The arrogance of Saint Bob Geldof

[Jan Klimkowski]

(Geldof) gives a more detailed description of Live 8, the string of benefit concerts inspired by the 1985 campaign.

"Richard [Curtis] and Bono came to me and said do another gig. I said you fucking do it if you're so eager. Bono said he'd play with McCartney and they'd open the gig with "It was 20 years ago today" – a reference to Live Aid. I wanted to see that. Precisely that rock n roll moment I wanted to see, so I said ok. That's why I did it. Pathetic but y'know …"

To use the only frame of reference that Geldof seems to understand: Bob, you're a self-obsessed wannabe A-List celebrity sellout.

The Starsuckers film alleges that Geldof exaggerated the impact of his campaign in the aftermath of the summit. Controversially, Geldof gave world leaders "ten out of ten" for their aid spending commitments and "8 out of ten" for their promises on debt relief. In his letter Geldof reiterated his assessment, but said, on reflection, G8 leaders deserved an upgrade on for their work on debt cancellation, and scored them "ten out of ten".

He contrasted the success of the Live 8 initiative with the efforts of anti-poverty demonstrators who "were never mentioned" at the summit, where they wielded "not a single shred of influence".

"The G8 has become a pointless ritual where the marchers and the wankers dressed as clowns (wow! Radical) get to throw stones at cops miles from the decision makers, who can't even hear them, and the cops get to crack some heads," he said, adding that he suspected other campaigners knew that his methods were simply more effective. "I can do rock n roll, they can do marching."

The wanker I see is Saint Bob busily deifying his "mates" Saint Tony, Saint George and the holy G8.

Geldof is a complete asshole.