But this depended on Third World countries agreeing to a clause that would allow them to set their own voluntary limits on the pollution.
At 5.30 in the morning after the night the conference was supposed to close, Prescott – thinking the deal was secure – went to his hotel to shower and change He returned to be faced with collapse The Third World had refused. Somehow he and environment minister Michael Meacher (who played a vital subsidiary role) persuaded rich countries to stick to their targets all the same, and the treaty was saved.One crucial element was a secret telephone summit in those final hours between Tony Blair, President Clinton and Japanese Prime Minister Hashimoto, with Chancellor Kohl also involved. All through the final hours of the United Nations gathering, the Americans (who proved more flexible than generally portrayed), the Japanese and the Europeans all had to be held fast to a hierarchy of targets for reducing their emissions: if one had slipped, the conference would have failed. These may reflect build-ups of anger and frustration, which he purges. At the moment he is in a busy phase.”You never quite know how dangerous these people are,” said Mr Stephen “He seems to be upping the game But how far he will go is a matter of conjecture.”.

The Japanese called him “The Walking and Talking Man” because he was always doing one or the other – or, more usually, both at once. John Prescott has never been short of words and seemed to have the stamina to match as he rushed around the hideous Kyoto conference hall – having slept only one hour in the previous 48 – sticking together the last-second deal that emerged as the world’s first serious attempt to tackle global warming

It was a desperately close-run thing. The cake, left in a carrier bag with one device, may be part of the game with police – a small lead to whet their appetite, a tease to their investigative skills.Professor Paul Gilbert, a psychologist at the University of Derby, believes the bomber does not intend to cause harm, but would care little if he did. “He probably feels he is on a righteous mission, that he has to teach these people a lesson. There is nothing impulsive about it; it’s all carefully planned.”Mardi Gra – who may have a military background, given his skills – has been through periods of intense activity, followed by lulls lasting several months. Kaczynski was arrested after his brother recognised phrases in a rambling 25,000-word statement that he sent to newspapers.The only clue left by Mardi Gra is a chocolate and orange cake of a type sold by only a handful of retailers in the south-east.

His aim is to gain attention; his pleasure is derived from exerting power by remote control.”He is holding these big companies to ransom, saying: ‘I’ll show them,’” said Mr Stephen. “He calls himself Mardi Gra – he seems to be having a carnival watching people run in circles while he pulls the strings. He’s got the power to decide when to do something, and what to do.”Comparisons have been drawn with Theodore J Kaczynski, the suspected Unabomber,about to go on trial in America after an 18-year campaign. It is likely that he suffers from paranoid delusions, and has become fixated in turn on Barclays and Sainsbury as sources of a perceived slight. He could be a sacked employee, or a businessman with a grudge. But the trigger, says Ian Stephen, a clinical forensic psychologist, could be extremely trivial.”It could be something as small as being turned down for a Visa card, or being given the wrong change at a check-out,” said Mr Stephen, a consultant to the television series Cracker.He believes the bomber fits the classical stereotype of the shy, self- contained loner, socially dysfunctional but adept at leading a double life, whose family and neighbours would have no inkling of his secret obsession. Last weekend’s device was particularly dangerous, and could have killed or seriously hurt.

Mardi Gra – thought to be a misspelt version of the French term for carnival – seems to be escalating his campaign. The question is: how far will he go?Equally puzzling is his motivation. All the bombs were planted either in the capital, mainly west London, or the Home Counties.But police know next to nothing about the man himself. They are understood to have called in forensic pyschologists in an attempt to build up a profile of their opponent.