Stephen Pollard on Make Poverty History

By Alex Singleton | 23 May 2005

The New Labour columnist Stephen Pollard (pictured) writes in today's Times of London:

You've probably seen a picture in the past few days of Kate Moss, languidly clicking her fingers above the caption "Make Poverty History". It's not supposed to mean that it just takes one snap from Ms Moss to abolish poverty. Each click - the adverts include celebrities such as Colin Firth, George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Claudia Schiffer - represents a life lost in the Third World through poverty.

The aim of the Make Poverty History campaign is, of course, laudable. There is, however, one problem. The sheer wrong-headedness of the campaign's proposals to eliminate poverty leads one to think that Moss, Clooney et al are not mere adornments but have been responsible for the analysis underpinning them. The campaign could more accurately be renamed Make Poverty Permanent, such would be the effect of its proposals being implemented.