G20 summit photograph: The call of nature that wiped Canada out of history

In the manner of a touring rugby second XV, or perhaps a small town choral society, the men and two women charged with rescuing the planet from financial oblivion lined up yesterday for their customary collective grin before heading off for one last stab at world-saving.

It was, one might have thought, a relatively straightforward task to photograph 30 world leaders and dignitaries, but whoever first noted the particular challenge presented by herding cats has never been to a G20 summit.

It was Barack Obama who first noticed the gap next to Angela Merkel. "Where are the Canadians?" he asked. Prime Minister Stephen Harper had, the Toronto Globe and Mail later reported, lost track of the time "while being briefed by an aide", though sources close to the summit lavatories suggested he had been responding to an altogether more primal call.

A few minutes later the leaders were back for another try. But this time Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Indonesian president, appeared to have vanished. Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's prime minister, too, was "taking a phone call".

There was a certain amount of diplomatic flapping, and optimistic talk of a third attempt, before it was suggested that the leaders had a few other things to be getting along with.

Protocol decrees that Gordon Brown, as host, stood at front and centre, with the dignitaries radiating out from him in order of seniority and length of service, meaning the positions on either side of Brown were reserved for the heads of state who had been in harness the longest - President Luis "Lula" Ignacio de Silva of Brazil and Hu Jintao of China. Sharp-eyed observers will note that the man standing next to him is not the Saudi king, Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, who for unexplained reasons did not show until later.

His place was taken by the Saudi foreign minister Prince Saud Alfaisal. As the new kid, Obama was shuffled slightly off centre.

But one does not have to have observed Obama ambling, grinning, to his place trailed by a small comet's tail of rapt prime ministers to note his confidence in the photocall.

Almost all of the dignitaries in the photograph wore a red enamelled lapel badge, which functioned, the foreign office explained, "like an all-areas pass". Gordon Brown was not issued with one - "we thought most people would recognise him". Obama sported a US flag pin, but no red badge.

There was, as there so often is, a third way. Close observation of Nicolas Sarkozy's lapel reveals the French president wore the badge but tucked it almost entirely out of sight through his buttonhole.

In such gestures is national pride salvaged.

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