Of all the G8 leaders...

[...]

"Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel and Gordon Brown are disliked at home; George Bush is a lame duck; Silvio Berlusconi is changing the law to indemnify himself; Dmitri Medvedev is regarded as Vladimir Putin's creature and, in any case, Russia does not merit inclusion in the G8 by virtue either of its democratic structures or the size of its economy; Yasuo Fukuda, the host, has just become the first ever Japanese leader to have a censure vote passed against him in parliament.

Of all the leaders, only Stephen Harper - the talented but curiously neglected Canadian prime minister - is able to point to a popular and successful record in office.

Some will regard it as alarming that, in current times, world leadership should rest with Canada. But the Canadian Tories are a model of how to behave during a downturn.

They have kept spending in check and reduced taxes. They are playing their full role in world affairs, notably in Afghanistan.

Rather than canting about saving the world (Mr Harper, in his quiet and courteous way, is a Kyoto-sceptic) they have addressed themselves to curing remediable ills and, above all, to putting their own affairs in order.

If the rest of the world had comported itself with similar modesty and prudence, we might not be in this mess."