Britannia Radio

The Bible tells us that it took seven days to create the world (OK, 
the writer got it a bit wrong) so one day to save it doesn't look 
quite so impossible except that Gordon Brown doesn't have the 
necessary qualifications.

The omens don't look good even for an amicable disagreement but one 
must hope that somebody has a rabbit to pull out of their hat.

XXXXXXXXXXX CS
===============================
TELEGRAPH 11.3.09
1. Gordon Brown's G20 summit risks global financial meltdown
Gordon Brown's flagship G20 economic summit risks disappointing 
financial markets and sending shares plummeting worldwide, Lord 
Malloch Brown has said.

By James Kirkup, Political Correspondent


Lord Malloch-Brown, a Foreign Office minister involved in the 
preparations for next month's London summit of the G20 countries, 
said that meeting must produce a substantive plan to rescue the world 
economy or there will be "disastrous" financial consequences.

Mr Brown "cannot afford" for the summit to fail, he said.

His remarks echo the private concerns of other ministers who worry 
that Mr Brown has raised expectations for what the summit can 
actually deliver to dangerous heights.

Mr Brown has repeatedly spoken of the importance of the one-day 
summit, saying it must forge a "global new deal" of co-ordinated 
financial regulation and economic policies, and the reform of 
international financial institutions like the International Monetary 
Fund.

The stakes at the April 2 summit are so high that failure would have 
dramatic repercussions, Lord Malloch Brown said.

He said: "If we get anodyne committee conclusions with all the 
substance taken out of them, the markets on April 3 will be something 
of a disaster zone, I have no doubt."

Mr Brown last week claimed there is "an emerging consensus" around 
his plans. But there are signs that the G20 countries may struggle to 
agree on substantive action, and President Barack Obama last week 
pointedly refused to endorse Mr Brown's "global new deal."

The US wants the summit to focus on more fiscal stimulus policies to 
boost economic growth, while European countries, especially Germany, 
are hesitant and want to focus on financial regulation.  [since when 
did regulation produce growth?  It might stop bad practices but 
growth? No way! -cs]

Mr Brown is staking both his political and economic credibility on 
the London summit. Some aides even hope that a successful meeting 
could eventually allow him to recreate the "Brown bounce" that lifted 
Labour's poll ratings last autumn when he took action to bail out 
British banks.

"None of these leaders who assemble in London can afford this Summit 
to fail, the issues have become just much too immediate and much too 
significant," Lord Malloch Brown said.

The peer, a former United Nations chief personally recruited to 
Government by Mr Brown in 2007, has a reputation for plain speaking. 
On Monday, he became the latest minister to call for an explicit 
government apology over the policies that led to the current recession.

George Osborne, the Tory Shadow Chancellor said the Prime Minister 
should take Lord Malloch Brown's comments as a warning about the 
dangers of raising expectations for the London meeting.

He said: "The Government's obsession with spin continues to risk 
undermining any effort to get out of this crisis. This makes them 
part of the problem, not the solution."
Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, on Tuesday added a new goal to the 
G20 process, asking western European countries to pledge more money 
to the IMF so it can support countries in eastern Europe.

Many eastern European economies are suffering amid the global 
slowdown, raising questions about the union's cohesion. EU leaders 
last week rejected a Hungarian appeal for a 180 billion euro rescue 
package for eastern economies.

Speaking at a summit of EU finance ministers, Mr Darling said that 
wealthier countries must help their poorer neighbours.

He told Radio 4: "If we don't sort these problems out and try to 
resolve them, it will affect us, because our well-being, our wealth 
as a country, depends on the health of Europe,
=============AND ---------->
2. G20 summit: US Treasury department won't answer their phones, says 
top UK civil servant
The British Government is finding it "unbelievably difficult" to 
prepare for the G20 summit because no one in the US Treasury 
department is answering their calls, Britain's top civil servant Gus 
O'Donnell has said.

The continuing handover to President Barack Obama's administration 
has severely hindered discussions over the meeting in London next 
month, according to Sir Gus.

Amid the worst global economic crisis in decades, the Cabinet 
Secretary said Number 10 was having trouble even getting in touch 
with key personnel at the US Treasury.

"There is nobody there," he told a civil service conference in 
Gateshead. "You cannot believe how difficult it is."

The reported comments come after Downing Street aides were left 
frustrated by the White House's chaotic handling of arrangements for 
Gordon Brown's visit last week.

The Prime Minister was left facing claims that he had been "snubbed" 
after an expected formal press conference with the two leaders was 
downgraded to a handful of questions in the Oval Office.

Sir Gus criticised the US system of new administrations appointing 
their own senior civil servants, saying it would be "absolute 
madness" to introduce similar rules here.

The Whitehall & Westminster World website, whose publisher Dods 
organised the event, reported that he stressed the importance of 
continuity for projects like the Olympics.
"You get to a certain point, and you can't go any further," Sir Gus 
said.
"If there's a change of administration, you're out, and a whole new 
bunch of people come in who probably haven't been in government before."

Downing Street said later that Sir Gus's comments about his US 
coutnerparts had been taken out of context and that the Government 
had established a good working relationship with the new US 
administration.

"He was explaining the benefits of the British system of having a 
permanent civil service," the Prime Minister's spokesman said.
"We have a very good and close working relationship with the United 
States on G20 and other issues.

"I think last week what you saw was an administration that was fully 
engaged on the G20. That is certainly the sense that we got."
========================
THE TIMES 11.3.09
'Difficult' Americans hamper G20 efforts to secure a global deal

David Charter and Philip Webster

A rift between Europe and America over the crux of the G20 summit was 
last night threatening Gordon Brown's hopes for a deal to rescue the 
world economy.

The size of the challenge facing the British Government in bringing 
together world powers was emphasised in a candid admission by 
Britain's most senior civil servant that it was proving "unbelievably 
difficult" to liaise with the Obama Administration to prepare for the 
meeting.

There was also growing scepticism over Mr Brown's call for at least 
$200 billion for the International Monetary Fund to bail out cash-
strapped nations, with no indication that China would come up with 
the bulk of the funds as some in No 10 hope.

A simmering row about the whole point of the G20 meeting on April 2 
burst into the open when Larry Summers, chief economic adviser to 
President Obama, called on other countries to follow America's lead 
in pumping even more money into stimulus plans to revive the world 
economic system.

The United States' stimulus package of $787 billion is equivalent to 
about 5.5 per cent of its annual economic output, although it is 
spread over three years, whereas the EU has struggled to reach 
agreements on a sum that barely reaches 1.5 per cent of its total GDP.

Mr Summers's plea was attacked by Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg 
Prime Minister, who heads the eurogroup of single currency countries. 
He declared: "The 16 euro-area ministers agreed that recent American 
appeals insisting that the Europeans make an additional budgetary 
effort to combat the effects of the crisis was "not to our liking."

Mr Juncker suggested that the eurozone countries would rather adopt a 
wait-and-see approach than rush to incur even more debt.

His outspoken words were followed by mystification from Germany. Peer 
Steinbrück, the German Finance Minister, speaking after EU finance 
ministers met in Brussels, said: "There was a significant amount of 
bewilderment about this in our discussion."

There were the first signs of expectations being managed in Downing 
Street yesterday as the EU-US position became clear. Mr Brown was 
still hoping for a "grand bargain" from the summit, a source said, 
but the message yesterday was on how difficult it could be to achieve 
one. "We are by no means talking it down but I do not think anyone is 
suggesting the world's problems can be solved in a single day," a 
government source said.

Meanwhile, in remarks to a Civil Service conference that he probably 
did not expect to be reported, Sir Gus O'Donnell said that No 10 was 
finding it "unbelievably difficult" to prepare with the US.   The 
Cabinet Secretary was speaking about the advantages of a permanent 
civil service and the difficulties of dealing with a Government with 
hundreds of appointees.

"There is nobody there," Sir Gus said. "You cannot believe how 
difficult it is."

Another official said that getting the rest of Europe, let alone 
China, to do more in the way of fiscal stimulus was "not going to be 
straightforward".

Alistair Darling will have the task of trying to steer the G20 back 
on track in preparatory talks of finance ministers in London on 
Friday and Saturday. But Mr Brown faces a hard battle next week at 
the European Council heads of government meeting, where EU countries 
plan to bind his hands over their objectives for the G20.

A spokesman for the Government urged the EU yesterday to present a 
united front. "We believe that the EU needs to work together to bring 
about the recovery we need," he said.