As every good party planner will tell you, you can’t stage a high-profile London event without the compulsory giveaway of end-of-the-night goodie bags.
So what might the G20 leaders expect from their goodie bags as they leave London’s Excel centre?
By way of precedence, this is what world leaders received upon leaving Downing Street on Wednesday, via the Guardian on Tuesday:
After tomorrow’s dinner, Gordon Brown will present goodie bags that will showcase “British creativity”. They will include a tie designed by one of three British tailors (Ozwald Boateng, Timothy Everest and Richard James), a tea towel from Ulster-based linen producer Thomas Ferguson Irish Linen, Kelly Hoppen candles, and Rococo chocolates. What about those world leaders who don’t wear ties – German chancellor Angela Merkel, say, or Nehru-jacket-sporting Indian premier Manmohan Singh? Will they get an alternative gift? “I don’t know,” sighs a long-suffering No 10 spokesman. “I’ll get someone to call you back with that information.” At the time of going to press, no one has.
So for today’s event might they expect something highlighting Britain’s economic malaise? Some guesses from FT Alphaville:
- A bottle of rosé wine (as recently added to the CPI basket).
- A Natwest piggy bank (now a collector’s item don’t you know).
- A £5 gift voucher for Little Chef (for the purpose of tasting the culinary delights of the UK’s other great chef of the people, Heston Blumenthal).
