A G8 agenda to ‘suit you, sir’
The PM doesn’t look thrilled with the focus on Syria in coverage of the G8. He’d like to be feted for announcing the start of EU-US trade talks here and for embracing the huge issue of tax avoidance and proper registration of company ownership worldwide.
When I spoke to the PM just now at the G8 resort, Mr Cameron emphasised that the beneficial ownership changes were as much about developed countries (getting muiltinationals to pay their fair share of tax in the UK) as about the developing world and stopping the siphoning off of African resources by dodgy shell companies.
But the agenda has, as so often, been worked up by the NGOs who have long since identified G8 summits as pinchpoints where they can maximise their influence on world affairs (G20s just don’t seem to work the same way).
Like bespoke tailors, the NGOs have come up with a policy G8 leaders can slip into (albeit with some complaints and alterations). It works for the age of austerity to have an agenda that doesn’t require more cash pledges from some of the richer nations but a tightening of the screw on companies instead.
It plays beautifully into the current focus on companies like Starbucks in the UK and it allows David Cameron to ride that horse and the developed world horse too. Of course, an agenda isn’t the same thing as implementation. But NGOs aren’t fainthearts.
As I write, some campaigners are rowing four miles up to the media centre for a photo stunt in mini-viking boats wearing the now obligatory world leader masks. Talk about the long slow climb to achieving openness in company ownership and they smile and shrug.
What also strikes you is that in addition to providing a “suits you sir” bespoke agenda to the G8 chair, some of the charities try to chivvy the process along with praise and stroking.
They know that someone like David Cameron would like their praise so they ration him drops of the stuff throughout the build-up and are here in Enniskillen in force doing more of the same. They hope a pre-G8 gathering of EU states could produce a pace-setting advance on company registers.
I had my first peek at the summit venue itself, up a lane lined with 10 foot high wire fencing (drives off the lane have been gated and breeze blocked). Fermanagh was laying on light rain or “mist” as they call it here for the G8 leaders when they pitch up in this bankrupted golf resort.
The receivers have kept it all in good nick – even if the topiary is looking a little brown. The pins have been removed from some of the holes (safety reasons?) but Herman van Rompuy’s temporary home (see interior decor below) looks out on to a very challenging par three over water – nearly as tricky as the day and a half ahead.
