Aid? What aid? Why the UK ignores its record on international development

Labour and the Conservatives have a good record on foreign aid spending, but neither want to talk about it during this election campaign

Rarely, if ever, has there been a more parochial election. Apart from the confected row about the renewal of Trident, the two main parties seem curiously indifferent to what is going on beyond Britain's shores, unless it involves immigration. The assumption is that voters only really care about bread-and-butter domestic issues such as whether they have a job and a roof over their head.

Yet it is not so long ago that people took to the streets of Birmingham in 1998 to demand that the G8 countries provided debt relief to the world's poorest nations. Action followed because it was obvious plenty of voters cared passionately about international development. When the UK next hosted the G8 seven years later, the agenda at Gleneagles was dominated by Africa and the looming threat of climate change. The people who took part in the Jubilee 2000 and Make Poverty History campaigns are still there. They haven't gone away.