Linklater’s Scotland: G8 summit at Gleneagles

Magnus Linklater

Columnist, Scotland on Sunday

This article, which was originally published in the Spectrum section of
Scotland on Sunday on 19th June 2005, is reproduced on Land-Care
with the kind permission of the author and the newspaper

Filed 24 Jun 05
©Magnus Linklater

AS GEORGE W Bush stretches his legs beneath the fine polished table in the Glendevon Room at Gleneagles Hotel, when the G8 leaders get down to business next month, he may find his eyes straying to the view outside. Through the curved glass frontage of this, the most splendid of all the hotel’s public rooms, he will be able to admire the perfectly manicured lawns, the herbaceous borders, the rhododendron bushes (by then sadly past their best) and, just beyond, the tempting fairways of the King’s Course.

“Aw, shucks,” he may suddenly say, as the discussions on global warming drag on, “why don’t we all just go out and hit the greens?” Who could blame him? Gleneagles is one of the world’s great hotels, the kind of place you cut meetings for.

I strolled around it last week with its general manager, Peter Lederer, and found myself wondering which would be better - checking in for a “life enhancement and organic healing treatment” in the spa, venturing out to the clay-pigeon shoot, strolling around the nine holes of the “wee course”, or discussing the wine list with one of the hotel’s seven sommeliers in the very grandest of its four restaurants.

For a hotel that is about to find itself under siege, ringed by barriers, patrolled by bodyguards and swamped by the world’s media, it seemed remarkably calm. No noticeable changes have been made to the rather severe art-nouveau decor, the 600 staff are the same people who deal routinely with guests in the hotel’s 269 rooms, and when the world’s leaders arrive they will be greeted as usual by the friendly figure of Alastair Morrison, who parked my car and lent me his umbrella.

Of course, this is not quite the whole story. The place has been combed by security agents. Manhole covers have been sealed, sight-lines checked and staff vetted. President Bush’s personal protection staff know within a matter of feet where he will walk to get from his suite to the conference room, and if he decides to take to the golf course, his route will be meticulously preordained. Only his iron shots remain unpredictable.

“The hotel itself as an operation doesn’t change that much,” says Lederer. “What Tony Blair wanted was a place that would do it well. But he also wanted a relaxed setting, because that’s his style, and I hope that we can do that for him.

“What the delegates want is what we’re offering - a good breakfast, a good lunch and a quiet meeting space with all the facilities. So the physical part hasn’t changed much in terms of the service. The biggest job for us is to manage all the people involved, whether it be the delegations, the police, the government and so on. Everybody is trying to do their job, but we’ve got to try to make sure that people aren’t getting in the way and stopping us from doing what we’d normally be doing.”

Lederer had the delicate task of informing some of his regular clientele that they wouldn’t be allowed to come and stay in July. Most were understanding, given the high profile of the event. With the hotel cleared, all that remained was to decide who got the biggest rooms. Diplomatically, he refuses to reveal who will be staying where, and says the final decisions are being made by the Foreign Office. I would guess, however, that President Bush will not be next door to the French. As for food, the emphasis will be on Scottish produce such as seafood and venison, but if the Japanese want sushi or President Mbeki insists on biltong, special chefs will be brought in.

With an estimated 7,500 delegates and media coming to Scotland during the G8 week, the opportunities for showing them what the country has to offer are immense. Those covering the Gleneagles talks will be entertained by Callanish, a ceilidh band, and Aly Bain and Phil Cunningham, among others; they’ll love the music, though quite what they will make of Cunningham’s appalling jokes remains to be seen.

Hotels have been booked as far afield as Aberdeen, so the ripple effects will go wide. Lederer is not only manager at Gleneagles, he heads Visit Scotland, the country’s principal tourist agency, and he is fully aware of the potential. “The eyes of the world are on Scotland,” he said, “but we need to make sure that we maximise that opportunity.

“If you talk to people outside the country, they see Scotland as fascinating anyway. Not only do we have a good reputation, it’s a new democracy, in effect. Why do we go and beat ourselves up about this new parliament? Other people are fascinated by it. They see a very traditional country with years of history and yet the newest parliament in the modern world.”

He lists the events of the summer. “We’ve got the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond, the G8, then St Andrews. We’ve got three weeks of the world looking at us - most countries would kill for three weeks of world television like that, yet we take it for granted. These things have a lifespan of two or three years. If we can do it well, I think Scotland is on the world circuit as a very serious place to do business with, a country that is really starting to reinvent itself and do new things.”

Lederer is not the only person to have spotted the potential. A few miles down the road, Bob Scott, provost of Perth and Kinross, knows that his parish will be the first and possibly the only part of Scotland that the delegates will see. He has been trying out his G8 tartan trews (specially selected by Cherie Blair) in readiness for the day when he steps forward to shake hands with the most powerful men in the world. “I won’t be attending the summit itself,” he concedes, “unless the invitation has been held up in the post. But I will be in the welcoming party. I hope that the summit comes up with some breakthroughs on climate change and help for Africa, so that it will be one that people remember.”

He has not left this to chance. As soon as the decision to hold G8 at Gleneagles was announced, his council steamed into action, with a website devoted to events leading up to the summit. Included was a full-blown climate conference all of its own, which came up with some rather more radical conclusions than President Bush will allow next month. The council has produced a book called Welcome to our World, which has proved so popular that they’ve had to print another run.

Scott expects some 4,000 international journalists to descend on Perthshire - and he’ll be ready for them. “They’ll be talking about the environment, and what better place to come to than Perthshire, which has the best-looking environment you can find? I hope they take a look and say, ‘That looks like a nice place to go.’ We’ve already had some press people here, and believe me, Perthshire is not difficult to sell.” The journalists were taken round Scone Palace, the Famous Grouse Experience and the Perth races, and by all accounts they left happy.

But isn’t he worried that the armour-plated security that is being laid on to deal with mass protests may obliterate the Perthshire he wants the world to see? “Not at all,” says Scott. “This will be policed in a Scottish way. We’re not aware of any massed protests planned for Perth, and though they say there’s going to be a gathering in Auchterarder, I imagine it will be on a small scale. Auchterarder’s just a small place, after all, and people have no right to swamp a small community. I’m sure all will be well - providing we get good weather.”

Back at Gleneagles, Peter Lederer casts an eye over the foyer, and pronounces himself content. What is his most fervent wish for the G8 summit? “I would like all the delegates and journalists to go away saying, ‘What a welcome we had. The people were genuinely interested in what we were doing and in making sure our life was made as easy as possible.’ I think if 7,500 people go away with those sorts of feelings about such a spectacular-looking place then, when the G8 goes to Russia next year, they’re going to have a tough job to beat us. That would be great, and that’s what I’d like to see.”

©Magnus Linklater

References

This article:

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/spectrum.cfm?id=668162005

Earlier articles in the series

1. Linklater, Magnus (2005). Linklater's Scotland. Scotland on Sunday 20th March 2005
See SOCIAL/ECONOMIC/POLITICAL Homepage, filed 24 Mar 05, www.land-care.org.uk Click Here to View

2. Linklater, Magnus (2005). Linklater's Scotland - Easter in Easterhouse. Scotland on Sunday 27th March 2005
See SOCIAL/ECONOMIC/POLITICAL Homepage, filed 31 Mar 05, www.land-care.org.uk Click Here to View

3. Linklater, Magnus (2005). Linklater's Scotland - Farming. Scotland on Sunday 3rd April 2005
See SOCIAL/ECONOMIC/POLITICAL Homepage, filed 07 Apr 0505, www.land-care.org.uk Click Here to View

4. Linklater, Magnus (2005). Linklater's Scotland - Pitlochry. Scotland on Sunday 10th April 2005
See SOCIAL/ECONOMIC/POLITICAL Homepage, filed 15 Apr 05, www.land-care.org.uk Click Here to View

5. Linklater, Magnus (2005). Linklater's Scotland - Supermarkets. Scotland on Sunday 17th April 2005
See SOCIAL/ECONOMIC/POLITICAL Homepage, filed 19 Apr 05, www.land-care.org.uk Click Here to View

6. Linklater, Magnus (2005). Linklater's Scotland - Kelvingrove. Scotland on Sunday 24th April 2005
See SOCIAL/ECONOMIC/POLITICAL Homepage, filed 29 Apr 05, www.land-care.org.uk Click Here to View

7. Linklater, Magnus (2005). Linklater's Scotland - Scottish regiments. Scotland on Sunday 1st May 2005
See SOCIAL/ECONOMIC/POLITICAL Homepage, filed 05 May 05, www.land-care.org.uk Click Here to View

8. Linklater, Magnus (2005). Linklater's Scotland - Pete Irvine, impresario. Scotland on Sunday 8th May 2005
See SOCIAL/ECONOMIC/POLITICAL Homepage, filed 13 May 05, www.land-care.org.uk Click Here to View

9. Linklater, Magnus (2005). Linklater's Scotland - once a nation of adventurous entrepreneurs. Scotland on Sunday 15th May 2005
See SOCIAL/ECONOMIC/POLITICAL Homepage, filed 16 May 05, www.land-care.org.uk Click Here to VIEW

10. Linklater, Magnus (2005). Linklater's Scotland - the heroism of John Moffat. Scotland on Sunday 22nd May 2005
See SOCIAL/ECONOMIC/POLITICAL Homepage, filed 24 May 05, www.land-care.org.uk Click Here to View

11. Linklater, Magnus (2005). Edinburgh pronounced World City of Literature.
See SOCIAL/ECONOMIC/POLITICAL Homepage, filed 04 June 05, www.land-care.org.uk Click Here to View

12. Linklater, Magnus (2005). Scotland's fish-farms.
See SOCIAL/ECONOMIC/POLITICAL Homepage, filed 10 June 05, www.land-care.org.uk Click Here to View

13. Linklater, Magnus (2005). Scotland's budding tennis talent.
See SOCIAL/ECONOMIC/POLITICAL Homepage, filed 16 June 05, www.land-care.org.uk Click Here to View

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