The World Development Movement has been banned from entering Singapore during the annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Alan Oxley, the former Australian Ambassador to GATT, says, well, great:

The pattern of approach of radical NGOs to international meetings has been the same since the riots at the WTO meeting in Seattle in 1999, including against the Bank in Washington.

The Bank and Fund should have commended the Singapore Government for taking prudent action to reduce the cost of policing the meeting (the Hong Kong WTO meeting cost around US$40 million) and reducing the risk of disruption of the meeting, damage to facilities and harm to delegates.

I am uneasy about the banning of the World Development Movement not least because it makes them martyrs. What I find odd is that the WDM and other hard-Left ideological groups actually like wasting their time and money (while damaging the environment) going to conferences where they can’t take part in the negotiations, instead having to stand out in the cold. What does any of this achieve?