Unless you've been living under a rock for the past few weeks, you're aware that London is not only home to me this week, but also to the leaders from around the globe, including President Barack Obama. The reason for that is the G-20 Summit, a meeting that will focus on the current state of international financial markets and the future of the world economy.This is the first time so many world leaders have convened in the UK since the first general assembly of the United Nations in 1946, and the Foreign Office has spared no expense. An estimated £20 million has been spent by Great Britain alone for summit preparations.
Some other interesting tidbits to this story so far:
- France is playing hardball, threatening to walkout of the summit if their demands for stricter financial regulation are not met. According to a BBC story posted earlier today, France is seeking a stronger global financial regulator than the US and the UK, and leaving the summit would be a huge blow to Obama and Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
- Chris Knight, a professor of anthropology at the University of East London for 20 years, was suspended last week for suggesting violence against the police and bankers. The university announced today that it would close its doors until the summit is over and cancel its alternative G-20 summit event.
- According to the Evening Standard, hundreds, possibly thousands, of protesters are planning to storm City banks tomorrow in a series of coordinated demonstrations. Another set of four marches, said to signify the four Horsemen of the apocalypse, are planned to converge on Trafalgar Square from the US Embassy tomorrow.
Should be interesting to see what happens in London tomorrow and at the conference this week. I'll update as things develop. I promise a blog entry about Dublin is coming (along with a few others), so brace yourselves.
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