In view of the proposed short term cuts of £6.2 billion and long term cuts of £160 billion Can any one explain why the overseas aid budget has not been "ring fenced".??
We now find ourselves not being given an option of tightening our belts, rather it is being imposed o n us against our will.
Overseas aid expenditure at the present stands at £6 billion and is set to increase to £9billion or 0.7% of gross domestic product.
If I thought for one moment that all that money was indeed used to put food in front of the needy then I would not have an objection. However the facts are that all this aid is not used for the purposes as proscribed. A good percentage of it is syphoned off to grease palms of corrupt governments, to buy arms which in turn help undemocratic governments to suppress there own peoples.
If one considers all the different varieties of corruption across the world and delve into the financing of any of them you will find overseas development aid forms a stable grounding.
My question to the new government is as follows
"If I am asked to make cut backs on essentials then why is my government not imposing the same terms of referance to overseas aid"??
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
When the (new) Government have been talking about ring-fencing money for the NHS, Defence and Overseas Aid, I wondered why ring-fence Overseas Aid, that surely is one of the first that should go - isn't it ?
Roger
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
at that price i would have thought so to.
A good percentage of overseas aid goes to ............................... China!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Aparently TB/GB felt we had a moral duty to help them fight poverty.
Want to save £6b? Stop this unnecessary expenditure, NOW!
Guest 693- Registered: 12 Nov 2009
- Posts: 1,266
Quite right. If some harsh decisions have to be made with regard to domestic cutbacks, the same yardstick must be applied to overseas aid. We simply cannot afford it.
True friends stab you in the front.
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
I have to say that I disagree wih this ringfencing. Overseas Aid should be subject to cuts in the current climate.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
i thought that the money was just a sweetener to smooth the way for british companies to get contracts in the recipients country.
bit of a joke throwing money at china.
Howard, now you are being cycnical if I may say. We are not throwing money at China.
According to Gordie, we are at the forefont of the global war on terrorism, oops sorry, poverty. China is so poor it needs every penny good old Britannia can spare. The thought that communist China is a world power second only to the U.S. at the moment, is only a rumour put about by those nasty capitalist media types. Socialism has been so succesful in China they need our financial help; imagine!!!!
Dear Sid Perkins,
Have to say I admire your wit, unfortunately the fact that this country still provides aid to China is no laughing matter. Along with dozens of affluent countries one would never imagine need to have there grubby hands stuck in the UK cash box.
I do not have any figures to hand but it does not take a brain of Einstiens calibre to work out just how badly we are being taken to the cleaners.
Two examples come to mind, millions of our money are given to the red cross and oxfam and what happens to all that money?? well lets just recall the list of organisations who lost millions in the Icelandic fiasco?? you've guessed it the red cross and oxfam among others.
I would not want any one to think I have made a mistake when I say that we as tax payers "GIVE" these organisations money directly through taxation, we dont, but it is given through the department for overseas development and aid .
We should be grateful for the outcome of the election in one respect in as much as the secretive Douglas Alexander was relieved of his power. Hopefully the running of the aid department will be more open in future,we shall just have to wait and see.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
i'm not trying to be clever jimmy, but post 7 sums it up.
nothing to do with helping people.
Jimmy, you think I am laughing at us giving China aid? Quite frankly I am disgusted and if I were PM would stop overseas aid immediately. No blabbing do-good socialist would persuade me otherwise. Britain must come first.
Guest 690- Registered: 10 Oct 2009
- Posts: 4,150
Although I`ve heard of overseas aid over the years, I`m out of my depth with the hard core facts about it, but I never see our aid compared with what other countries do. Excluding the U.S. is it just us, or a few/many other countries doing the same?
Tell them that I came, and no one answered.
Guest 693- Registered: 12 Nov 2009
- Posts: 1,266
Given the size of the budget deficit, China should be giving us aid.
True friends stab you in the front.
Guest 645- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,463
1 August 2009 - 1:44pm#1
I posted the following on the above date thought it might be worth re-posting..
I read the other day that as Britain considers reducing it spending on defence, India has just ordered a new nuclear warship costing 2 billion pounds...we gave them £800m this year in overseas aid..do they need our aid cash if they can afford to fritter away £2b on a never to be used nuclear warship...it beggars belief and theres more (to use Jimmy Crickets punchline) the £250 million we recently gave to Sierra Leonne has all but vanished into thin air.
Most forumites will know me as a labourite, a leftie or even a loony but this aid was hopefully awarded in order to improve the "lot" of the poor by providing food education and health care together with improvements in the countrys infra-structure and was not gifted so that corrupt govt officials and bent UK contractors can line their own pockets.
Its time for a "Torygraph" expose of where our overseas aid money is going and what its being spent on.
Marek
I think therefore I am (not a Tory supporter)
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
marek,
Thanks for posting that again Marek.
I would just like to add that I was in Freetown, Sierra Leone a couple of times last year. Please do not underestimate the damage that country suffered as a result of its civil war. Many many citizens are limbless and a large number of older folks lost their lives in the strif. It is slowly rebuilding itself and that will take time and a whole lot of money. £250m is a drop in the ocean compared to what th country needs. However, they are making progress but are still desperate for miners to extract the huge deposits of diamonds in the country. The current President firmly believes the diamond industry will revive the country's fortunes and who is to say he is wrong?
Sierra Leone has friendly people, great beaches and a real need for tourism to take off. I enjoyed my time in the country and didn't feel unsafe once; and that included walking to the airport ferry service in the dark.
Maybe more could be done if the aid given to China and India was redirected to Sierra Leone. I personally think they are more deserving.