It won widespread praise and commanded huge headlines. It was just the success that the pressure group Jubilee 2000 needed to keep the momentum on Third World debt relief going before its name becomes obsolete. But most initiatives on debt relief need to be put in perspective. International finance is horrendously complex and easily presented with aid of a puff of smoke and shiny mirrors. Generous packages turn out to be not so generous in the small print.
Conditions often mean that in fact they never happen.
The Chancellor's latest announcement is no exception. Which, in the big scheme of things, is not that much. For many of them, interest payments on their debts aren't even remotely covered by their foreign earnings. Money is flowing from the poorest countries to the richest. So our Christmas present to the world's poor works out at just 50 pence per British citizen per year.