Should we stop......

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As we all know about the rise of poverty and food banks in the UK.......should we stop sending foreign aid until we get our own house in order or should we continue sending aid to other less fortunate countries than the UK......

We, as a nation, have always responded well to international crisis and on a personal level I have always contributed to overseas aid.....but recently I have become concerned about the levels of need in our own community......maybe we need to rethink foreign aid policy, maybe we need to send less .......I am not sure of a solution as I am well aware that many of these countries are in a far worse condition than the U.K. but I see so many people struggle on a local level also.

I have just read about India who are launching rockets into space yet until 2015 we are giving them £120 million in poverty aid per year.....is this not wrong?

Does anyone else have suggestions on how as a nation we should proceed, on how we can reduce local poverty and provide for our local communities....

All thoughts welcome.....no racist rants please.....let's keep the thread clean and unlocked
 
I hear you.
Baffles me that foreign aid is ringfenced from all these cuts we are forced to make. Surely we could rein it back for a year or two until our national debt is lowered substantially then put it back to "normal" levels.
 
It's like, we must have sent £millions to Africa over the years to aid the starving and the situation isn't getting any better - and yet the continent itself is the biggest exporter of gold, diamond, silver, tin and oil.

Just how and where has it all gone wrong along the way?
 
Ian D J said:
It's like, we must have sent £millions to Africa over the years to aid the starving and the situation isn't getting any better - and yet the continent itself is the biggest exporter of gold, diamond, silver, tin and oil.

Just how and where has it all gone wrong along the way?
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The native population of Africa don't have a clue how to run a county. You only have to look at Zimbabwe. It was the riches country in Africa at one stage until Mugabe took over. Look at South Africa now, they can't even manage to keep the lights on any more, and yet those running the country have spending billions on houses for themselves.

Aid sent to Africa will never be spent in the right places and is the reason I will never donate to these kind of charities.
 
The foreign aid ring fence and spend is a disgrace, how much of that money actually goes to people it should??

India is a joke, they have an aircraft carrier which we don't, and a space program yet we send them aid? We also send aid to China I believe... Africa is just plain corrupt, Zimbabwe is a classic example, people are quick to slag off bankers over here and demand cuts in bonus, yet are happy to ship money out to Africa to be spent on cars and palaces!! There is no justification for us spending this sort of money when we have homeless on our streets etc...

That said, I don't get the food banks and poverty at home stuff. For every person you see on the news in abject poverty you see others on benefits in decent homes with big TVs, computer games etc...
 
The Government hide behind the "International agreements" argument for continuing to send aid. Ok, can't argue, there may well be agreements.
But there's no justification for aid to say India.

If we are going to give aid, it should be under the strictest supervision of how it's spent.

But, I'd also like to see greater supervision of food banks here as well. Is the growth really a necessity? or are too many people taking the micky out of goodwill and pulling the wool over do gooders eyes?
 
Bernie174 said:
The Government hide behind the "International agreements" argument for continuing to send aid. Ok, can't argue, there may well be agreements.
But there's no justification for aid to say India.

If we are going to give aid, it should be under the strictest supervision of how it's spent.

But, I'd also like to see greater supervision of food banks here as well. Is the growth really a necessity? or are too many people taking the micky out of goodwill and pulling the wool over do gooders eyes?
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I saw something on TV the other night, I seem to recall it was Dianne Abbot, but I have reached the point where politicians tend to blur into each other, so might have been another female Labour MP, but anyway, the gist was that people don't go to food banks unless they absolutely have to, it's humiliating. Now I am quite sure that in many cases that is probably true, BUT I don't believe for minute that is the case for all, I am quite sure many are just taking advantage. We have in this country a real problem with a 'something for nothing' culture, an expectation that everything should be handed over on a gold plate and I cannot argue that part of the rise of foodbanks is due to this. However, that also takes us back to the problems with International Aid, earlier this year there was a report [will see if I can find it later] that had looked at aid in Africa and other nations and even in those areas where aid was getting through to the actual people who 'need' it, the same kind of expectation was starting to be present. The report said that there was a certain mentality of expecting a hand out and no longer wanting a hand up. Again, this is still a minority viewpoint I hope, but is something that needs to be considered.
In theory I have no problem at all with us, as a relatively wealthy nation, sending International Aid to anywhere in the world that genuinely needs it. I have a huge problem with that aid lining the pockets of corrupt officials and never making it to the people that actually need it. That is why I prefer, when I do donate, giving to charities that actually send in people and resources to do the work on the ground without ever actually just passing money over to be spent at random by whoever gets their grubby mitts on it first. I think it is time our governments took a much closer look at how much we send and monitor exactly what it is spent on.
 
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Yes we should educate the people of this country on better money management and prioritisation of what they spend their money on...

Having worked in finance previously in the form of credit cards, I've seen more than my fair share of financial difficulty statements and it's amazing how many are still spending money on luxuries such as sky TV, expensive gym membership etc, you'd be amazed how many who are in supposed poverty in this country are actually just terrible a prioritising what they actually spend their money on...

No all I add...but a large proportion
 
MWHCVT said:
Yes we should educate the people of this country on better money management and prioritisation of what they spend their money on...

Having worked in finance previously in the form of credit cards, I've seen more than my fair share of financial difficulty statements and it's amazing how many are still spending money on luxuries such as sky TV, expensive gym membership etc, you'd be amazed how many who are in supposed poverty in this country are actually just terrible a prioritising what they actually spend their money on...

No all I add...but a large proportion
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A classic example was on a news item a while back with a mum moaning how she has to use a food bank to feed kids etc... while puffing a fag!!!!!
 
cambsno said:
A classic example was on a news item a while back with a mum moaning how she has to use a food bank to feed kids etc... while puffing a fag!!!!!
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and probably putting a status about the interview on Facebook using the latest iPhone

Or the ones that cannot afford food but can afford to go out and get drunk

They're stereotypes really but that's because there is a lot of truth to it :(
 
I'd not let a penny leave our shores until we had sorted our own issues out. We've wasted billions over the years because we've been brow beaten in to so called foreign aid. That's money that could have been used to help do away for the need to have food banks in the first place, shore up our public sector, maintain our armed forces etc etc.

If you want your money to go abroad then give it to Geldof, Bono or some other self righteous, self appointed god!!
 
To be honest I don't have all that much of an issue with providing foreign aid, I do take issue with the counties and projects it's sometimes assigned to...

There's no debating this country needs to get its own house in order but that should be done by stopping fat public sector capital projects, honestly how some public employes have been allowed to sign off some of the contracts have have been in the last few years is frankly criminal

Just a few that come to mind are things like £13bn plus on the RAF tanker contract for assets that actually have a Capitol cost of likely half that

Or chinooks that were ordered that were not fit for purpose that then spent years in hangers while it was worked how to make them fit for purpose and how much that would cost...

Or any number of schools, hospitals etc that have been built but are now costing rent that by the end of the contracts will add up to 5 times the actual building cost...

And those are just headline wastage...there's likely just as much of not more monetary loss in smaller levels stuff...such also local authorities with excess management layers etc...
 
BRASH said:
I'd not let a penny leave our shores until we had sorted our own issues out. We've wasted billions over the years because we've been brow beaten in to so called foreign aid. That's money that could have been used to help do away for the need to have food banks in the first place, shore up our public sector, maintain our armed forces etc etc.

If you want your money to go abroad then give it to Geldof, Bono or some other self righteous, self appointed god!!
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:agree:
 
Accordoing to these people : http://ati.publishwhatyoufund.org/donor/ukdfid/ the UK is pretty good at getting its overseas aid to where it's supposed to go, rather than to new cars for politicians or whatever else certains sections of the media are claiming this week.

mickledore said:
Is it paying for this>>>
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No. Health and housing are the main spends according to a small amount of research, and 2015 is the last year any aid will go to India, there has already been a four fold decrease in aid levels to India under this government.

BRASH said:
If you want your money to go abroad then give it to Geldof, Bono or some other self righteous, self appointed god!!
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Geldof is more powerful than God. A mere deity could not get Waters and Gilmour on the same stage at the same time.
cambsno said:
We also send aid to China I believe...
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We don't. This seems to be an internet myth that people believe because it is repeated so often, despite having no basis in fact.
 
mickledore said: ↑
Is it paying for this>>>
No. Health and housing are the main spends according to a small amount of research, and 2015 is the last year any aid will go to India, there has already been a four fold decrease in aid levels to India under this government.
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But if we weren't giving them money for "housing" then the Indian Government would have to find it themselves. Maybe out of the rocket programme.
Even the Americans have cut back on their space programme because the funds are needed on this earth, which most rational observers would say is a better use of scarce funds.
 
Bernie174 said:
I'd agree with that, giving charity abroad should be a personal thing, not a 'no option' part of the tax bill.
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You don't get any choice over what any part of your tax bill is spent on other than based on the promises at elections but promises are about as flexible as the paper they're written on
 
MWHCVT said:
You don't get any choice over what any part of your tax bill is spent on other than based on the promises at elections but promises are about as flexible as the paper they're written on
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Isnt democracy great.
 
If planned foreign aid is done correctly it should be tied to the provision of goods and services from the UK. As an example (hypothetical) China wants to build a dam UK govt says we will give you $20m towards if you use UK company to build it/design it.
Another reason to give aid is to help a developing economy develop and thereby provide opportunities for us to sell to.
The unplanned foreign aid is for humanitarian disasters, which as long as it is given as 'aid' and not cash, personally I do not have a problem with it. When ISIS brings its evil war to the UK we may be the ones needing help from others!
 
Agree with the general view here. There may be other examples but aid to India really annoys me. International agreements have been used as the reason for continuing aid but agreements can renegotiated over time, especially as the launching of satellites is not a recent development. I googled Indian satellites and was very surprised by the result, eg five launched this year and 76 since 1975.

Dave
 
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