Some new comet
WHAT takes Mr Brown to Bangkok? Why, a meeting of the Asem finance ministers. And what is Asem? It is the Asia Europe Meeting, which has now spawned any num- ber of sub-meetings — trade ministers, as well, and foreign ministers, of course natu- rally. I feel towards Asem the pride of dis- covery that Hale and Bopp must feel towards their comet: 'Before my very eyes', I gasped 18 months ago, 'a boondoggle is being born.' John Major had flown to Bangkok amid an international cast of thousands. They would all meet and talk and set goals for relation- ships, and I correctly forecast what their meeting would decide: to have another meeting. Next year they will all come to Lon- don — so as to give Asia's delegates their fair share of the long-distance air tickets and decide where they are going to meet next. As it happened, Mr Major and his Thai hosts might usefully have warned each other of the dooms that have now overtaken them, but that would have jarred with the true boondoggling spirit.
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