Our lead story this morning is that British prime minister Gordon Brown is appealing to hi-tech companies to try and encourage growth in developing countries and help fight poverty.
As my colleagues Larry Elliott and Sarah Boseley reported:
Gordon Brown plans to harness at least 20 of the world's biggest multinational companies, including Google and Vodafone, to tackle a "development emergency" in the world's poorest countries
[...]
The prime minister has been holding talks with the internet and telecoms giants as well as other international companies including Goldman Sachs and Wal-Mart in an attempt to find ways of increasing growth in poor countries.
It's not the first time that politicians have courted tech companies - although perhaps Google has better links with David Cameron's Tories than Brown's Labour - and it's unlikely to be the last.
But what could Google really do? Of course, like most big companies, Google and Vodafone both have some form of corporate social responsibility effort. Indeed, the internet company has a foundation led by the excellently named Dr Larry Brilliant. And we've seen Bill Gates getting increasingly involved in aid and development as he moves away from Microsoft.
The details of Brown's approach seem sketchy - I'm not sure whether he's going to be promoting private investment in public services, or simply encouraging huge corporates to start setting up business in developing nations and investing in their communities.
But is it the business of technology companies to do this? Or is this a politician's attempt to bring in fresh blood when other forms of aid have failed?
