The FT has a nice scoop today – it's got hold of a letter inviting companies to tender for the contract to provide PR services for the G20 summit in London next month.
George Parker reports that the Foreign Office said it wanted the PR operation to focus on 11 "high-priority" countries and that Russia and Australia weren't on that list.
As leaked memos go, it isn't a classic. But it does tell us about the Foreign Office's key messages for the summit.
• The London summit is a genuine opportunity to solve the financial crisis.
• The UK is committed to finding a global solution by consulting as widely as possible across the globe.
• The UK will be a credible and innovative chair of the G20.
• The UK is committed to effective and decisive international partnerships to deal with global challenges in the 21st century.
Intriguingly, the memo also says that, as part of the engagement strategy, "the UK as chair will identify a sufficiently clear set of goals and moments of drama for the media and public to judge whether the summit has achieved its objectives."
Unfortunately, it doesn't have any more to say about what these "moments of drama" will be, and it's possible we will never find out.
As the FT reports, having issued the tender letter, the Foreign Office decided not to award the £300,000 contract after all.
