22nd December 2016 Canberra, Australia
At the beginning of this month, I was honoured to accept, on behalf of the British High Commission, the Public Affairs Asia Gold Standard Award for Diplomatic Engagement for our work supporting scholarships for Indigenous Australian students. We have been supporting the Charlie Perkins Scholarship Trust since 2010 through the FCO’s Chevening programme, and recently extended […]
15th December 2016 Canberra, Australia
My time here is up. For over four years I have been proud to bear the title of the United Kingdom’s Deputy High Commissioner to Australia. It’s the best job I’ve ever had, working with some of the best people I’ve ever met. Large parts of me don’t want to go, but four years is […]
15th November 2016 Canberra, Australia
It’s been a busy couple of months since I joined the British High Commission as part of the UK Science and Innovation Network. In a short space of time, I’ve worked on topics including antimicrobial resistance, genomics, clean energy and space. I’ve attended a conference on innovation in agriculture, visited a miniature satellite, and helped […]
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8th November 2016 Canberra, Australia
As I approach the end of my four years representing the British Government in Australia, it is time for reflection. With some diplomatic postings you are counting the days for them to end. With others, you hope they never will. This one is in the latter category. I have seen a lot of this extraordinary […]
30th September 2016 Canberra, Australia
One of my favourite parts of being a diplomat is meeting people and hearing their stories and ideas. Today I had the privilege of meeting some bright, budding diplomats visiting the British High Commission as part of the National Capital Model United Nations Conference (NCMUN). They were here to gain insights into the UK – […]
16th September 2016 Canberra, Australia
One of the great joys of being High Commissioner to Australia is the sheer variety of what I do. I’ve learned to expect the unexpected, to travel widely and frequently, and to deal with a diverse range of issues. It’s why I love the job. The last three weeks have been a slightly extreme example […]
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1st August 2016 Canberra, Australia
Last week, we hosted David Lammy MP on a visit to Australia. He came here as part of his review into possible racial bias against BAME (Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic) people in the British criminal justice system. This work was commissioned by former PM David Cameron, and has the full endorsement of our new PM […]
25th July 2016 Canberra, Australia
If a week is a long time in politics, the last four weeks in the UK have felt like decades. In Australia, you’ve had your election and there is (finally) a winner: congratulations to Malcolm Turnbull. In the UK, our political system has convulsed on the back of the decision by the British people to […]
7th July 2016 Canberra, Australia
For many in the UK, the first day of the Battle of the Somme looms large in our island story – it was the first time a mass, citizen army drawn from the population as a whole, rather than professional soldiers, was committed into an industrialised theatre of war. It was to be a terrible, […]
30th June 2016 Canberra, Australia
One of the best days of my life culminated in the POSK Polish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith, West London. Let me explain. I went to school directly opposite the POSK centre. I often walked past it, looking at the windows full of posters of beautiful places, described in a language I could not begin to […]