25th May 2018 Canberra, Australia
Note: this speech was delivered by Brigadier Andrew Harrison as part of the National Sandakan Remembrance Day Wreathlaying Ceremony 2018 at the Australian War Memorial. Last Saturday, a third of the globe’s population paused and watched, captivated, as a soldier from the town of Windsor, deeply in love, married his bride. Glorious spring sunshine illuminated the […]
21st May 2018 Canberra, Australia
It’s not often you get the chance to hear masterclasses on dark matter, heart disease, solar windows and kangaroo breath all in the same evening. This year’s Australian FameLab final had it all – but it was the whale snot that stole the show. FameLab is the world’s leading science communication competition by the British […]
Read more on A whale of a story: Talking science with FameLab winner Vanessa Pirotta | Reply
18th May 2018 Canberra, Australia
A successful bilateral symposium on Industry-Academia linkages was organised through Newton-Bhabha Fund by the Royal Academy of Engineering with their Indian partners (CIPAM {DIPP}) and Department of Science and Technology’s Policy Centre) in Chandigarh on April 16 and 17, 2018. The symposium emphasised on ‘Driving Growth and Innovation through Industry Academia Partnerships and working in […]
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17th May 2018 Canberra, Australia
Note: This article originally published in The Australian newspaper on 16th May 2018. This is a year of commemoration. We have just witnessed the poignant 100th anniversary of the battle of Villers-Bretonneux and the centenary of the Royal Air Force. On November 11 we will mark a century since the armistice ended World War I. And today […]
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17th April 2018 Canberra, Australia
This month is all about the Commonwealth. We are on the cusp between the end of the (fantastic) Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, and the start of the Commonwealth Summit (also known as CHOGM – Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting) on 16-20 April, when the baton will be handed, metaphorically, to the UK as […]
8th March 2018 Canberra, Australia
The security world has a diversity problem. The number of women in senior security roles, within government (and beyond) while improving remains stubbornly low. The higher you go the worse it tends to get. By background I am more of a securocrat than a diplomat and have spent most of my career working on national […]
1st March 2018 Canberra, Australia
Alderman Charles Bowman was elected and sworn in as the Lord Mayor of London on 10th November 2017 for the term of one-year. During his tenure the Lord Mayor will represent the City of London, often referred to as the ‘Square Mile’. This is the engine room of the UK economy, a small area but […]
Read more on He’s not Sadiq Khan, nor Boris, so who exactly is London’s 690th Lord Mayor? | Reply
15th February 2018 Melbourne, Australia
My last weekend started in great style on Friday evening at Melbourne’s Immigration Museum, where I joined hundreds of Melburnians for an evening of 60s and 70s British music, fish and chips and even sneaked in a summer Pimms… The vibrance of the 60s was recreated by the band Marshmallow Undercoat who paid tribute to […]
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15th December 2017 Canberra, Australia
In the days before social media, 24/7 news and Freedom of Information requests, British Heads of Mission around the world used to pen an “Annual Review” at the tail end of each year. This was an opportunity for reflection on host countries and bilateral relations; and – inevitably – for competitive Ambassadors and High Commissioners […]
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19th November 2017 Canberra, Australia
My first love was Geoff Boycott. It all started when I was just six years old, and was sat with my Dad watching England play the West indies on our black-and-white TV. The year was 1973. The test match was being held in Port-of-Spain. I was transfixed by Geoffrey’s batting; and was waiting desperately for […]