Report to the People
13th June 2005
G8 Opportunity
Finance Minister, Tom McCabe was almost
as busy as Scotland keeper, Craig Gordon last week.
Fresh
from visiting the Town Buildings for a full and frank exchange of views with our
errant Council, he returned to Holyrood to lead a debate on next month’s G8
summit.
Much
attention has focussed on fears of undesirable elements using the events around
the summit as an excuse to start trouble and whether Scotland’s infrastructure
can cope with the influx of campaigners. Personally,
though, I’m happy that so many people are sufficiently interested in world
politics to come and lobby the world’s most powerful leaders on the issues
which matter to them.
In
any event, protests and logistics should not detract from what is at the heart
of this summit - giving developing countries a fair deal.
Doubling aid to Africa and writing off its crippling debt, for example,
would be a great boost for poor countries who want to get on their feet.
Also,
some of those far more knowledgeable in these matters than me argue that
inherently unfair structures condemn poor African countries to a cycle of
poverty. In the longer term, then,
could subsidies for, say, wealthy European farmers (including,
I read, £511,000 to the Duke of Marlborough)
be reviewed? Should trade barriers
against African goods be scrapped?
Given
the mood of protectionism sweeping Europe, as underlined by the French EU
Constitution result, however, this could prove even harder to sort out than the
problems in Clyde Square.
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