Is the G20 “family photo” cursed? Today Stephen Harper, the Canadian prime minister, missed the first attempt at a “picture of unity”. The word in the conference hall is that he was “spending a penny” while his counterparts were fixing their smiles. The attempt to re-shoot the picture went just as badly, after Silvio Berlusconi of Italy decided he had better things to do.
This is all very reminiscent of the last G20 meeting in Washington. The photographer there was thwarted at the first attempt by Argentina and the second by — you guessed it — Berlusconi and Indonesia’s Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. This disparate family seems incapable of coming together.
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey