23rd January 2014 Havana, Cuba
Next week the CELAC Summit will be held in Havana and the Cuban government will be in charge of finalising the language in the Summit declarations. Inevitably there will be one on the Falkland Islands and I suspect it will ignore the referendum held on the Islands last year when 99.8% voted in favour of […]
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6th January 2014 Havana, Cuba
A new year brings the opportunity to reflect on the past twelve months and look forward to the future. It’s a time to make resolutions and plan for the coming year. Here are my seven wishes for Cuba in 2014. 1. More measures are introduced that unleash creativity, innovation and entrepreneurism. Cubans are great people, amongst […]
3rd January 2014 Havana, Cuba
I was delighted to discover last week that Granma, one of the two daily newspapers in Cuba, has come round to the idea that public opinion surveys are a good basis for a news story. They definitely are and they are also useful for public policy makers – we’ve been using them in the UK […]
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30th December 2013 Havana, Cuba
In July 2011 in a ‘Declaration on Bilateral Co-operation’ the British and Cuban governments agreed that human rights are a ‘priority for co-operation’. Both countries have recently been elected by the UN General Assembly to the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) for a three year term beginning on 1 January 2014. The HRC is the […]
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16th December 2013 Havana, Cuba
Me sentí muy honrado al ser invitado en representación de Europa, a intervenir en el homenaje del gobierno cubano a Nelson Mandela que tuvo lugar el 11 de diciembre. A continuación les adjunto la versión completa de mi discurso. En febrero de 1990 después de veinte y siete largos años de cárcel, Nelson Mandela fue […]
16th December 2013 Havana, Cuba
I’m very grateful to Aimée Gonzalez for this excellent guest blog. Aimée is Cuban and currently studying at the London School of Economics (the LSE) in the UK under the Chevening scholarship scheme. Two months have already passed by… and I’m still dazzled and struggling to keep pace with the vigorous current of London’s life. Instead […]
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14th December 2013 Havana, Cuba
The Sauto Theatre in Matanzas is apparently one of only three theatres in the world which can be transformed into a dancehall with the turn of a crank. Normally the audience sits below the stage but when the chairs are removed and the floor is raised, the stage and auditorium become one large space for dancing salsa or the danzón. Unfortunately not many visitors can see […]
2nd December 2013 Havana, Cuba
As I travel around Cuba talking to people about the United Kingdom, I am constantly surprised by how little many Cubans really know about my country. This blog is an attempt to put that right. Here are nine things you probably don’t know about the UK: 1. There is free education in the UK. The large […]
12th November 2013 Havana, Cuba
This week’s blog is a guest blog written by my colleague Rhys Patrick, Second Secretary, Political and Public Affairs. Organised crime and terrorism are two of the world’s biggest security challenges. They can affect anyone at anytime, from people forced into human trafficking to those caught up in terrorist attacks. And they spawn other illicit activities […]
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31st October 2013 Havana, Cuba
Al igual que Cuba, el Reino Unido tuvo que lidiar recientemente con algunos problemas económicos severos. En el 2008-2009, en medio de la crisis financiera y económica global, la economía británica se redujo en 7.2 %. La crisis dejó al modelo del Reino Unido expuesto a un crecimiento económico inestable y desbalanceado. El rango de […]
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