2nd October 2012
Paris, France
I’ve been thinking a lot this last week about innovation and creativity, because we’ve had two major events in Paris which have brought innovative parts of British industry to France. We’ve been able to host both of them in the Residence here. Transcript: First of all, the Motor Show in Paris, which is a great […]
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2nd October 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Gareth Ward’s blog about Russia joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO) caught my eye last week. It brought back fond memories of working on economic and trade issues as a diplomat in Beijing in 2001, when it was China who was joining the WTO. I remember how WTO accession was a lightning rod for China’s reform […]
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21st September 2012
Paris, France
In this video, Sir Peter Ricketts discusses two very different examples of the work the British Embassy and Consulates are doing to support British people in France.
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3rd September 2012
Paris, France
In this video, the British Ambassador to France, Sir Peter Ricketts, talks about the importance of the London Paralympic Games, which are the biggest Paralympics ever, with more than 4,000 athletes from 150 nations.
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3rd August 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
In November 2010, UK Prime Minister David Cameron announced that the government was asking the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to devise a new way of measuring well-being: “we’ll start measuring our progress as a country, not just by how our economy is growing, but by how our lives are improving.” Between April 2011 and March 2012, 165,000 UK adults aged 16 and over answered four ONS questions:
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30th July 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
June and July 2012 have been a time for openings. First of all, opening data. The UK Government’s Open Data White Paper is about creating a culture where public data is available to make public services more effective and responsive to individual needs. Big data like this remains a huge untapped resource, and has been […]
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11th July 2012
Paris, France
Thoughts on the French president François Hollande’s visit to London yesterday, and on the many ministerial visits over the past few weeks between France and the UK.
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4th July 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
I only started blogging a week ago so I hope you’ll indulge me if I go back to something from June, as I think it is an issue that is only going to get more important. I’m talking about IMF Chief Christine Lagarde’s “Back to Rio, the road to a sustainable future” speech at the […]
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2nd July 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
British tax authorities recently added a sentence to the top of letters to people who hadn’t paid their tax yet, simply noting that most other people had already paid up. The extra sentence is thought to have netted an extra £160million in tax revenue paid on time. In another “nudge”, emails or texts were sent to […]
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29th June 2012
Paris, France
Franco-British Cooperation on Defence is very much in the news at the moment, with visit and speech by Minister for Europe David Lidington. The ambassador reflects on the CSDP and the key advantages of Europe, in particular France and the United Kingdom, in the domain of international security. The ambassador speaks of David Lidington’s video message and visit […]
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