Geldof: G8 deal on Africa ‘bollocks’

BOB GELDOF pulled no punches yesterday when describing the G8’s deal on Africa.

“The last two days was bollocks,” he said.

“This wasn’t serious, this was a total farce.”

He said British Prime Minister Tony Blair had “gone out all guns blazing” in a bid to get the other G8 leaders to deliver on aid promises, but that the Labour leader had secured “no legacy stuff” in the two-day talks.

At a joint press conference with Bono in Rostock, Germany, Mr Geldof said: “When richer nations so flagrantly view pledges as disposable, if they become too inconvenient, their ability to urge the leaders of the poorest countries to stick with difficult changes is much reduced.

“This is seen throughout the world, throughout any shape of politics, where people talk about numbers or the poor, as a nonsense.

“I won’t have it spun as anything else, except a farce.”

Bono, co-founder of Debt Aids Trade Africa (DATA) with Mr Geldof, said he was exasperated by the results. “This summit outcomes document isn’t readable in any language,” he said.

Earlier, the G8 leaders agreed a $60 billion package for fighting Aids, malaria and TB.

At the summit in Heiligendamm, they repeated a commitment made at the 2005 Gleneagles summit to double aid for Africa by end of the decade.

But Mr Geldof said: “I don’t want to see 2005 [the Gleneagles G8 meeting] reiterated endlessly. I want them [the G8] to commit to it. This wasn’t serious, this was a total farce.”

Mr Blair, who is standing down as prime minister at the end of this month, hailed the deal as “immense progress”.

But Mr Geldof, who led global calls for action on Africa ahead of the 2005 Gleneagles summit, said the summit had been “a grotesque failure”.

He said campaigners would continue to put pressure on the world’s leaders ahead of the next G8 summit in Japan. Earlier yesterday at a business conference in Yorkshire, Mr Geldof said of the G8 meeting: “I don’t think we’re looking at a success. They’ll make it look like a success. They will claim, no matter what, it’s an amazing breakthrough. Don’t hold your breath.”

Asked if the G8 leaders had built on the Gleneagles promises, Mr Geldof said: “I don’t think they need to build on it, they need to do it. They are reaffirming their commitment and to me that’s meaningless. “No commitment to the poorest people in the world is optional. It just isn’t. Life isn’t optional.”