Soft power, hard hearts

WHEN it comes to overseas aid, the British are hard-headed but not hard-hearted, David Cameron declared on July 19th in Nigeria, on the last day of an African tour cut short by the phone-hacking scandal. The line was in part a snappy soundbite. But it was also a plea, as voters rebel against the idea—popularised under the previous, Labour government but embraced by Mr Cameron—that Britain should become an “aid superpower”.

In Lagos, Mr Cameron painted a vision of British aid as a catalyst for economic growth. To reassure “aid sceptics” back home, who worry about money going astray, Britain will focus its cash on things that are “quantifiable and measurable”, such as campaigns to vaccinate millions of children, he vowed. The prime minister talked of unclogging regional and international trade with investments in new internet links, roads and more professional customs services. He positively boasted that he had flown to Africa with a plane “full of business leaders”. Yes, Britain should help the starving and those ravaged by war, drought and disease, he said; but growth, nurtured by free trade and political reforms, had the potential to wean Africa off aid altogether.