“There was laughter all round, with President Obama and Mr Brown vying to crack the widest smiles. Only President Sarkozy of France managed to look less than amused. Perhaps a look inside the goody bags presented to the leaders attending the G20 dinner at Downing Street would have cheered him up.
The bags were designed to showcase ‘British creativity’. Gordon and Sarah Brown are said to have personally chosen the gifts which were presented in the form of a mini-hamper. Gifts included ties from one of three British tailors Ozwald Boateng, Timothy Everest and Richard James.
Other gifts include a pewter bowl and candle by Kelly Hoppen, Rococo chocolates, linen (believed to be a tea towel) from Ulster-based producer Thomas Ferguson and Welsh heather honey biscuits from Fortnum & Mason.
There was also a HarrisTweed Hebrides wrap – a gift chosen on behalf of Scottish Chancellor Alistair Darling. There were presents, too, for the Obama and Brown children.
Mrs Brown selected summer T-shirts, jeans and mini- skirts from Marks & Spencer for Sasha and Malia, along with two pairs of children’s sunglasses.
Mrs Obama chose gifts with a typically American flavour for the Brown boys John and Fraser. John received a Louisville Slugger baseball bat, a baseball marked with the Presidential seal and signed by the President, and a book of photos entitled Classic Baseball. Fraser was given a set of Dr Seuss books.”
While it seems like the rest of the world is suffering from a sudden loss of money, 29 of the most powerful men and 1 woman (Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner- President of Argentina), who i must say looks too attractive to be President, enjoy goody bags which probably cost the construction worker across the street 6 months wages. And we wonder where all the “toxic assets” and “capital flight” disappeared to.
As part of this shameful media circus, the G20 summit was almost a holiday retreat for our dear international leaders.
In the real world, when husbands – or indeed wives – go to important business conferences abroad, they don’t drag their partners with them, do they?
When Michelle Obama wore a green skirt, for example, one writer suggested this sartorial choice somehow ‘ushered in a new era in world politics’.
Elsewhere, all Mrs O had to do was smile or pat the head of a passing orphan to be hailed as the new Diana. Gah!
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While the women supporting their husbands at the G20 summit have been dubbed the political WAGs, I prefer to call Michelle Obama and Sarah Brown the Fluffies: First Ladies who Understand Fashion.
Never mind that their husbands think fashion frivolous and irrelevant (as Michelle said of her husband, ‘He’s always asking: “Is that new? I haven’t seen that before”. It’s like, “Why don’t you mind your own business? Solve world hunger. Get out of my closet”.’) These two women understand that the moment they appear in a brand, it goes global.
Sod fiscal stimulus, the Fluffies know that what we all need to do right now is go shopping.
Sarah Brown’s tailored dress flattered her slim figure – a pleated, v-shaped neckline added interest and framed her face. Michelle Obama’s chic cardigan and pencil skirt were teamed with classic pearls and kitten heels
At the moment, Michelle Obama never puts an enormous foot wrong. The black-and-white spring coat and shift by Thakoon she wore to board Air Force One channelled Jackie Kennedy’s outfit for her triumphant trip to Europe in 1961.
She emerged in London every inch the assured fashionista: mustard Jason Wu under a black evening coat, cinched with an Azzedine Alaia belt.
Last night, having spent the day in a bright but inexpensive (??300 the lot) J. Crew ensemble, she wore a black satin A-line coat over a fitted dress with a cream bodice, topped off by her trademark pearls.
I get the feeling Mrs Obama is a bit scared of the Queen, and toned down her usually quite sparkly, out-there evening look for the occasion. Loved the hair, pinned back simply: there is nothing stuffy about this woman.
Overall, she was a vision, and I for one feel far more optimistic and cheerful.
For the daytime, Sarah Brown made the shrewd choice of wearing a tailored navy outfit by Britt Lintner, an American former banker who now runs her own fashion label in London. It caters for ‘high-flying executives who need stylish clothes that don’t crease’.
The only wrong note was the choice of opaque black tights, when sheer would have been less dour.
At the palace, Mrs Brown wore a quite flighty black satin dress with a nipped-in waist, again by Britt Lintner, with a brown and cream embroidered swing jacket by her favourite designer, Graeme Black, and brown leather Jimmy Choo shoes she picked up in the January sales.
Really? What we need now, excuse me, is less talk and more walk. Keynes would probably be doing somersaults in his grave rather than just turning. Imagine if the wife of our next prime minister (pray tell not another Lee) did the same, Big Boss Lee would probably rise hurl his tombstone (if he’s still alive he’s inhuman).
What about the press focus on what Jamie Oliver the Naked Chef cooks for these bunch of negligent bureaucratic brats? Salad of Devonshire crab followed by slow roast shoulder of lamb from Elwy Valley, North Wales, with lentils di Castelluccio and anchovy pistachio dressing.. Sure, you definitely know what pain the common goes through you bunch of hypocritical fascists.
By contrast, here’s what the common man eats. Salad of pesticide filled China vegetables followed by instant boiling of cheap China brand noodles from a deserted factory in Fuzhou with cardboard and a tinge of melamine.
I’d really like to see what he can whip up with melamine milk and cardboard chicken.
And my my, what do we have here, Television Idiot Russell Brand, a stupid fool more famous for being addicted to sex than a well informed protestor. What’s more a penchant for “that’s cool” and “dangerous” to boot.
What’s he doing with the thousands of protestors outside the G20 summit? Championing anti-globalisation, equity or saving the environment? I highly doubt so.
This is someone who, while covering the May Day mayhem for MTV, dropped his trousers and was arrested for indecent exposure. In the absence of any obvious talent, willy-waving is what he does best - in every sense of the expression.
Brand being himself in a movie: Stupid
[ youtube=http://youtube.com/w/?v=_dIya1aJJKA]
Outside the Bank of England, Brand told the demonstrators he was angered by the ‘financial disparity’ in the world. This after spending the last few months, since he was run out of the BBC, flying round the world - coining it in Hollywood, playing to packed houses on a sell-out tour of Australia and luxuriating on a five-star holiday in Malawi.
And now, my personal favourite, the circus that is Michelle Obama and her “domination” of the other First Ladies. Sorry honey, if your husband is already the first black president of the US, I should think that there is no reason for you to be pushing yourself into the foreground of photographs time and time again. Apart from a slightly balding head, Barack doesn’t really look bad as compared to Sarkozy, whose midget height probably makes me taller than him.
“Caught you red toe-ed.”
“Ever heard of a hair clip?”
“Oh my, more pearls than there are rice grains on my plate.”
Plus, who really cares if the Queen puts her hand around Mrs. Obama. Does it recover my father’s lost investment? If it does, please Queen, put both hands around Michelle and kiss her for good measure.
At least Sarah Brown has the decency to put on a mourning dress for the death of the international economy. But sadly for her, she undoes all her good work with a shameful rendition of Girl’s Only Night Out: A cringe-worthy single-sex dinner.
However, what was really insulting to British women – and the WAGs – was the line up of guests whipped up by Downing Street to represent the cream of national female society and achievement. Rowling, more famous for writing the literary equivalent of a 7 year old nerd’s wet dream and Naomi Campbell, who looks more a tramp than supermodel.
Nice double-hemmed £999 Italian silk dress. Think I could use that to save the starving kids in Ghana instead of having cyber-bastards flood facebook with stupid “Save a starving child with JUST a click” campaigns.
On the other hand, Bruni, stunning as she is, at least have common sense to opt for a classy neutral dress. True supermodels do indeed have class. Eat your heart out Michelle. Lucky Nicolas gives hope to all men desperately short.
Oh my god, is that a one piece tracksuit?
Note the delicately positioned left arm. Class.
Looks as though someone already can’t wait for sunset and the circus to be over. One lucky man(hand).
In 1944, one month after D-Day, as the war raged on in Europe and the Far East, delegates from 44 countries gathered in the United States to plan how to rebuild a global economy devastated by years of conflict. They met for three weeks of intensive negotiations in the isolated resort of Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. By the time they parted, they had given birth to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, establishing a framework for financial dealings between nations which survives (after many adjustments) to this day.
The contrast between that cloistered and cerebral conference in July 1944 and the extraordinary spectacle of today’s G20 summit in London – with its razzmatazz, helicopter gunships, WAGs, celebrity chefs and rent-a-mob demonstrators – could scarcely be greater.
Perhaps we can only hope for obama to whip off his coat of mere rhetoric and show us a gleaming “S” on his chest.
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This is the quality of drawings Individual A produces when he’s bored at home.
And this majestic picture is something Individual A could come up with in Chinese class.
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Victoria concourse