Britain’s foreign aid should empower women

Here is a question. Which politician said the following: “We’ve seen too that when women are empowered economically they are more likely to have a voice in the community and to be advocates for other women.” Or “Britain will be placing women at the heart of the whole of our agenda for international development”. Clare Short? No. Hillary Clinton? Nope. Harriet Harman? Wrong. It is former Army officer and International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell speaking yesterday to the think-tank Carnegie Endowment in Washington DC.
 
To some, his comments will illustrate how the Conservative Party has moved to far away from its roots. But in fact it is both a welcome return to the kind of policies that were promoted by Lynda Chalker, the Secretary of State for Overseas Development under John Major, but also an important way to show that the modern Tories are not only being “de-nastified” by partnership with the Liberal Democrat, but are holding on to the enlightened positions the party adopted while in opposition.