Just to follow up Fraser’s and Daniel’s posts, Clive Crook’s column in the FT today contains a striking example of just how few waves this G20 summit created:
“You might have thought that an emergency gathering of leaders from the world’s 20 main rich and emerging economies, with the global economy poised for its worst slump since the Great Depression, would have aroused some interest. The event was deemed unworthy of the main section of Saturday’s New York Times. (Room was found on the front page for a story about how hard it is to open the “clamshell” packaging of toys and electronic gadgets. The summit, “A crisis in finance”, made page 3 of the business section.) On television news, world leaders’ efforts to stave off disaster were displaced by speculation about Hillary Clinton’s next job and by fires in California (four firemen injured).”
Now, there’s a warning in there for those Labour strategists who hope that the second summit, in London, will mark another step on Brown’s ascension to being Saviour of the World. If nothing of much substance gets achieved – and what chance that something of much substance will get achieved when 20 countries have to hammer it out? – then the circus just won’t get the fanfare that Team Brown wants it to.
Of course, the London summit will have the added Wow! factor of a President Obama. But that could be dangerous in itself for our Government. After all, if the forecasts are right – and the UK unemployment figures surge ever upwards – then rather than Brown being able to play MacMillan to Obama’s JFK, it might seem more like the new President has flown across the Atlantic to help out our beleagured PM. Not something that would chime with Brown’s “experienced hands vs novices” take on the situation…
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