Campaigning

The G8 summit has now drawn to a close and the Deerhurst resort in Muskoka will be getting back to normal. The world leaders flew back to Toronto by helicopter with Obama and Cameron flying together to start their bilateral meeting. Apparently Cameron and Merkel will be watching the England v Germany World Cup match together tomorrow and the press are invited can't imagine he'll look anything other than awkward!

Phew! What a couple of weeks it has been. World leaders have a habit of stirring up a lot of commotion whenever they get together, and last week was no exception. Rallies, protests, frantic blogging and a transport nightmare all made last week very interesting.  I unintentionally encountered the protests on Wednesday evening, when I was trying to make my way home by bus via Liverpool Street.

Barack Obama is standing three rows in front of me.  Here he is!
He’s saying this is an historic summit.  He is promising (sounds like) big new money for Africa.  He’s saying “our citizens are all hurting.  They need us to come together.”

The communique is out.  The talks are over.  The leaders are doing their press conferences.
Here’s what we’ve just issued to the media (I’ll come back with a proper blog in a little while - it’s a bit mad here now!):
G20 summit is ‘ray of hope’ for world’s poorest children
Save the Children said the G20 summit offered “a ray of hope” for the world’s poorest children but warned that pledges in a communiqué mean little unless they are followed by action.

Alarm goes off at 4.15am. I have to get to Docklands by 7 to get through security and everything. I wonder if Barack Obama started his day with a 5am banana in Princes Risborough station car park.