There isn’t the same acrimony towards UK government donations that exists towards the EU’s contribution. Don’t you think that’s odd?.
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Our government are donating on our behalf. What’s the point in the EU donation? Why not just reduce our EU tariffs, and enable us to give more to worthy causes directly? We don’t need a European dictatorship to be charitable.

Where did I say that? .

His whole post was questioning the legitimacy of the EU sending more of our money overseas. You described it as “moaning” – I would describe it as prudence, something that most, UK and EU alike seem to lack these days. It should be remembered that the money we are giving is not our own wealth, we are borrowing money to give it away. So on top of our healthy donations, there’ll be millions of pounds in interest to pay too.

I’m proud that we’re punching well above our weight with the donations, and I hope it’s making a significant difference to the recovery. I hope that, were the tables turned, nations would come to our aid as quickly and as generously.

I have seen reasons for moaning about the EU but this one takes the biscuit. It is giving money to help to recover from a natural disaster FFS. Jeez……

So, you believe that a political body is beyond scrutiny when being charitable?

I’m glad that we’ve donated so much, and even glad that the EU has in this instance. However, I would be keen to see a detailed breakdown of how these funds are being used, as all too often the money ends up in the wrong pockets.

Look at Italy for an example of how EU disaster funds directly fund organised crime.

The EU has also donated $17m on our behalf.

I can’t believe people are making excuses for the officers. Mitchell is a nasty piece of work, but that does not excuse what these officers have done. They have undermined the public trust in the Police in a very public manner, and should loose their jobs (and the perks).

It seems to me that many in the public sector have forgotten who they serve. This is the sort of nonsense we have to put up with when public institutions become heavily politicised, and the reason that the general public have a severe dislike of unions.

They’re happy to subsidise everything else, 40 billion would go a long way.

Wouldn’t it be wiser to invest this money on affordable internal flights? Far less destruction of the countryside.

If you want to go tomorrow then yes, rail travel can be expensive but booked in advance and travelling off-peak I’ll bet you can get a fare for less than half that. There is always the option of driving into London. Good luck with that!

Are you condoning the current exploitative system?

I’m all in favour of a modern rail system, but i oppose this project because of the outright cost (which will undoubtedly increase substantially) for the benefit provided, and then after we’ve paid for all this, they’ll then charge us a premium to use it.

While I’m not a fan of complete renationalisation, it isn’t fair that we have to stump up for this, for private business to benefit. Either we pay and we benefit, or private business can pay for it. Given the compelling case MPs are making for this, you’d expect investors to be lining up…