The Spectator’s Notes | 14 October 2006

From time to time, the parliamentary lobby journalists invite us to admire a particular politician. Minister X or shadow minister Y is suddenly presented as quite intensely able etc. For some time, Hilary Benn, the International Development Secretary, has occupied this enviable position. Has anyone any idea why? Obviously he is less mad and vain than his father, but so is almost everyone in the world. Besides, he appears entirely to lack his father’s charm and eloquence. If he were merely boring, though, one would have no complaint against him, but I think it is time to look harder at what DFID does under his stewardship. The rise of the department, often at the expense of the Foreign Office, has proved politically useful because the fact that it is devoted to aid makes people think that it acts benevolently without any political agenda. In reality, there is nothing more political in the world than aid, and it is often the chosen method of propping up an unpleasant regime.