Thank you for your warm welcome at the Blavatnik School of Government.
In my visits to other countries, and around the United Kingdom, I meet many people who give remarkable service to their communities: elected officials, members of the armed forces, charity workers, medics and many others – people who are deeply committed to public service. Many of them are animated by dreams and visions of how their societies can be improved.
I can see that the research carried out here and the skills taught here are a means of translating those dreams into practical reality.
I wish the current students, faculty and staff of the School the very best as they work in this remarkable new building. I hope that this place will inspire them, and the generations that follow, to make a real and positive contribution to good government wherever they find themselves in the world.
Congratulations to you all at Oxford University for creating this School of Government, and I offer gratitude on behalf of everyone to Leonard Blavatnik and the Blavatnik family for the gift that has made it possible.
Thank you.
