I have three quick points.
The first is that there's a difference between having a risk appetite and being foolhardy, so you need to be able to demonstrate that you have a good risk assessment procedure in place and a good risk register.
Second, the value of well-informed and active politicians can never be underestimated. You have that kind of committee in Canada. In the U.K., the international development select committee is the last bulwark between the popular press on the one hand and, it sometimes feels, sensible decision-making on the other.
The third point to make is about another Andrew Mitchell innovation. He introduced completely independent evaluation by creating the Independent Commission for Aid Impact, which reports not to the government but to the select committee and has been able to look at DFID's private sector strategy, for example, and is another way of providing an intelligent assessment and, if necessary, some cover for the people at the sharp end.