18th October 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Guest blog by the Embassy’s Economic Attaché. One thing we hear a lot about these days is regulation. Regulation this, regulation that, it can be good or bad, national or international, too much or not enough. Views may depend on where you stand: employer or employee, big multinational or local SME, left or right or […]
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1st October 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Just over a year ago on a warm August afternoon, I paid a call on the Environment Minister, Lena Ek. She had an idea she wanted to share with the UK about the campaign for action on climate change. Twelve months on, that idea has been launched as a major international effort in New York, […]
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27th September 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
When our Business Minister, Vince Cable, was here this week, he talked a lot about the UK’s Industrial Strategy. As he noted, to some ears this sounds rather old-fashioned. In fact it’s the opposite, it’s an attempt to create long term plans to tackle some of the sources of recent economic weakness and instability in […]
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25th September 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
For the fifth consecutive year the UKTI team in Sweden organised a R&D Drug Development tour which brought together 16 UK research companies with players from the Swedish life science sector. This year, the tour moved away from Stockholm and emphasised other life science clusters such as the newly formed Medicon Village in Lund and […]
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23rd September 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Vince Cable, the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills, arrives today for a 2-day programme. How to secure growth, trade and reform in Europe is on his agenda. The UK and Sweden are close European partners: like-minded on many issues, including a shared ambition to deepen and strengthen the Single Market and extend […]
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19th September 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
When I learned Swedish before coming out to Stockholm I did so at a language centre in the city of London. This week the Foreign Office has reopened its own language centre, part of our “Diplomatic Excellence” campaign, to improve the skills of our people, the quality of our policy-making and the relevance of our […]
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9th September 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
I wrote in this space in March about the funeral of Princess Lilian of Sweden, and noted that we planned to organize a memorial service later in the year at the English Church. The service took place yesterday. It was a memorable event for all of us at the Embassy and in the English church […]
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6th September 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
As the Presidential road blocks were dismantled, and the sun continued to shine on the sparkling water outside the City Hall, I was privileged to be among the thousands gathered in the Stadshuset to see the British-born scientist, Dr Peter Morgan, become the 23rd Stockholm Water laureate. For more than 40 years Dr. Morgan has worked […]
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2nd September 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Just before Christmas 2001 I was asked to undertake a special diplomatic mission. The then UK government wanted to explore the possibility of an agreement to share sovereignty with Spain over Gibraltar. Gibraltar has been British for precisely three centuries, since 1713 when Spain ceded Gibraltar to the UK as part of the Treaty of Utrecht […]
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27th August 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Today people around the world are honouring the memory of Raoul Wallenberg. I’ve been reading Alex Kershaw’s book “To Save a People”. It is in equal parts heartbreaking in its accounts of individual cruelty and suffering and inspirational in its description of the idealism and bravery that Wallenberg and his colleagues displayed. I was intrigued […]
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