Analysis: G8 meeting a chance for Brown to show talent

Published on Friday 10 July 2009 22:21

ANOTHER conference, another country. These are the grand events Gordon Brown loves. In two years as Prime Minister, he has already clocked up the G8 in Japan and the G20 in Washington, both in 2008, and the G20 in London in April.

Not only do they showcase his formidable intellect, they display the depth of his knowledge about other national economies, learned in his decade as Chancellor. They also give him the chance to parade as an international statesman rather than a Prime Minister in peril.

However, with less attention focused on the global recession than at the G20 summit in London, there was no talk of Mr Brown saving the world.

But aside from adding pictures to the Prime Ministerial photo album, has the G8 in Italy achieved much beyond the revelations Sarah Brown won't eat veal, will eat green pea ice-cream, and managed to meet both the Pope and George Clooney?

Pre-summit expectations were focused squarely on the extra-marital difficulties of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. But they quickly switched to the worthier themes of climate change, global banking and aid for Africa.

Predictably, events concluded with another bumper cheque being written for Africa. Third world aid is one of Mr Brown's passions. But charities were quick to dismiss the sums.

Meredith Alexander, of ActionAid UK, said: "The G8's announcement of $15 billion a year on food security amounts to scraps at the table for the world's poor. Twenty-five thousand people die from hunger-related causes every day."

Jeremy Hobbs of Oxfam dismissed the entire summit as a "shambles" which had done nothing for Africa or global warming. "For Obama it was 'Yes, we can', for Berlusconi's G8 it's 'No, we won't'," he said.

Yet what such summits do achieve is to offer the potential to publicly embarrass nations that are less than generous in their donations, or to expose those which drag their heels on climate change.

Nobody wants to risk bad press back home by being the party-pooper abroad. And while the communiqus that are signed offer only vague promises, they do also help to redirect wayward nations towards world consensus.

And they lay the groundwork for the next grand summit.