The Copenhagen summit on climate change never happened. That's official. Without the 'traditional' photograph of the World's leaders congregated uncomfortably in front of some pretentious piece of display graphics at the back of the conference hall, I can't be sure that anything at all actually happened.
It seems that a photographer had been booked for midday but the leaders had the temerity to keep on talking way beyond then. By the time the opportunity had been rearranged, several significant figures, including Barack Obama and Russian President Medvedev had gone home. In response to enquiries about this, the Danish Prime Minister Lars Rasmussen declared that he had made "negotiations and efforts to reach agreement the priority" over setting up the 'family' photo shoot. What was the man thinking!
These tedious mementos of high-level political meetings are the equivalent of the mass group wedding photo, only a lot less important. They're fodder for lazy picture editors and compilers of history books. They tell us almost nothing except that the ones in the front row have more clout than those in the rows behind and that the insertion of a woman or a Saudi prince in full regalia can have a tremendously disruptive effect on a composition constructed almost entirely of the blue/grey, anally tailored suits of the World's top dogs.
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