G20 - all talk but no action?
Yet again we have another G20 meeting and yet more promise of multitrillion pound investment packages which will save the world. However, why is it that after the event more and more G20 members seem to have second thoughts about their promises and often backtrack?
It seems that a G20 conference is one of those moments when your friend asks you for money and you say yes, only to return home and find out the cupboard is bare and you have no money to lend. Time and time again G20 meetings have ended with promises to change the world, right all wrongs only for these promises to slowly but surely unwind and disappear into the mist. So what's different this time?
In truth there is nothing which is different this time because ultimately former promises have not yet been met and new promises have still been made. Why the G20 do not concentrate on following through on earlier promises before making new promises is a mystery to everybody. However, there does seem to be an addiction to headline grabbing promises to justify the massive expense which a G20 conference attracts while ultimately once the headlines have been grabbed there is very little in the way of substance behind them.
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