The G20 summit is lousy value for money. Cancel it

Martin Cox

What is the 'pearl'? It does not appear in my draft.

Kalyan

Absolutely brilliant.

richardj

Sole purpose - to get Brown on camera with elected prime ministers and heads of state. Very New Labour!

Augustus

The conclusion to all this must be that we should have no illusions. Not about Brown or Darling, or the IMF, or the FSA or anyone else. Financial institutions will continue to innovate and financial regulators will continue to be one step behind. When people warn of impending problems during the next boom, politicians should listen and regulators should act. But will they?

john problem

Instead of agreeing he has saved the world and should be awarded the Economist of the Decade medal, the Euros will be scoffing and wining at our expense and laughing up their tailored sleeves. At least they will then know who their host is. On French and German TV there are a number of features on the G20 meeting 'in London' but never a mention of Gordon Brown. But it will be fun for all of us to see Barack and Sarko chatting away happily and Gordon trying to charm a blank-faced Angela. We must take our pleasures where we can. Meanwhile, outside on the street, Joe Public will be struggling on....

Johnathan Pearce

Superb article. The final flourish about the outrageous demonisation of tax havens was particularly good.

Brian Phillips

Excel is in the former Royal Docks, not the Isle of Dogs. I hope the rest of your research is more reliable.

ChristopherM

As Martin Cox says, can we have the article edited to include the missing "pearl" from clause 4 of the finance f***wits beanfeast?

David Short

What elegant, patrician headlines the Spectator now comes up with...

Observer 99

An interesting piece ruined by the following:

"We all know the real reason why 22 world leaders — the presence of Spain and the Netherlands has spoiled the name somewhat"

I thought English people stopped thinking like this in about 1900. If the fact that today Britain is a bankrupt international joke doesn't stop this smug air of groundless superiority, I don't suppose anything will. To progress, the Brits MUST understand they are a weak, poor nation with a smaller navy than Turkey, a third world debt level, lower GDP than India, and no natural resources. No progress can be made as long as the Brits think they are naturally superior to all other nations.

Zorro

Oh the irony of the preening backstabbers! It is a shame that these potentially democratic and enlightened processes, branded with images of global integration, get hijacked as another morally self-righteous smokescreen for selfinterest. Australia is doing the same currently. Forcing consumers to pay high prices in industries with inflated wages and executive salaries. Speaking of removing barriers as trade and labour walls go up behind them. I feel for the rice and beans-bound poor who suffer as a consequence.

David Bouvier

Observer99 you chippy nutter - the point is that there are 22 coming to the G20 - so the "G20" name has been spoiled. I think you are the only person on the planet who thought it was a claim that Spain and the Netherlands have less claim than others to world leadership. Took me long enough to work out what you were on about. Projecting your own bile I think.

Dimitrios

We should remind him it is too late. We do not want a British Europe but a European U.K. to paraphrase his predecessor's saying Margaret Thatcher. When the mind of man flourishing it is occupied by the science, when it starts flexing it turns to philosophy and when sunsets it resorts to politics. The third case applies to him.

Alide Kohlhaas

Sorry to have to point out that Brown was not the first head of state to meet Pres. Obama. The president spent seven hours in Ottawa before PM Brown came to Washington. He spent far more time with PM Harper than he did with Brown. As for the banking system, if every country were to institute the checks and counterchecks that are imbedded in the Canadian banking system, the world would not be in such a mess now.

Wilfred

By the end of this increasingly ridiculous article, Ross Clark was actually trying to enlist the reader's sympathy for tax havens: "That is the essence of G20. It is about big countries using their might to exclude small, inconvenient ones from international business." Oooh, so sorry for the plight of the Caymans. What the f***? In this crisis, Clark is worried about the tax evaders?

Peter Baker

Will Gordon Brown take an enormous pension after 1lyears of bring Great Britain to it's knees ?

Peter Baker

Will Brown take an enormous pension after spending 11 years bringing Great Britain to it's financial and economic knees ?

Paul Widdowson

Richard Nixon was no J.F.K.and Gordon Brown is no Margaret Thatcher