The Pope reopens the international aid debate

Spare a dime for a travelling Ponfiff? The Department for International Development can – and then some. According to their latest accounts, they funnelled £1.85 million of cash across to the Foreign Office to help pay for the Pope’s visit to Britain last September. The money didn’t specifically come out of their ring-fenced aid budget, but it would normally have gone towards DfID operations overseas. “Somewhat surprising,” is how one member of the international development select committee has put it.

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Whatever your take on the Pope’s visit, this is still a story which reopens the wider debate about development spending. For many people, I’d imagine, it doesn’t make sense for the British government to be pushing ahead with overseas handouts when we are enduring cuts and tax hikes back home – and that goes doubly so when the money appears to be misdirected.