Welcome to my bulletin.  My name is Dawn McKen and I work in the political section of the Embassy. I mainly cover foreign policy and defence issues, human rights, drugs and crime, counter terrorism and justice and home affairs issues (e.g migration). I have a very wide-ranging portfolio and try to make sure that I am generally well informed about what is going on in Hungary and the rest of the world too. Sometimes I feel I spend all of my time reading and don’t actually do anything, but most of the time it’s the reverse – I’m out of the office doing something and the reading piles up (the pile is currently about 3cm high – not bad).

Part of my job involves discussing British policy on my issues with interested parties in Hungary, finding out what Hungary’s position is, then reporting it back to London. As we are largely dealing with global threats and challenges these days, and operating through international organisations, particularly the EU and NATO, Hungarian and British interests are usually close. I also spend my time trying to understand more about Hungary, what makes the country and people tick and what they want to achieve.

Progress to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 is also part of my portfolio. At first sight, the MDGs may not seem directly relevant to Hungary.  But living in a global age, the MDGs have a direct affect on the lives of every country and every person on the planet, and failure to achieve them will be bad for us all. The Prime Minister’s “Call to Action” initiative in June 2007 was aimed as a wake-up call. Gordon Brown called for a global partnership for development where everyone plays a part, governments, businesses, NGOs and individuals. If you are interested, there is more on this subject – and links – on the Embassy website.

We also a fairly small team in Political Section and there are a lot of events, conferences and meetings that we want to be part of so, inevitably sometimes we have to cover things well outside of our own areas of expertise. For example last week, along with covering things on my side of the house – like Fidesz’s Foreign Policy briefing - I attended a speech given by the Finance Minister on the Hungarian economy, this week I am going to Warsaw to a regional conference for Press and Public Affairs officers (together with someone from PPA section thank goodness!) and on Friday I am representing the Ambassador at a lunch for EU Ambassadors. Fortunately I like variety and I try to make sure that I know enough about everything that is going on, so that I do not make a complete fool of myself. So far so good (I hope)!

I arrived in Budapest at the end of August last year so have been here for nearly 8 months. This is my second posting and I was delighted to be sent here because I knew Budapest quite well, both as a tourist and because I travelled here from London several times in the course of my first job in the Foreign Office in 1995 (I administered the Know How Fund for Hungary - the UK’s technical assistance programme). Budapest has changed greatly since then but it still retains all of its charm and beauty. I think Budapest is a fantastic place to work and live and my family love it. We are lucky to live quite close to the centre of town and one of our favourite Sunday morning walks is over to the Var or to one of the many children’s playgrounds dotted around the centre (Szabadsag Ter is a new favourite). Thermal baths and mountains within easy reach, coffee bars and great restaurants – what more could one want?

Dawn McKen

First Secretary
9 April 2008