The G20 Summit has been the only story in town this week. I have not commented on it because I cannot yet decide whether it has served any worthwhile purpose. Looking forward to the Sunday newspapers, when there will have been a little time for sober reflection. But even at this stage, I can say that it was much better than I'd feared. At least President Obama made a real effort to butter up the British Prime Minister, after the dismissive way he treated him on the only previous occasion that they met. For those of us who set great store by our relationship with the US, this was important.
It also seems to me that the Germans and the French got together to save us all from another crazy fiscal stimulus. At one stage this had seemed to be Gordon Brown's main aim at the Summit, but by the closing photo op, it had disappeared completely. And most of the other words struck the right note as well. The questions will be whether there will be any conversion of the words into actions. Personally I cannot see anything of value coming out of this massively hyped, and monstrously expensive meeting that could not have been achieved through a phone call. But I have to say that Mr and Mrs Obama, and Mrs Brown and genuinely class acts. And yet again, Her Majesty made me proud to be a supporter of the Monarchy.
The only really big development seems to have been the huge dollops of cash made available to the International Monetary Fund. There could be more to this than meets the eye. It really was interesting to hear Lord Mandelson talking about taking the stigma out of a visit to the IMF, and I need to know more about who can access, (and in what circumstances) the £250 billion Special Drawing Rights Fund that has been made available to IMF members. I've always thought that if Gordon Brown is forced to ask the IMF for financial help, his credibility would be totally destroyed. There's something tells me that this could all be a ruse to obscure our Prime Minister's ultimate humiliation. But then, I need to read the Sundays (Liam Halligan especially)to help me form my opinions
9 comments:
"Smoke and Mirrors" is how some might see it. A big pony show designed to be as "Obama-Transparent" as thick pea soup.
What do the elitists at G20 want? Some might say that they have told us already: ' a new world order'. Liberal translation: a worldwide government structure and Obama with his Blairite streak would like to be the first World President.
Some believe that the elitists at the G20 meeting (meaning not all of them were elitist), but Obama and Gordon Brown (and Rhodri Morgan for that matter) are arguably in that category. Conspiracy theory goes something like this: the Chinese premier is unhappy about the way Obama is sending US borrowing through the roof and then some – and Obama tells him (so we are told) that he should not worry, that things will work out OK – translation: in the new world order China will be in a top slot; so don’t sweat it.
Some on the right believe a new American Civil War is brewing - Americans are beginning to split between those that have a vested interest in big government and those that don’t.
There have been several 'Boston Tea Parties" of late. Independently minded Americans are starting to ask serious questions about the direction of Obama’s government. Not at sedition level yet - but many Americans are not going to take 'big government'/new world order sitting down. They are going to rebel.
As Glenn Beck on Fox sees it there is already talk of how the army will go - will at least a part of it refuse orders to shoot at Americans?
There is talk of the Founding Father's vision of America – how Obama is going against the vision of the Founding Fathers.
What is happening is deadly serious. Are Brown and Obama using smoke-and-mirrors and sleight of hand to hide what they are doing?
‘Why waste a good crisis' - especially if it is a manufactured one.
I'm surprised you don't blame Plaid man from DC, for the global downturn, climate change, 9/11, US shootings etc etc.
AV> Give Plaid more time.
Just this past week Plaid squeezed opened a door on their dreadful past.
As Leighton Andrews (Labour) put it:
"I defer to Gwyn Alf Williams, a former Plaid Vice President, in 'When Was Wales' (Penguin) when he argued "During the 1930s, Plaid became even more of a right wing force. Its journal refused to resist Hitler or Mussolini, ignored or tolerated anti-Semitism and, in effect, came out in support of Franco. In 1941 Saunders Lewis' pamphlet "The Church and the World" explicitly rejected the war against Nazi Germany while in 1944 Ambrose Bebb condemned the plot to assassinate Hitler".
What will Plaid do next week?
Just seen a really superb Plaid conference on the telly (before I watched the Grand national), full of energy, fresh ideas and so many new young people, no wonder Plaid's polls are sky high. All thanks to Ieuan. Things are looking good for the future for the party.
Also in the event of a hung parliment Adam Price mentioned he would be willing to do a deal with David Cameron in the event of a hung parliment if its in the best interest of Wales, as well as talking with Brown (if he's still there that is).
Anon (05:14:00 PM)> It's a pity that Plaid don't take up the old idea of generating good paid Welsh jobs by protecting Wales's #1 asset: its intellectual property. What good is Plaid if they don’t take that common sense step for Wales?
Plaid like young people so long as they keep their mouths shut.
Plaid Cymru recently expelled a young person for objecting to Plaid Cymru voting for top-up fees?
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/welsh-politics/welsh-politics-news/2009/03/26/plaid-expels-student-who-spoke-out-against-top-up-fees-91466-23235188/
Liam Halligan pointed to the 'one-day "relief rally" on global markets' in his Telegraph article, noting that:
"... under the cover of the summit, the US authorities slipped out new rules allowing banks to set their own prices for assets regardless of market values – dramatically cutting "paper losses" on "sub-prime" toxic waste."
So what really caused the coincidental ‘relief rally’, the G20 meeting or the Obama banking rule change back in the USA?
Many see the brief rally as a sign that G20 delivered the goods.
But some believe there’s an overall game plan, not visible through the thick pea soup clouding the G20 meeting, and more importantly, the pre and post G20 meetings.
That the G20 communiqué was crafted to exude well meaning vague words and phrases about all-things-goodness was predictable as was the words chosen to fill the ‘well meaning’ communiqué, (something that Halligan touched on in his excellent article).
Words designed to give the impression that the G20 was nothing other than a back-slapping happy get together of world leaders; just something that world leaders do from time to time – absolutely nothing for the non-Obama/Hilary followers back in the USA to worry about.
Some stateside believe Obama’s camp will not let Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac subprime crisis ‘go to waste’, that it will be used to boost the IMF and other worldly organizations with the intent that they too will blow up at a date to be decided but on a far bigger scale than the subprime blow-out thereby providing the springboard to world-government.
The future battle cry: “No one wants it, but the world desperately needs it.”
Didn’t we hear that when Bush was bounced into bailing out Wall Street?
As a total aside, a 'great' game is back in play.
North Korea has shown Obama that Pyongyang has Alaska and America's West Coast in its nuclear sights.
For some strange reason, Obama fans thought that Obama's sheer magnificence would be enough to charm Pyongyang into giving up on its nuclear program.
What's that dreadful noise?
Obama's ego taking a hard landing.
all - sorry but been too otherwise occupied to respond to comments - which takes longer than new posts.
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