International Aid

[birdie1971]

In these times of austerity, should we be cutting back on international aid?


http://timesofindia.i...ticleshow/6156900.cms

http://www.guardian.c...mit-gleneagles-canada

[ELVIS68]

Agree 100%,.......... £250m a year is a joke, who set up these payments, wasn`t Blair by any chance was it?

[birdie1971]

The £250 million was just for India. Poor, poor India. The Indian Government hasn't got two Rupees to rub together. Apart from the money in their space programme. And their nuclear armaments programme. And their massive industrialisation programme...


I've been trying to Google the UK's entire foreign aid budget but I've so far been unsuccessful. Can anyone else help?

[ELVIS68]

I heard on a radio phone-in that we give China £38m a year in aid

[birdie1971]

£38 million a year to China?

China, China? The far eastern country with over 1 billion people and an economy that dwarfs ours by an order of magnitude?

Tell me you're joking.


Please.

[ELVIS68]

No, I heard it on Talk Sport phone-in one night on my way home

[birdie1971]

I'd love to see a country by country break-down of how much we are giving.

[ELVIS68]

I bet it runs into the billions..fooking crazy

[jake-the-peg]

Here you go birdie

This is the top 20 countries

http://www.dfid.gov.u...%202009/Table%209.xls

It is £1.6 Billion or about 15p per day for each tax payer

[naomi24]

Jake, I've been asked to tell you there's a message waiting for you. If you've mislaid your key, let us know, and a replacement will be provided. (My apologies Birdie).

[bazwillrun]

We should not pay out anything in foreign aid, it could be put to far better use over here.

[jake-the-peg]

Have you ever given to charity personnaly Baz?

Tsunami appeal? Haiti Eartquake? Bought a Big issue?

Is it just charity from public funds you object to? or any charity?

Or do you just not like seeing foreigners get money from us?

Just wondering precisely what your opinion is and why

[modeller]

We can thank Blair and Labour for much of this £1.6 billion largesse he would do anything to gratify his ego and status in the world . He not only agreed to this sort of aid but also gave up £1.5 billion of our rebate to the EU every year, and got nothing in return.

[VHG]

>Or do you just not like seeing foreigners get money from us?

Nobody minds money going to a genuine "poor" country, or one that has had an earthquake or other disaster.

But countires like China and India are spending billions on things like space programs and military equipment, while we give money to their poor and needy.

There are thousands of people in THIS country living in crumbling council estates, or in slum areas of our inner cities, and more should be done to improve their areas before giving money to china.

Much of the infrastructure in this country is decaying, and a massive program of improvement would lift the morale of the whole country.

Instead we give millions to Pakistan, India, China etc.

[rov1200]

Anyone can be generous when you don't have to fork out yourselves personally,

[anotheoldgit]

How much aid do we receive?

We are on our haunches, so we could do with a little aid.

I know countries such as China throw us a few morsels by allowing us to work for them, by producing a few car for them.

But it isn't the same as cash to improve our crumbling schools, where we educate most of the foreign nationals.

Or a few quid towards our NHS, where we treat many foreign nationals for free.

Perhaps a little help to improve our roads, that the whole of Europe use free of charge.

Why not let them go the whole hog, and pay for the keep of all their citizens that come into our country, thus taking the strain off their countries economy, yet at the same time adding to ours.

[sp1814]

I don't believe we give international aid as a purely altruistic measure. We get 'invisible benefits' in respect of favourable trading terms with countries we help with aid.

For instance, has anyone clocked the amount of cheapo food we get from the African continent? How much has Britain benefited from striking deals with technology companies in India?

Perhaps if there were publicly available figures detailing the money we 'get back', people would be less likely to question aid figures...and that's ignoring the other positive thing about aid...it tangibly improves the lives of the poor in other parts of the world.

And when I say 'poor', I don't mean people who can't afford a car or carpet for their living room...I mean people who have to walk four miles for water because their local supply is contaminated and stuff.

[sandyRoe]

Austerity here in the UK means for some that they might need to reconsider that second holiday.
In some Third World countries it means starving to death.
we're still a wealthy country and shouldn't cut back on aid.

[anotheoldgit]

How can we possibly be wealthy when we are almost bankrupt?

[bazwillrun]

Have you ever given to charity personnaly Baz? yes

Tsunami appeal? Haiti Eartquake? Bought a Big issue? none of your business which charities i have given too, but definitely not Big Issue (hundreds of charites have had money from me over the years)

Is it just charity from public funds you object to? or any charity? - i never said i was against charity, but as usual youre twisting things

Or do you just not like seeing foreigners get money from us? - my money goes where i want it to go, charity begins at home

Just wondering precisely what your opinion is and why - No youre not its just a cheap attempt at baiting, then you will try and come up with your usual arguments that will try and obfuscate and twist and turn the matter as you leftie apologists always seem to do

I will only give money to charities that are for and in the Uk and benefit Uk people or institiutions, and even within those criteria i am very selective.

my money my choice, i nor anybody else needs to justify whether they give , or to which charities they give money to, to people like you

you got a problem with that ?

[jake-the-peg]

I just think that "charity begins at home" is a particularly nationalistic view of things.

There are people around the world who need help and personally I don't think about where they're born.

I'm also pretty certain that if you lost your wallet on holiday or were sick abroard there are a lot of foreign people who would go a long way out of their way to help you and equally a lot of British people who wouldn't give you the time of day.

I agree that we should re-evaluate our donations to India and China but personally I think the idea that we shouldn't give a few pence a day to some of the poorest people in the world because "charity begins at home" selfish, nationalistic and mean spirited.