Gordon in the morning: Simon Cowell gets going

It's going to go to charity, which is good, but reading about The Sun's Haiti charity single you might think that the effort was aimed at proving how well-connected Simon Cowell is:

Simon, 50, has already played a key role in negotiating a deal with Prime Minister GORDON BROWN for the VAT to be waived on all sales of the track.
[...]
Simon said they will have to move fast to produce the single here and in the US.

He said last night: "I wanted to do something for Haiti so when I had calls from The Sun and the Prime Minister asking if I would get involved I agreed immediately.

"We are going to do a single. We only made the decision today.

"I have got to get it together in 48 hours."

I'm a little cloudy on the details here - Cowell really wanted to do something to help Haiti but was still hanging around yesterday morning not doing anything? He negotiated a VAT waiver (which is actually going to be a payment equivalent to the amount of VAT, surely?) with Gordon Brown - but Brown asked him to get inolved with The Sun record in the first place? Doesn't that make Brown a bit more key in the process than Cowell is?

So, here we are again: a charity single. And it'll raise cash, which is good. But surely if Cowell is so influential, and the Sun and Brown involved, somebody could have come up with something a bit more inventive than yet another retread of Band Aid?

With all Cowell's connections, how about getting two or three artists on each of the larger labels together to pledge their current singles' earnings to the appeal? Actually, if Cowell has the influence, why not get that to be a pledge for the money raised from just one track by a slew of acts to channel funds to Haiti until the copyright rules out? I'm sure Girls Aloud could spare, say, any future earnings from Biology, or McCartney would be able to squeak by without the cash he'd be making from Waterfalls.

Everybody would be a winner - we'd not have to smile weakly at an awful, rushed, group singalong; people could buy songs they actually like to help the charity; and, by signing over earnings from the track, Haiti would get a fund which would be delivering cash for years to come to, helping with the work that's going to be needed to try and return to normal.

Set against such a possibility, doesn't a singalong single seem a very small use of Cowell's powers?