Last seen in 2018's "Belgium to charge journalists €100 a year for EU summit coverage":
The Financial Times' Alan Beattie wrote this bit of brilliance last year for the G8 meeting. His friend Gideon Rachman duly posted it on his FT Rachmanblog. I am reposting it in full to bookmark for future reference:
...Alan then forwarded me a generic column on international institutions that he has written. It really says it all - and I think I may simply reproduce it, every year, round about G8 time.By reporters everywhere
It goes as follows:
An ineffectual international organisation yesterday issued a stark warning about a situation it has absolutely no power to change, the latest in a series of self-serving interventions by toothless intergovernmental bodies.
“We are seriously concerned about this most serious outbreak of seriousness,” said the head of the institution, either a former minister from a developing country or a mid-level European or American bureaucrat.
“This is a wake-up call to the world. They must take on board the vital message that my organisation exists.”
The director of the body, based in one of New York, Washington or an agreeable Western European city, was speaking at its annual conference...
Just brilliant.
Follow the Rachman link for the whole thing.
note, September 21 2021: The Rachmanblog link seems to have been lost in one of the FT's tech upgrades. It was copied out in full here.
I wish Inner City Press was still accredited to the U.N. but unfortunately his questions cut a little to close to the bone.
Here are his twitter updates from outside the fence.
