International Development (Reporting and Transparency) Bill

I agree. Harmony is breaking out across the Chamber. It is a relatively uncommon phenomenon, but in this case it is a very healthy state of affairs because it reflects the fact that people from different parties, united in good will, persuaded by the evidence and conscious of the moral imperative to help the developing world, are prepared to put aside their differences, in the way that the electorate would expect, to try to make lives better. We should be conscious of the pervasive cynicism in the country at large about politics and politicians. We have a responsibility—we often touch on it—to try to counter that phenomenon. The electorate today, in so far as they see, hear and take note of our proceedings, will regard this as an example of the House of Commons at its best, not at its worst. I want to add a further point; it is quite a big ambition for the Bill. I hope that as a result of the Bill and the greatly increased focus on international development matters that can be a by-product of it, we will educate much more widely the public at large about the importance of these matters. Yes, there is a great constituency out there who think that the issues are important, but let us be clear that there are also many people who have not the foggiest idea what this country spends on international development. In America, polling suggests that a lot of people think that their Government spend anything from 5 to 20 per cent. of gross domestic product on international development, whereas we know that it is, as a share of GDP, substantially less than we in this country spend. I would wager that not one person in 100 among the electorate would know what this country currently spends on international development. If we can achieve that greater intensity of focus on the issue, give it that political priority and begin that dialogue between ourselves and the electorate, it will serve to show how serious we are and encourage people in our constituencies to press us and the Government of the day, irrespective of their political pedigree, to step up to the challenge and to do more. The hon. Member for Amber Valley (Judy Mallaber) referred earlier to her participation in the project to send boxes of educational materials to Africa. I was fortunate to participate in that project, diligently instigated and pursued by the hon. Member for Northampton, North (Ms Keeble). I am delighted that it made a difference in some of those recipient African countries, and I can tell the House how gratified the children in schools in Buckingham are that what they have done has made a difference to children of a similar age in the poorest parts of the world. If we can ensure that there is awareness of the Bill in every school in this country, we will be doing a signal service to the education system, to the importance of international development and to the cause of increased pressure from the electorate on the Government of the day to do more, to do better and to accept the responsibility to report on both.