a great perhaps

And then there’s Italy, this year’s G8 host. Last year’s host kept their promise; next year’s host has kept theirs. But Italy has only done 3% of what Prime Minister Berlusconi personally and nationally promised in 2005. I’ll repeat that figure of craven dishonesty — 3%! So it is quite proper to ask — what legitimacy does Italy have to run the G8 this year? How can you possibly trust a government that promises something, does nothing and expects to the lead the world’s biggest economies? Especially when this promise was a solemn one between the rich and the poor. Between the powerful and the weak. Surely a test of power is how it cares for the frail. A measure of strength is how it safeguards the weak. In these tests Italy has failed.