Monday 12:00, London: Now that the Bali conference has ended, and the jet lag is beginning to set in, we are starting to think about the future of this diary. It seems as though quite a lot of people have been reading it, not least a number of the foreign dignitaries and other notables our […]
Phil Woolas, Saturday, 4pm, London: Am back in Britain after 20 hour flight via Osaka of all places. It was one of the most frustrating 20 hours of my life. I left Bali at midnight last night their time with the talks still going on and Hilary still shuttling in and out of the Minister’s […]
Phil Woolas, 16.45 (8.45am UK time). Wow. Just hosted a meeting with China on where we go from here. Hilary is deep in the negotiations. The stakes couldn’t be higher. I’d met the Chinese Minister twice before so there was a mutual rapport. Also, although I’m not allowed to name them, I was […]
Phil Woolas, 8.30am (12.30 am UK time). Serious business yesterday evening which went on to the early hours. I managed to get some sleep but Hilary Benn has been up all night. The constituency casework doesn’t go away either. It’s so odd to be on the phone to their office at 1am in the morning.
I […]
Phil Woolas, Thursday, 3pm (7am UK time). This conf is really humming now. Hilary is right at the centre of things along with his colleagues from across the world including South Africa, Portugal (Presidency of the EU), China, Brazil, India and of course the USA.
By the end of the week we need every country signed […]
Phil Woolas, Wednesday 12.30 pm. Our officials are heavily involved in the details of the negotiations and were working through most the night.
Went to a Met Office side event yesterday evening with a very professional but terrifying presentation on temperature rises. They gave me a copy of their powerpoint presentation which I can […]
Phil Woolas, Tuesday 16.14 pm (8.14am UK time). Just broken for a bit of lunch. The conference is in full flow now, and it really is a huge convention rather than a conference. To get an idea, imagine one of the big party conferences – security, media, pressure groups, big names arriving […]
Phil Woolas, Monday 11.10am/7.10pm. Somewhere over the South China SeaOn the last leg of the the flight to Bali with Sir Nicholas Stern. The past few days have been very frustrating as the conference has been going on for six days and it’s only now that Hilary and I can take part.
Mind you, I’ve had […]
Phil Woolas, London, Monday evening: So it’s started - the Bali Conference is officially underway. UK officials are already there working with their counterparts from over 180 countries to prepare the ground for when the Ministers arrive next week. Spoke to Hilary this morning about his visit to India last week, some encouraging signs but […]
Phil Woolas, Friday 10.30am, back in Oldham. It’s getting really exciting now. Hilary Benn is in India for the final round of pre Bali lobbying. Tremendous boost today from Prince Charles. His Corporate Leader’s Group have come out strongly in favour of taking action now to tackle climate change. This group includes some of the […]
