15th August 2012
Washington DC, USA
You know you’re British when the first conversation starts, and continues, with the weather. I descended upon the Falkland Islands in the early afternoon to glorious sunshine and a cool breeze – exactly what I needed after a long flight full of recycled air. As soon as my ride picked me up from Mount Pleasant […]
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14th August 2012
Washington DC, USA
On Sunday evening, as the London 2012 Olympics were coming to a close in his native UK, golfer Rory McIlroy was on Kiawah Island, South Carolina, winning his second career major tournament at the Professional Golf Association (PGA) Championship held there over the weekend. McIlroy’s unofficial “Gold” takes the form of a silver trophy, adding […]
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9th August 2012
Washington DC, USA
As a Londoner, I have to admit that sometimes Londoners can be cynical. As we left for the US last November, we left our friends muttering about anticipated congestion and transport angst and plans to let out their houses to Olympic-crazed tourists and spend the month in Florida. However, from the moment the fabulous opening […]
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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 […]
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27th July 2012
Washington DC, USA
With the spectacular opening ceremony happening in London tonight, I wonder how many people attending the London 2012 Olympics this year will have been there in 1948, the last time London held the Olympics? My father was one of those who attended the 1948 London Olympics at the old Wembley Stadium, a 12 year old […]
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27th July 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
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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26th July 2012
Washington DC, USA
I don’t think I’m the only one who thinks of the movie Top Gun when they hear about “fighter jets.” So when we learned that the UK Defence Secretary Philip Hammond was coming to the United States to officially accept the UK’s first of the next-generation stealth combat aircraft, I had a hard time not […]
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26th July 2012
Washington DC, USA
As an avid consumer of comic books while growing up in the UK, I have known for some time that, while Britain is blessed with many great things, an abundance of superheroes is not among them. Even a casual reader of DC and Marvel legends would agree that the UK gene pool for super-charged crime […]
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24th July 2012
Washington DC, USA
Cycling has always been one of the sports that Great Britain has hung its hat on. At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, 14 of our 47 medals came on two wheels. The legendary Chris Hoy won three gold medals, making him the first British Olympian to win three gold medals in a single Games […]
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24th July 2012
Washington DC, USA
Many children dream of being an astronaut – but it wasn’t til I had qualified as a lawyer and worked for some years as a civil servant that the realisation hit me. It happened during my honeymoon, at New York’s Natural History Museum monthly SciCafe. Astrophysicist and Hayden Planetarium Director Neil deGrasse Tyson delivered an […]
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