The bizarre world of G20 summits

Once inside the conference building, you could be anywhere on the globe

The political classes are often accused of living in a bubble, and the biggest bubble of them all is a G20 summit.

Twenty leaders from 20 of the world’s biggest economies – 19 countries plus the European Union – roll into town and create their own sealed universe grafted onto whatever city is hosting them.

They bring with them vast numbers of ministers, advisers, assistants and bag-carriers. And in their wake come even vaster armies of reporters, photographers and camera crew. In all, 30,000 people have flooded into Osaka and made the city’s Intex conference centre their temporary home for the two-day jamboree of politics.

And so much power concentrated in one spot, of course, attracts protesters of all varieties.

They have not been as evident in Osaka as at some previous summits, such as the 2009 gathering in London when huge numbers marched in protest over the crisis in capitalism. But on the streets outside demonstrators have pressed the cases of Hong Kong democrats, the Falun Gong religious group, the disputed Diaoyu Islands and the Uyghur Muslims of western China.

Not that any of these protests will have come within earshot of the assembled leaders. Security is tight, with ring after ring of checkpoints and roadblocks and security staff checking and rechecking the coveted passes which grant access to different parts of the site once you get inside.

Some 32,000 police have been brought to the city from all over Japan to protect the VIP guests. Rubbish bins around the city have been sealed and “No drones” signs placed on lampposts around the venue.

Once inside, you could be anywhere in the world. A cavernous hangar-like convention hall is alive with rows of reporters hunched over laptops and dozens of TV correspondents from every network in the world lined up before cameras. Occasionally, individual reporters or photographers are taken to witness a handshake between two leaders. Occasionally, a spokesperson wanders into the press area, provoking a scrum as reporters scrabble for scraps of information.

But little is seen of the leaders themselves until the final hour, when in a frenzy of activity, 20 simultaneous press conferences are held in 20 box-like rooms lined up in a corner of the venue.

Then there is a mad dash to file stories, with correspondents typing furiously until they are ushered off to the official convoy, continuing to write as they speed to the airport and often pressing “send” on their final dispatch only when the prime minister’s Voyager jet is taxiing onto the runway for the flight out of G20 world and back to the real one.

Yours,

Andrew Woodcock

Political editor