Cameron’s pledge to grow Britain’s foreign aid & international development budget to 0.7% of GDP will mean an extra £1 billion will go to the department over the next 5 years taking its share to £12.5 billion. Or to put it another way, £100 for every household in the UK.
At a time when cuts are being made across the board to everything from education to transport, the home office to defense – how can the government justify giving away yet more of our tax abroad?
I have nothing against private individuals donating their own personal income to charity, and I do believe charity has done a lot of good to mankind of the years – but it is us who fund the government and it makes my blood boil to see how they just give it all away. I say cut the aid budget by 100%!
It could be used to increase the NHS budget by 10%.
Pay for the 2 new royal navy aircraft carriers… twice.
Train, equip and pay an annual salary for 250,000 new police officers.
Pay for the construction of 357 new schools.
Pay for 105 new F-35B fighters.
Reduce the budget deficit by 10%.
Or lower your taxes by 2%.
This is how much the UK government throws away each year to pay for India and Nigeria’s lavish space programs, sending satellites to Mars and men into space.
By: cloud_9 - 14th January 2014 at 22:38
I believe the reason they do it is simple…
There is the belief that if one day Britain found itself in such a dire situation that it needed financial help from other countries then these countires who we’ve helped out now would be more inclined to want to give us a helping hand in our time of need. Sadly I don’t see this is a very realistic prospect given the amount of corruption that there is in the countries that we choose to help out.
I did saw an interesting fact a few days ago…did you know that all the cash in the world combined cannot pay off the US national debt?
By: charliehunt - 14th January 2014 at 19:51
Yes of course there is not the least of which is the phasing down of aid to India announced months ago and already debated here.
In principle I agree that foreign aid should be reduced.
By: Lincoln 7 - 14th January 2014 at 19:49
Perrrrleease don’t get me started on this Matt..I agree with you however, charity begins at home, although there are some who will treat your remarks differently.
Jim.
Lincoln .7
By: trumper - 14th January 2014 at 19:45
My instant answer is to agree 100% with you but i suspect that there is more beneath the headlines than we know at first sight.I have always said you should after your own first..
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January 14, 2014 at 7:36 pm