G20 Diary: Summit fails to ring a bell with the young

So, everybody's talking about it – G20, the biggest gathering of world leaders that London has hosted since the inaugural meeting of the United Nations. Huge amount of anticipation and press coverage. Everyone knows what it is. Don't they? Actually, no. A ComRes survey reveals that 52 per cent of under-25s think that G20 is the next generation of Google phone.

Outspoken ambassador eases crowd congestion

One face we will not be seeing this week among the hundreds of foreign dignitaries in London is that of Robert H Tuttle, the US ambassador who is probably most famous for refusing to pay London's congestion charge. The man Ken Livingstone likened to a "chiselling little crook", who was given the London posting as a reward for raising vast sums towards George Bush's re-election campaign in 2004, packed up and returned home in February, leaving his former deputy, Richard LeBaron, in charge. In contrast to his old boss, LeBaron is a skillful professional diplomat. Barack and Michelle Obama will be much more comfortable in his care than if they had a rich chum of George Bush for a host.

Well, it is supposed to be lucky...

As dawn breaks this morning, journalists will flock like seagulls at a site called Peruvian Wharf, on the north side of the Thames. This is the media's only port of entry to the G20 conference. From there, they are driven to the ExCel centre in special security-checked buses. This site was originally known as the Peruvian Guano Wharf, so named because it was used as the dropping-off point for imported fertiliser from Peru. Guano, which is full of chemicals that help your garden grow, was found in vast abundance along the Peruvian coast where sea birds congregated. Yes, journalists from all over the world are assembling today on a site built on the profits from imported bird shit.