Tom Watson

The End Game

Somebody has complained to the Cabinet Office that I'm not updating the site often enough this afternoon. That's because I don't know how the talks are concluding. Everyone is anticipating a UK press conference before 4pm but I've been around long enough to know that talks can break down at any point. 

Here in the media room, I can tell the journalists are getting a little bored. They're hungry for a story and very little information is forthcoming from the room where the talks are taking place. The bloggers though, they're quietly getting on with generating content and sharing ideas.

It has been fascinating to witness how traditional media - TV, radio and newspapers have interacted with new media - bloggers, live streamers and the like. A number of curious lobby journalists have come over to the bloggers table to shoot the breeze with some of the self-publishers. In general though, they have remained separate with each just getting on with what they do.

It will be interesting to see whether any of the bloggers get to question the UK team at their concluding press conference later today. 

Posted at 14:58 02 April 2009 by Tom Watson  |  Comments[1]

David Beckham at the G20

Last Thursday the Prime Minister visited the Brazilian Football Museum in Sao Paulo with Brazilian President Lula. They announced a ’sporting co-operation’ between English and Brazilian football authorities, including the opportunity for English players to further their development in Brazil as well as referee training and technical assistance.

Earlier this afternoon, he found time to present President Lula a signed England shirt as part of our bid to win the 2018 World Cup. I’m told that David Beckham was delighted to play his part in supporting the bid. You can see that President Lula looked happy when he received his gift.

Posted at 13:59 02 April 2009 by Tom Watson  |  Comments[2]

Media centre heaving

It might have been quiet at six this morning but the place is packed out now. There must be over a 1000 people in the room broadcasting, blogging, filing copy and interviewing. The scale of the media interest in this event is hard to describe. It's interesting to observe the other bloggers who seem less-phased, more deliberative than the people who are chasing news and stories. 

Posted at 11:46 02 April 2009 by Tom Watson  |  Comments[0]

Working breakfast

Here in the bloggers' hangar we get paper cups with coffee and cold bacon sandwiches. The world leaders get fruit salad in glass bowls and tea from the pot as they munch their way through a working breakfast. Their tiny room is surrounded on two side by simultaneous translation booths chattering away in mandarin, Korean, Turkish, Portugese, Italian, German as well as Russian and other languages.

Small groups of officials hang around outside the main entrance but essentially they're on their own. A similar meeting is going on with Finance Ministers.

Half an hour ago, I thought the anarchists had broken into the complex such was the rumpus. It was just a scrum of photographers grappling each other for a good position in the room where there will be a picture of the leaders. This should be happening about now. If I can get a picture, I'll post it later.

Posted at 10:59 02 April 2009 by Tom Watson  |  Comments[0]

Where are all my fellow bloggers?

I'm sitting in a vast airport hangar style media lounge on a long table marked with "Reserved for G20 Voice". This is the first summit where bloggers form an integral part of the event. They will distribute their own news, analysis and ideas to their own networks. To be honest, no-one knows whether it will work. Will they start their own global conversation and just add to the acres of copy already written about this event.

There's only one problem. I can't see any fellow bloggers. In fact, there must be 1000 seats and network feeds in this room and so far only 50 seats are occupied.

Whilst the media centre is lazily cranking into gear, next door in the summit rooms things are already at full speed. There's a crackle of anticiation in the air. The PM's office were here at 6.15am. They are the glue that will hold things together today and whatever the outcome, they'll deservce a long weekend of recuperation - though of course, with our PM, that is not an easy outcome to achieve!

I was struck by a comment the PM made earlier in the week about it taking 16 years from the Wall Street Crash before the world came together at Bretton Woods to reshape the global financial system. As a historian, he's determined not to allow us to repeat the mistakes of the past.

World leaders have to clean up the global financial system with tighter and more transparent regulation based on common principles. They need to reform and resource international financial institutions like the IMF and World Bank.  They need to hold their nerve and reject protectionism. And for me, they must not allow the global recession to weaken existing commitments to the world's poor. This goes for climate change targets too.

And they haven't got 16 years. They've got until late afternoon today. I wish them all success today.

Posted at 10:57 02 April 2009 by Tom Watson  |  Comments[5]