“The British people had given up on socialism. The 30-year experiment had plainly failed – and they were ready to try something else.”

So mused Margaret Thatcher on the eve of her first general election victory on May 3 1979. But as we approach the 30th anniversary this weekend of the Iron Lady’s arrival in Downing Street, many British people have concluded that once again “a 30-year experiment” has “plainly failed”. This time, however, it is the experiment with Thatcherism.

The closing of the Thatcher era is an event of global significance. Many of the policies pioneered by her government in Britain were copied in the rest of the world: privatisation, deregulation, tax cutting, the abolition of exchange controls, an assault on the power of the trade unions, the celebration of wealth creation rather than wealth redistribution.

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The world’s finest diplomats will spend weeks drafting and redrafting the communiqué that will be issued at the end of the Group of 20 summit in London next week. But why do they bother?

To understand the emptiness of the exercise, you need only look back at the communiqué issued after the G20’s first summit in Washington last November. The leaders solemnly declared: “We underscore the critical importance of rejecting protectionism … We will refrain from raising new barriers to investment or to trade in goods and services.” To emphasise their determination, they “instructed” their trade ministers to complete the Doha round of trade negotiations by the end of 2008.

And what has happened since then? Naturally, the Doha round has not been completed – not even close. In fact, a World Bank study issued last week showed that 17 of the countries that signed up to the G20’s Washington declaration have since taken protectionist measures.

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I went to a couple of meetings this week where the food crisis was discussed. At Chatham House on Monday John Holmes, the UN’s co-ordinator for emeregency relief, gave a careful and under-stated presentation -which was still alarming in its implications. He told me after the meeting that he thinks that we are still only at the beginning of the food crisis – and that prices and hunger are likely to keep rising for a while yet.

I’ve certainly noticed on my travels that food prices are now a big political issue in almost every country that I visit. I first noticed it on a trip to Pakistan and Bangladesh at the beginning of the year. In both countries, people told me that the biggest source of popular discontent were not the machinations of President Musharraf or the Bangladeshi interim government. It was the fact that the price of staple foods had gone up by as much as 40% over the last year.