LIVE 8: WHAT'S IT ALL FOR?

An uncomfortable looking Midge Ure has just been on Channel 4 News, apparently sent in to clear up geldof's mess by trying to tell people not to go up to Edinburgh to protest outside the G8 conference after all. Ure compared going up to Scotland with "turning up at Glastonbury without a ticket" (an interesting choice of metaphor: another area where a once radical event has become tamed) and said there wasn't "much point in going" as there'd be other people there to make the point. (But isn't the size of the popular call what's supposed to be important here?). Ure then went on to sneer at the people who've been tirelessly campaigning for debt relief and a fairer approach to international trade for years by dismissing them: Live 8, you see "isn't about crusties with dogs on strings; it's not about radicals." You might have been led to believe there was something quite radical at the heart of the Live 8 agenda, but you'd have been wrong (if the Daily Mail tie-up hadn't given you the clue): "[Live 8 is about] entertainment, fun; it's a social gathering" explained Ure. A couple of days ago it was about tilting the world on its axis. Now, it's been downgraded to a village fete. Change the world? At the moment, Live 8 seems afraid to change its own tshirt.

He's going to be on again in a few minutes; Clare Short is also due to appear.

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