The UK’s new Development Strategy shows it’s in the midst of an identity crisis
This all sounds worryingly like aid for trade and the financialisation and privatisation of development, and it’s ringing alarms bells for many. As Sarah Champion, Chair of the UK’s International Development Committee put it: “We all want our exporters to do well and to create jobs in the UK. But aid for trade is dangerous. It can distort the core, legally-stipulated purpose of our assistance – which is to support the poorest and most vulnerable. The UK has rightly been hugely critical of China for such an approach, so I fail to see why we are following down the same road.”
Sam Nadel from Oxfam UK for fp2p; Sarah Champion’s quote has been circulated widely these last couple of days & they summarize the concerns within the community quite well.
Britain plotted propaganda campaign against Amnesty International
In order to suppress an Amnesty International report on Britain’s use of torture in Northern Ireland, the Foreign Office plotted a secret propaganda campaign to discredit the report’s author.
Declassified after 50 years, a British file unveils a sinister plan to target a future Nobel Peace Prize recipient, and shows how UK officials marked civil society for covert information operations.
John McEvoy for Declassified UK with an interesting case study that rings remarkably contemporary as we look at current investigations, conflicts & human rights abuses…
Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire by Caroline Elkins review – the brutal truth about Britain’s past
Elkins coins the term “legalised lawlessness” to describe the self-serving methods by which Britain spread the rule of law and then viciously bent it to serve imperial ends. The first half of her book examines how this hypocrisy was rooted in the supremacist underpinnings of classical liberalism, the pervasive idea that “backward” societies would be transformed by the violent application of free trade and religious education. As David Livingstone’s rallying cry had it, as he hacked through far-off jungles with that trusty machete labelled “paternal despotism”: “Christianity, commerce and civilisation!”
Tim Adams reviews Caroline Elkins’ new book for the Guardian.
