Brown’s poverty of thought

I simply disagree with those who criticised Gordon Brown’s Camp David performance in this morning’s press. He struck me as assured, and eloquent. But he has just let himself down in New York, banging on about his last-century approach to poverty reduction. He wants to give Africa the remedy he prescribes for Britain – borrowing a huge pot of cash, then resorting to hand-outs. Not for him the free trade recipe which has transformed Asia. Brown’s instincts lead him to see overseas aid as a government-to-government task, rather than a people-to-people task. The fact is, world poverty has never been lower thanks to the people-to-people miracle of global capitalism. If Brown is serious about helping Africa he should embrace this – and pull Britain out of the Common Agricultural Policy, which is the real white man’s shame. I’d love to see the Conservatives give him a proper fight on this.