"The problems of Africa are ... not to be solved by a few pop stars singing their hearts out every 20 years to tens of thousands of people who couldn't find Burkina Faso on a map. Even if all the money raised went directly to the poorest people on the continent, without passing through and sticking to the hands of aid workers, bureaucrats, politicians and warlords (which experience shows is a highly unlikely eventuality), it would do little lasting good. It is actually likely to do more harm.

Michela Wrong Observer, June 5

"There's a puzzling idea doing the rounds on Africa ... It runs something like this: the bad old days in Africa ... are over. The Mois, Mobutus and Bokassas are either dead or in retirement. Western governments ... can fully engage with a new generation of upright, forward-thinking African leaders with the continent's welfare at heart. Of course, the argument runs, we must still be responsible with our money. But with this new generation at the helm, we can write off the billions of dollars in 'odious' debts made to the old, discredited type of African leader ...

"There are precious few signs of this enlightened 'new leadership' ... I pin my hopes on the emergence of a breed of young, educated, technologically-aware Africans who, less burdened by the rigid demands of tribal loyalty and free of the inferiority complexes of the colonial era, will stride confidently towards the future. But we are not there yet."

Simon Jenkins Sunday Times, June 5

"If the G8 really cares about world poverty, it will avoid Gleneagles and meet instead on a Glasgow dockside. There delegates will watch the unloading of a cargo of sugar, rice, fruit, cotton and coal from the third world. Afterwards they will ... witness the ceremonial sinking of a ship crammed with their own surpluses, about to be dumped on African markets ...

"For the past six years the G8 has been preaching relief yet maintaining vicious trade sanctions against Africa and Asia. It has denied them markets for their produce and flooded them with surpluses ... destroying local industries and impoverishing populations. This has nothing to do with the corruption or lethargy of 'ungovernable Africa'. It is economic warfare by the G8 against the poor ... If Tony Blair is serious about 'tackling world poverty', he should devote his present junketing to ... a crash programme of preferential, bilateral trade deals with poor countries."

Richard Stott Sunday Mirror, June 5

"If effing and blinding could solve Africa's problems Bob Geldof would have made poverty history years ago. But it can't. Neither can a million people wrecking Edinburgh or the G8 Gleneagles summit. Nor can the cancellation of third world debt. Only Africa can do it ...

"Geldof does us no favours by blaming the developed nations for Africa's ills. Certainly we must stop dumping our surplus goods, but Africa will never rid itself of poverty until it banishes corruption, tribal hatreds, political murder, greed and self-aggrandisement. Live 8 will perpetuate the myth that all you need is love in Africa when it needs tough economic and political enlightenment. If Africa's renegade leaders detect another western bung on the way they will sit back and do nothing."

Karl Ziegler Mail on Sunday, June 5

"Will cancelling third world debt really benefit the poorest Africans? ... Billions of pounds of aid and loans have poured into Africa since the 70s. Yet ordinary Africans are little better off. So where did the money go? The truth is it ended up in the pockets of the ruling elite ...

"Geldof and Make Poverty History demand the poorest countries have their debt written off entirely. But where does that leave those, like Kenya, that have conscientiously paid their dues? It rewards profligacy and misrule. The countries that benefit are those who have the biggest debt and are least able to pay it off - generally because they are so corrupt ... No campaign to end poverty has a hope of success without a major initiative to counter corruption."

Independent on Sunday Editorial, June 5

"It is always easy to cavil, to sneer at idealism ... It is easy to dismiss the motives of rich celebrities wearing white wristbands ... Above all, it is easy for those who broadly agree on the objectives to disagree about the policies for achieving them. It should be recognised that, in their approach to poverty in Africa and elsewhere, Geldof, Mr Blair and Gordon Brown are all essentially on the same side. It is even possible to recognise that George Bush has done some good in Africa ...