THERE appears to be nothing our Prime Minister likes better than strutting the world stage, telling us how, under his guidance, with us all holding hands and singing Kumbaya, we can be saved from, er, the problems he has helped create after his last group hug of world leaders.
There are those that will say the moon is a balloon and try to convince us that water runs uphill when Boom and Bust Brown orders it so – so long as such platitudes will help keep Labour in power for another five years. But they are the balloons full
of hot air and London's spring showers will obey the laws of gravity and wash away the transparent gloss being put on our economic ills by this faltering, decaying government.
The G20 economic summit in London has come and gone and, like so many others, ran to the normal formula that aims to deceive all the leaders' respective audiences at home and abroad. Such a formula is needed – for how else can a gathering of so many vainglorious egos, often elected from diametrically opposed views, with mutually exclusive and competing philosophies, actually agree to anything?
How, when they have such expectant domestic audiences can they satisfy the competing needs of say, the French and the German leaders (who always meet beforehand to agree a common line), with the interests of Japan, Brazil and Australia (which is not yet in recession)?
Then there's the need to appear united for those purveyors of a naive one-world consensus – the BBC, CNN, the United Nations, the Anglican Church, Greenpeace and others. They need their happy-clappy soundbites and the world leaders, believing it makes them look good, are only too happy to oblige.
All these competing interests and messages cannot be accommodated if the politicians are honest with their audiences – so they are not. They construct (well in advance of arriving) an agreement of what they will say at the end, after some carefully stage-managed xenophobic chest-beating (usually but not exclusively the French) and some sweet sounding mood-music of brotherhood (usually Blair then Brown, and now Obama).
You may feel I am being just a tad uncharitable or that maybe I got out of the wrong side of my bed this morning. Well, it is neither of those. In fact, I had a very good sleep and am sitting poolside in Trinidad waiting on my flight back to Edinburgh after working out here helping this proud developing nation's Government. Watching the G20 summit from the perspective of how other countries see it is like a cold shower on a very hot day – you see, they have all seen it before – and one only has to look back at the G8 Gleneagles Summit of 2005 to know that our political leaders have no difficulty in telling us lies, if it is lies that we want to hear.
The worst transgressor then was Italy and yet Berlusconi is back in power again. If getting eight countries to meet their obligations is difficult enough, then how unrealistic is it to get twenty to honour the commitments they make?
How timely that the World Trade Organisation and the World Bank should make available the evidence that shows that the anti-protectionism promises made at the last G20 meeting in November have not been met – and thus warning us that the promises made in London have little chance of being met either.
The reality is that countries – such as the US – are very likely to obey treaties that they have legally entered into – such as the less glamorous but far more important NAFTA and World Trade negotiations – than accede to a bland communiqué. Even those treaties are only enforceable with other co-signatories. Countries such as India and China do not therefore have the same open markets as, say, Mexico, that has the legal protection endorsed by the US Congress.
If we want to fight recession then reviving the Doha round of trade negotiations that actually dismantle barriers (bureaucratic walls) and reduce tariffs (punitive taxes) is far more important than the latest reality show of world leaders.
Even the truth of what happened has been carefully obscured. Obama had no effect on the Merkel-Sarkozy opposition to an even greater financial stimulus than was already planned and the new regulations will, like the last time, probably miss the real crooks but make it even more difficult for ordinary people to open a simple bank account (Have you tried that recently?).
A New World Order Gordon, what with you at the helm and Tony as European President? Don't make me laugh.
Hypocrisy run riotIf you don't yet believe we are ruled by a professional elite completely detached from the laws that they pass for us mere plebs then let me ask if you were aware that a special smoking room was requested for the G20 leaders and their bag carriers?
Yes, that's right, those same politicians that have ordered war veterans to stand outside their local pub if they want to enjoy a half and a nip wanted a swanky room to puff away in out of view of the cameras. The reason? The stress of it all!
