International development’s statist underpinning

Why increase aid to Afghanistan by 40pc when troops are dying from a lack of body armour and helicopters? The pledge to not just protect but vastly increase the aid budget is one which, polls show, leaves the public puzzled.  I was on the Politics Show with Jon Sopel, who was putting to Andrew Mitchell some very sharp questions about all of this. Why build schools in Afghanistan, but cancel them in Britain? Worse, in fact, DFID has a habit of building schools but not finding teachers for them – its ideology states that teaching should be a job for central government, just like it is in Britain. The Afghan government is corrupt and pays a pittance for teachers, who can usually earn more as translators for other foreigners, etc. So the school goes empty, and British money is wasted.

Then there is India. Cameron is on a trade trip there later, asking how Britain can get a slice of the money from this booming country (we tend to export to economies that aren’t growing).