Who knows?

It seems there's going to be a rumble in the streets of Edinburgh, vaguely related to the G8 conference, and promoted by such figures as Bob Geldof and, more interestingly, Gordon Brown. Excellent work from our Prime Mnister-in-waiting. This whole "make poverty history" campaign sounds great doesn't it? Wonderful idea that no one would possibly disagree with. How we go about it, on the other hand, is where the real problem lies. Simply writing off debt won't work. Africa is made up of countries with corrupt governments and civil wars waging. If you simply write off debt, you risk lining the pockets of dictators or funding bloody massacres. Obviously this is a sweeping generalisation and there are as many different situations as there are countries, with some success stories. But what is needed is an aid programme linked to reform - conditional aid if you will. This will be met with screams of attempted colonial interference, but really is the only sensible way to make any progress. Billions of pounds have been thrown at the continent already and little progress has been made. If anything conditions have worsened, particularly with the spread of HIV Aids.

And if the countries of the western world really wanted to help, a good place to start would be the crazy, unfair subsidies that they throw at their farmers. The Common Agricultural Policy in Europe is a disgrace. Not that it's wise to talk about this at the moment. The French government and the EU are unpopular enough as it is without discussing removing the billions of euros that the CAP gives to France each year.

If you think the protests in Edinburgh are going to be lively, just imagine what hell would break loose in France if their precious CAP was threatened.