The Sketch: We are only obeying orders when we shame the civilised world

There's a rule, usually correct, that nothing should be compared with the Holocaust. For reasons not just of judgement but also of taste.

On the other hand, it may also be true that our descendants will regard post-war Third World history as one long holocaust. They'll look at the living skeletons, the mass graves, the flies walking in and out of children's mouths and they'll ask the question: Who was responsible?

Tony Blair yesterday told the House that we were all responsible. "These are facts," he said, "which shame the civilised world". It's our fault, you notice. We're to blame. We're all guilty.

My own instinct was: "Speak for yourself, matey."

Hunger exists amidst plenty because of the actions of the political class. More specifically, Europe's political class. The Common Agricultural Policy with its prohibitions, its quotas, its tariffs, its non-tariff barriers keeps Africa hungry. The EU spends twice as much on subsidies for its cows than sub-Saharan Africa earns. Who's responsible for that? Not me. Not you either. The blame is so diffused as to be unattributable. Bureaucrats, functionaries, negotiators, politicians, presidents, prime ministers. The political class buying off voting sectors.

The most common defence of the bureaucrats who implemented the Holocaust was that they were obeying orders. The modern politician says something equally evasive: "We're committed to reforming the CAP but it's very difficult." They've been saying that for nearly 40 years.

Mr Blair was reporting the results of the G8 summit to the House with his particular brand of pathological optimism.

We are committed to. We will continue our efforts to. This will help to ensure that. We have pledged to. We must tackle the underlying issues. We will have a joint plan in place. We reaffirmed our commitment to. We pledged our support to.

There's an Education Task Force (and how well they've worked here): it will "increase significantly bilateral aid to basic education for African countries with a strong policy and financial commitment".

Oh, really? They have a target. It's to have every Third World child in primary education by 2015. It's one of those Prescott pledges. "Judge me on my record, but not yet." The Prime Minister sees these much-done-much-to-do situations everywhere. "This is not our destination ... But it is a new departure."

Iain Thing made a good fist of a reply, but lacking all parliamentary qualities he failed to make any of it stick. He did point out a certain hollowness in Mr Blair's policy of tying aid to good governance. Not one word, he said, had been offered on Zimbabwe, either in the official communiqué or in the Prime Minister's statement. G8 could have demanded fresh presidential elections, he said, or co-ordinated sanctions; something to show that we mean what we say.

Mr Blair, meaning what he said for once, found that contemptible. He accused the Tory leader of talking "sheer vacuous nonsense". He also said: "The commitments African leaders are making ... really will transform the environment in which our aid is invested." For sheer vacuous nonsense that was pretty good too. "We expect," he said, British aid to Africa to rise to £1bn over the next three years. Maybe his expectation will be met. And equally probably, it won't. But until the CAP is properly reformed the holocaust will continue whether the aid increases or not.

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