IF FOREIGN AID ISN'T USED TO ENFORCE ANGLO-AMERICAN POLICY...:

The Conservatives and aid: Tough love: Last time the Conservatives were in government, there was not even a minister in cabinet with responsibility for international development (Editorial, 6/04/10, The Guardian)

Straddling the awkward cleavage between development as a moral imperative and development as a tool of foreign policy is only going to become more difficult in the harsh wind of austerity. Other players in the development sector are watching to make sure that the commitment to spend 0.7% of national income on aid is not subverted by siphoning some off for projects that are less about ending poverty than promoting Britain's interests abroad. And yesterday's promise to observe the vague OECD criteria for what counts as aid spending is not reassuring. In opposition, the Tories used their conversion to the importance of aid as proof that they were nasty no more. It's a card that plays both ways.

...then you aren't following the moral imperative anyway.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 4, 2010 6:28 AM