The day I met Tony Blair 17 October 2007
Meeting the Prime Minister and asking him to act on climate change was amazing says Rebecca Verlander, age 11.
I lay in bed and let a nervous feeling spread over me. What is it I thought? Then it struck me. I'm meeting the Prime Minister!
As part of the Stop Climate Chaos I-Count event, Friends of the Earth arranged for six children to meet Tony Blair. I was one of them. We were going to hand in The Big Ask postcards from 150,000 people.
I was very keen to do this because it is a fantastic opportunity to tell Tony Blair what I and my friends think.
10am: As we walked down Downing Street cameras flashed and reporters shouted questions at us. It was like we were movie stars.
After a wait we were led into the Cabinet Room. The room had cream-coloured walls and a grand looking marble fireplace. In the middle of the room was a polished wooden table with leather seats all around it.
Here is a reconstruction of what happened next:
10.20am: Tony said:
Hi, nice to meet you all.
I got to speak first:
We are all here because we are concerned that not enough is being done to tackle climate change. We do our bit to reduce CO2 emissions and now it's time to do your bit too.
The other children raised a number of similar concerns, including the need for a new law. We had a discussion for about 20 minutes.
Tony Blair said he was concerned too, and talked about the problems of cutting UK emissions if other polluting countries like America didn't cut theirs.
I told him we can't tell other countries to do their bit if we're not doing ours.
10.40am: Then our time was up. Tony Blair was very polite and seemed concerned. But he didn't commit to anything, which is what a lot of politicians do. I hope he introduces this law.
We were then given a tour of Number 10, which included the haunted pillared room and the room where Tony holds his press conferences.
My favorite part of the tour was walking down the most amazing staircase. Along the walls hung photos and paintings of every prime minister to have ruled over the United Kingdom.
© Nick Cobbing/Friends of the Earth
