All hail the conquering hero

The gravest danger in Scotland is not that protestors will be arrested, beaten, tear-gassed or shot at. It is the far more subtle threat that we will find ourselves sedulously rallied in the cause of Comrade Brown and his long march to Number 10. This right-winger sees it all too clearly:

...look at this in narrowly political terms, and the [debt relief] initiative is a triumph. In February, the Americans effectively kiboshed the proposals. Stories appeared that the Chancellor lacked the Prime Minister's silky negotiating skills and had "lectured" Condoleezza Rice. But two weeks ago it became clear that the Americans had shifted and, with them, most of Europe. Whatever the US Secretary of State thinks of Mr Brown, his relationships with the Treasury Secretary, John Snow, and with Alan Greenspan, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, were enough to win the day.

The result is that the Chancellor has shown himself to be as capable of diplomacy as Mr Blair. And it has to be said that Britain being in the lead on this issue has other benefits, too...

The best defence against this risk is the invasion of Iraq the Chancellor bankrolled: fight poverty, not war is a succinct statement and one that needs to be heard, over and over, in Edinburgh. As Christian Aid demonstrated yesterday, if we lose the political initiative before Brown and the G8, we are condemning millions of the world's poorest to the disastrous free trade policies the Chancellor (ably assisted by DFID) has pushed so assidiously.