Rory Stewart

We're now on track for two and a half.

And where, of course, I'm going to be grumpy is that despite this panel on global inequality, all the figures are the inequality is getting worse.

And in fact,

The British government has massacred its international development budget.

It's less than half of what it was even five years ago.

The US government has wiped out its international development assistance.

The number of people living in extreme poverty in Africa has gone from about 180 million in 1980 to about 470 million today, and every indicator of inequality across the world

Seems to be going wrong.

Inequality of income, inequality of wealth, stagnation of median incomes.

So without any money and with everything going in the wrong direction, what on earth is this panel going to do consisting of Spain, Brazil and South Africa?

The thing that breaks my heart is that things that you and I violently agree on, and values that we would have taken for granted,

when you now say them aloud, seem beginning to feel more and more naive and mad.

I was looking at the UN General Assembly in September.

The UN General Assembly just three months ago was committed to leaving no one behind, acting together for the advancement of peace, sustainable development, and human dignity for present and future generations.

Now, what can we possibly disagree with that statement?

And yet for the

first time, thanks to Trump, Putin, Modi, and the rest of them, it's beginning to seem a bit ridiculous.

These phrases are beginning to seem laughable.

Very good.

Well, given, as you say, that only a small percentage of people have heard of Nathan Gill, let me try to explain who Nathan Gill is.