After Gleneagles in 2005, Geldof

- speaking on behalf of the wretched

of the Earth, you understand

- gave the world's richest countries

"10 out of 10" for agreeing a deal on aid to Africa

Last Friday the tune, not one to whistle, had changed

Some campaigners will tell you that Bono and Geldorf,

unquestionably sincere, are as much part of

the problem as they are crusading

figureheads for the solution

When you win your "instant access"

to Tony Blair, who really benefits?

When you take your designer shades

to the White House do you really believe

that Bush has forgotten the meaning

of "photo opportunity"?

Geldof and Bono will be history long before

poverty is consigned to the history books

'When we marched to demand the world leaders make poverty history they said they were listening. They lied."

WHAT DO you do if you fail, deliberately, to keep a solemn promise? If you happen to lead one of the governments enjoying membership of the G8, the answer is easy: just make another promise.

If you are adept at the trick, you can even make an old, shabby, unfulfilled pledge sound like a brand-new vow. Some people will take years to catch on.

Nobody ever said that voluble Bob Geldof was slow on the uptake, but he and Bono, that other patron saint of celebrity compassion, have figured prominently among "some people" lately.

After Gleneagles in 2005, Geldof - speaking on behalf of the wretched of the Earth, you understand - gave the world's richest countries "10 out of 10" for agreeing a deal on aid to Africa. Last Friday the tune, not one to whistle, had changed.

Speaking at Heiligendamm, venue for the German summit, Geldof told the statespersons: "You know what, just stay at home lads. This pseudo world government bollocks just doesn't work."

Later, having worked out that an advertised $60 billion package involves only $3bn of new money - deliverable, possibly, only by 2010 - the former singer sounded like an evangelist scorned.

"I just did not expect it to be so cynical," he said. "I really did not expect this." Then, with an almost touching incredulity: "They signed a compact in 2005 with real numbers!" Real cynicism, too.

Those of us who suggested before Gleneagles that this is the way of the G8, and ever shalt be so, can take no pleasure in having placed a no-brainer bet.

Any quick shuffle through the records of the rich folks' club shows a recurring pattern: big talk, small change.

Whether Bono and Saint Bob should also be held culpable for pinning Africa's future on their own charisma is another matter.

Some campaigners will tell you that the pair, unquestionably sincere, are as much part of the problem as they are crusading figureheads for the solution.

When you win your "instant access" to Tony Blair, who really benefits?

When you take your designer shades to the White House do you really believe that George W Bush has forgotten the meaning of "photo opportunity"?

Geldof and Bono will be history long before poverty is consigned to the history books.

Until last week, nevertheless, they gave invaluable credibility to the cynics they berated and glad-handed. Now they know that several G8 countries simply lied, as always, about aid for the desperate.

At Gleneagles, the promise was of a doubling of development aid to $50bn a year, with half promised for Africa. The kitty, as things stand, is approximately (Oxfam's figure) $30bn short.

Given that slight embarrassment, the leaders naturally promised to "recommit" themselves as they flew from Germany.

Aspirations, costing nothing, were plentiful: to cut by half the number of malaria deaths in 30 African countries; to tackle HIV/Aids on the continent through universal access to drugs; to confront the emerging threat of tuberculosis.

Only Blair, with his legacy fixation, still believes it. In Germany, he talked of "major progress".

Then again, our departing prime minister is also prepared to pretend that President Bush is a climate change convert.

His evidence? The United States will "consider" a proposal to cut its carbon emissions by 50%. Consider it, that is, at some time between now and 2050.

AS Geldof sourly noted, even the Financial Times, rarely capitalism's worst enemy, has been disgusted by the G8's deceits.

After all, the tendency to value cheap words over real actions has been going on since Rambouillet in 1975, the year these affairs began. Slowly, patchily, disputably (given the political strings) the aid picture has improved slightly, though don't speak too soon.

Trade justice, the real grievance of the developing world, is still crushed under the fist of self-interest.

At Gleneagles, 21 solemn commitments were made. Only seven were fully carried through. Debt relief, Gordon Brown's great prize, has proved slow and cumbersome: a brutal combination if compound interest is your enemy.

Campaigners among the NGOs meanwhile report that 2.6 billion people remain without clean water and sanitation, and that 80 million children are deprived of an education. As Geldof might say, those too are real numbers.

At Heiligendamm, while disclaiming any special knowledge, just for once, the Irishman also drew a lesson from his own bitter disappointment over the treatment of Africa. If this is how they keep their word to the needy, he said in so many words, who trusts them on climate change?

Who indeed? No credible target for emissions was agreed, predictably.

The Europeans hoped merely for an attempt to "limit the global temperature increase to 2˚C", but even the wording of a full-blown empty promise could not be agreed.

So where does that leave Africa? Tormented by disease and debt, plagued by instability, robbed by trade rules, beset by famine: imagine the coming havoc born of an over-heating planet.

The next G8, in Japan, will have lots to say about it, no doubt, and sceptics will have lots to say about the questionable need for these self-regarding summits.

Blair, 11 of the things under his belt, is gratified simply because the Japanese have promised to keep Africa "on the agenda" after millions have been spent - £72 million for Gleneagles - on measures to keep the wrong kind of cynic away from the acceptable sort.

Abandoning G8 and funding the world's work effectively, through the United Nations, will never be "on the agenda".

G8 has become, perhaps always was, a mechanism for entrenching injustice. Geldof and Bono know it now, and they are welcome to a bigger club than the inner circle of jet-set angst.

On Friday, the leader of U2 even admitted that the ramshackle army of anti-globalisation (and the rest) protesters might have had a point all along. Meaning, presumably, that his own piety was a waste of breath.

The G8 circus has been in one town or another for more than 30 years. The snake oil salesmen are still in business.

Perhaps now, however, the trained beasts might guess that only we can set ourselves free. We wouldn't even have to make a promise. Ian Bell @ Sunday Herald