Stryker McGuire is an American journalist working in London. McGuire is a contributing editor at Newsweek magazine, where he was a correspondent, bureau chief and editor for 30 years; the founding editor of International Quarterly , and an associate at Lombard Street Research, an economics consultancy in the City of London.

It’s time to let the Group of Eight die in the rubble of L’Aquila, home to this week’s summit, says Stryker McGuire, because what the G-8 really lacks is leadership.

Politically, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is a dead man walking. Forty-two-year David Cameron is preparing to lead the Tories into power by giving the stiff party of Thatcher an image makeover.

The long-simmering tension between Gordon Brown and his chancellor of the exchequer, Alistair Darling, spilled into the open this week, as the two men lock horns over Britain’s stimulus package. Stryker McGuire on how history is repeating itself.