I’ve been intending to write this piece for a while now – for ten days to be precise. Dear Liam Fox, I wanted to start, because as you might remember – or not, in fact, because ten days is a long time in politics – ten days ago, much to his unfeigned surprise I am sure, the defence secretary’s charming letter criticising aid targets was leaked to the press. Now you might also remember that for more than understandable reasons – after all the letter was obviously aimed at the wider public and the far-right of the party rather than him – David Cameron didn’t even bother with an answer. Or maybe he did and it just wasn’t leaked but that amounts to the same, following the basic principle of modern government communication: if it hasn’t been leaked, it could as well not have happened. Anyway, it was such a nice and polite and only ever so slightly populist and inflammatory letter that I thought it deserved an answer. And, heaven knows, I was only too happy to take care of that. But time has this funny habit never to be available in sufficient quantities, and so the letter drafted in my head slowly sank into oblivion.
Thankfully, though, pride of British journalism The Daily Mail joined the debate with predictable enthusiasm and stirred up my irritation once more with its coverage of G8 spending on foreign aid. Britain, the Mail revealed, currently spends more on aid as a percentage of GDP than any other G8 country and shows the strongest commitment to reach the 0.7% target. Now call me naive, but in my world-view that is something to be proud of. And the Mail, I reasoned, likes a bit of national pride, so surely they wouldn’t miss the opportunity to point out that we’re doing a lot better than the French? I had so much to learn. Read the rest of this entry
