It has succeeded in putting the issue on the public agenda with a little help from Bono and Muhammed Ali. When the Paris Club of the world's richest nations meets behind closed doors to decide how much debt relief to give Mozambique or Uganda, their ruminations have not been disturbed by the thought of hordes of journalists waiting for the press release. Grants are made to health and educational projects supervised by the government, aid agencies and external creditors. Bolivia and Guyana have set up similar schemes. Money saved from debt relief must go towards relieving poverty or the exercise is pointless.
Northern corporations pay bribes to local politicians.
One would hardly describe Lord Lawson, John Major, or Kenneth Clarke as naive, yet all three have played a major international role in promoting debt relief. What they grasped back in the eighties is that the billions of debt were snarling up the world's banking system. Debts were not being repaid or serviced and, as they grew, they strangled the ability of countries to develop, trade and buy our products. Debt was not good for anyone. The Financial Times is not a newspaper known for its bleeding heart, but it has consistently pressed for the problem to be tackled.