An end to financial folly – and a chance to truly help

AT LAST common sense has returned to the Department for International Development, and rigid, foolish dogma is on the way out. The Mail on Sunday strongly welcomes Priti Patel’s wise decision to heed our campaign and base foreign aid on real needs rather than abstract targets. So, no doubt, will our readers, so many of whom signed our petition calling for reform.

The pledge to spend a fixed 0.7 per cent of national income on aid was a recipe for folly, waste and corruption. It has meant handouts to terrorist groups and the construction of an unusable airport. Rather than assessing projects on their merits, officials were bound to judge them on whether they helped fulfil this arbitrary quota.

Ms Patel’s rule, that she will underspend if it suits the taxpayer to do so, is a sound one which other Ministers should adopt. It will enable her to veto plans that are wasteful or likely to put cash into corrupt hands. The aid lobby will no doubt denounce Ms Patel, claiming to be on the side of compassion. This is how they have persuaded past governments, worried about looking good rather than doing good, to overspend. But compassion without wisdom is not compassion at all.