If it bleeds, it leads - violence works

THIS is a moment for looking upward and onward,” said Bob Geldof. “This is it. This really is it.”

As the G8 summit kicked off, he was right. As he addressed 50,000 people in Murrayfield on Wednesday night, he was still right. By mid-morning yesterday, he was wrong. The attention of the world had shifted to London and Prime Minister Tony Blair was returning to his devastated capital city.

Geldof had achieved the ultimate public relations coup. He had dictated the international news agenda to such an extent that even the violence around Gleneagles was being treated as an unproductive side-issue, rather than the central story. He had focused international attention on poverty and Africa to an unprecedented extent.