23rd December 2013 New Delhi, India
The festive season has begun on a brilliant note with Dr Venki Ramakrishnan and Sir Paul Nurse, both UK based Nobel Laureates visiting Delhi last week. Dr Ramakrishnan delivered his public lecture on ‘Antibiotics and the Cell’s Protein Factory’ on Monday in AIIMS had a spell bound audience. The account of his lab’s work on […]
19th December 2013 Washington DC, USA
In my lifetime, the rise of digital communications has changed nearly every aspect of our daily activities. And in foreign policy, the world is changing as a result of digital’s ability to give a voice to so many. We have seen social media play a huge role in regime change in the Arab world, we have […]
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16th December 2013 Washington DC, USA
In November, I was able to spend some time with Professor David Cope of Cambridge University – the former Director of the UK’s Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) – while he was at the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) in Washington. In his time at GAO, David has been working with the Chief […]
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16th December 2013 Washington DC, USA
Washington truly epitomises the holiday spirit. It’s my first holiday season here, and I’m seeing firsthand the spirit of giving across the city. Bell-ringers collecting for the homeless. Toy drives in offices all across town, including our own. Washingtonians’ generosity is making an impact from local neighbourhoods to the far side of the globe. This […]
10th December 2013
One of the great pleasures of being Ambassador in Stockholm is the opportunity to host a lunch for our Nobel laureates. Yesterday Professors Peter Higgs and Michael Levitt, with their friends, family and colleagues came to the Residence. It was a chance to celebrate their discoveries. I noted what another British academic had given as […]
10th December 2013 Mogadishu, Somalia
Today marks International Human Rights Day. The UN General Assembly proclaimed 10 December as Human Rights Day in 1950, to bring attention to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations. This is something we continue to wholeheartedly endorse, and strive to achieve. Today is […]
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4th December 2013 USA
Tomorrow, the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer will deliver the UK government’s Autumn Statement. We’re often asked what the Autumn Statement is and how it differs to the Budget? The Budget (usually held in the early Spring) comes at the start of the UK’s fiscal year, which runs from April to March. Budgets set the […]
3rd December 2013
“And, most of all, the thing I liked about my time in England was shepherd’s pie!” She beamed at me as we stood in the middle of the crowded hall in Almaty three weeks ago, surrounded by scurrying students clutching clipboards and asking probing questions of the 40 or so UK universities and colleges who […]
29th November 2013 Ottawa, Canada
Last week we had the pleasure of welcoming Dr. Andrée Carter, Director of the UK Collaboration for Development Science (UKCDS) to Canada. She came at our invitation, to participate in a panel entitled: The world in 2020: Three questions for internationalised science, at the Canadian Science Policy Conference (CSPC), held in Toronto. She preceded her visit with a short […]
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29th November 2013 Beirut, Lebanon
French diplomat Jules Cambon saw the dangers of diplomatic openness in 1931, complaining that ‘the activities of the press, and ignorance of a public that insists on being told everything, do not create an atmosphere favourable to prosecution of political designs’. He was right, long before Assange and Snowden, that the media would sweep away […]
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