By CHRIS GRAEME chris.graeme@algarveresident.com
The British Ambassador to Portugal paid tribute to the warm relationship, close cooperation and hospitality enjoyed between the Portuguese and British at the annual Queen’s Birthday Garden Party on June 18 in Lisbon.
In what Alex Ellis termed as the “greenest Queen’s garden party so far”, on account of the fact that all the invitations were sent electronically rather than on the usual gold-edged embossed invitation cards, he said, in jest, that the measure was “just the beginning of our green aspirations” and that the following year the Queen’s Birthday Garden Party would be held virtually and that “food and drinks would be emailed to guests”.
But on a more serious green note, the embassy was having water heated by new solar panels which had been installed at the Ambassador’s Residence earlier that week thanks to award-winning British technology from Solar Twin, and judging by the good weather in Lisbon lately, the water “would be hot”.
The ambassador thanked the ‘Green Team’ which had been heavily involved in the project, which he praised as outstanding, although he was surprised not to see leeks on sale which the embassy grows at its own vegetable allotment – another green, self- sufficiency measure.
The Green Team had won an award from the Foreign Office for being one of the most outstanding Green Teams within the Foreign Office worldwide.
The ambassador went on to thank the sponsors for this year’s party, including Barclays, British Petroleum, Visit Britain, Logica, Colt, Sage, Glaxo Smith Kline and Jaguar-Land Rover, which were all “great British and international companies” that did “great things in this country” in terms of employment and growth.
 The Pasco Spices & Herbs team provided Indian delights. |
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Great performance
The ambassador also thanked the Portuguese Navy Band for returning to entertain the guests with a mixture of rousing and jolly tunes, and the team who worked “so hard” to make the evening happen, particularly Residence Manager Caroline Medrado.
The Management Team, which manages the organisation’s money, was now ranked fourth in the world on the global ranking of Foreign Office Performance, the Trade and Investment Team was ranked fifth in the world on performance, while the consular team in Lisbon took more money than any other team in Iberia, with Portimão coming not far behind. In the Political Team, three of its members were singled out as outstanding performers in Europe in their areas.
“In short, this is a great embassy and they are a great team and I’m very lucky to work with them,” he said.
In terms of trade, there had been around four billion euros of business between the two countries last year, with the UK being the second biggest investor in Portugal with a stock of investment of around five billion euros, while there were some great Portuguese companies investing in the UK.
“We enjoy close cooperation with many of you here this evening from climate change to law enforcement,” he said, but most of all British-Portuguese relationships were about human contacts and this extended to all the work done by the British community, whether on the Scottish country dancing circuit or the rugby pitch.
“I have never seen any country in which the British have been so well received and with so much generosity,” he concluded.
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