G20 finance ministers and central bankers are meeting this weekend in Sussex, hosted in the UK (it being our turn). Turn and turn about is the standard arrangement as the G20 has no permanent secretariat.
Whatever is going on at the ExCeL centre in Docklands on 2 April - 'where Mr Brown will receive heads of government from the EU and 19 other leading economies, including Mr Obama on his first visit to Europe as President', what the Times refers to as 'the main summit', is not a G20 -format meeting. That is being held in Sussex (see above).
The Times reports also:
'Even though Mr Obama is visiting Britain for the G20, he is expected to meet the Queen at Buckingham Palace.'
Reports from Gateshead (Gateshead?) reveal that UK Treasury officials are having difficulty getting their calls returned from the US Treasury:
“There is nobody there,” Sir Gus O'Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary told a civil service conference in the North East Labour heartlands. “You cannot believe how difficult it is.”
This seems to indicate too that the statement in the Independent that the President and the Prime Minister would be in daily contact about the 2 April 'main summit' is not being fulfilled.
Could it be that the President of the United States is actually coming to London to see the Queen?
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To what extent can a brief meeting of twenty heads of state ( some of who are header then others ) iron out problems and come up with original proposals ? They can't, all they can do is agree to what civil servants have already agreed.
So Mr. Obama, since The Queen has invited you, it would be a shame to waste the trip.
I got the hint about Gateshead, I think.
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