David Miliband

Foreign Secretary

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Friday 27 June, 2008

Cool Biz

Former Prime Minister Koizumi apparently issued a diktat that government buildings should be no cooler than 28 degrees - that explains the very informal unbuttoned shirts at the G8 foreign ministers meeting.  Very comfortable it was too.  I gather it is not true that some zealous Japanese civil servants insisted that the former PM meant no more or less than 28 degrees - prompting a rash of central heating on cooler summer days.

Posted at 17:16 27 June 2008 by David Miliband  |  Comments[2]

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Actually there is a famous excerpt from one of PM Koizumi's weekly emails which indicates that the bureaucrats did turn the heating on when it was a little chilly: This is from his email of June 16th 2005: Actually, 28 degrees Celsius is quite hot. There was a funny episode on the first day of COOL BIZ. I had said that the temperature should be set at 28 degrees. On that day, regardless of the fact that the temperature outside was below 28 degrees, I felt really hot when I walked into my office. When I asked why, the response was that the temperature had been set at 28 degrees. It is these sorts of things that I wish people would not take so literally and deal with a little more flexibly. What I had meant was that if it is a hot summer day and the temperature is above 28 degrees, then the temperature settings on the air-conditioner should be held down to 28 degrees. But if the temperature outside is 24 or 25 degrees, what is the reason for setting the air-conditioner at 28 degrees? If the temperature outside does not reach 28 degrees, nothing needs to be done, right?

Posted by graham davis on July 01, 2008 at 11:41 AM BST #

Nice cool touch in Japan. But isn't it time that G8 summitry became seriously cool? We have the G8 plus 5 - 65 of the world's wealth - discussing the big issues we can only solve together. Should be exciting. But young people are likely to be switching off next week . They understand everyday accelerating interconnection. A world converging through Live 8, George Clooney, etc but not through governments. Can't governments collectively offer more than dry statements manicured in an isolated location? Here is one idea. It might reignite an underachieving group. Adapt Kennedy's US Peace Corps to an international model. Each of the Big 13 should recruit 50-100 volunteers. For 12-24 months they would combine on practical projects. Poverty, conflict, education, the environment. Complement the NGOs, business, networking. Governments collectively leading to inspire action not just words. New internationalists committed to common causes. Now that would be really cool

Posted by Paul Hare on July 01, 2008 at 05:51 PM BST #

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