Oodles of...

FUDGE: oodles of Brown Fudge. Great presentation, great speeches. "This is the day that the world came together to fight the global recession, not with words but with a plan", but...Brown's illusory G20 deal (Fraser Nelson - link through image) "Making available an extra $1 trillion"...That didn't last long...he's already twisted WORDS! Old pledges, double and triple accounting, "fiscal conjuring", piggybacking on the long-running OECD initiatives, ban on new trade barriers. "They agreed this in November and, since then, 17 of the 20 countries have increased trade barriers." Sale of gold...NO! "Brown’s gold advice: 'I've been proposing this to the IMF for ten years'". No fiscal stimulus. "It's mentioned twice in the 3,080 word document – there wasn’t one. Both Brown and Obama wanted the world to contribute new money. They failed." Full Story HERE. Well, it seems it may all be a con, and the protests, or at least parts, certainly seemed stage-managed for the media...or am I being a grump? At least, apparently, Mandy thought the watercress soup was nice.

Update 3rd April: In fact I have to concur with Peter Riddell this morning:

Gordon Brown should enjoy his moment on the global stage. He has undoubtedly had a diplomatic success in chairing the G20 summit; however, it is unlikely to last.

More great write-ups abound, hidden amongst the photos and headlines that Brown craved, especially from the overtly fawning BBC who's headlines are veritable lies to sustain the illusion of Statesman Brown. Jeff Randall in the DT: "Decent folk have been roasted on a spit by a tribe of political pygmies"...get beyond the first few paragraphs about the demonstrators and Jeff really nails it how it is, "For more than 10 years, these decent folk have been roasted on the spit of a Chancellor-turned-Prime Minister who, having failed miserably as the regulator-in-chief of financial services, is now trying to rebrand himself as a statesman of international repute...

It is a shameless performance from a leader who has buried his country deep in debt, while building up a democratic deficit among those whose voices he blocks out...

"The G20 shindig is his last chance to claim a triumph, even though it will be a fudge."

Update 2, 11am (BST): from Burning our Money...Funny Money

Reading around, and between, the lines, it seems to break down like this:

• In terms of Cold Hard Cash, the actual new money pledged to the IMF amounts to $240bn, less than one-quarter of the $1.1 trillion in the G20 headline. That $240bn is coming from just three lenders - China ($40bn), Japan ($100bn), and the EU ($100bn). None is coming from the US, and the $100bn from Japan has already been announced once, in February. So real new money amounts to just $140bn, or less than 0.2% of world GDP (pre-Crash).

And last but by no means least (nor last really but I can't post all the articles!) Peter Oborne in The Mail re "Hubris, hoopla and claims that were false, cynical and very, very dangerous" [Link]:

"The true story is that Gordon Brown seems to have corralled fellow leaders into perpetrating a gigantic collective fraud on world public opinion."