Lake District that got me there. I was dressed head to toe in waterproofs, having climbed 500m, and the rain was turning to hail and sleet. The crags in the peaks behind me were being smoothed out by the first snowfalls. In the distance England’s largest […]
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