Off Topic Foreign Aid Budget

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Albert's Chip Shop

Albert's Chip Shop

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Jun 27, 2011
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So the government have indicated they may trim the £15bn a year foreign aid budget to help the UK bounce back post Covid.

some folk disagree.

I think that’s a great idea. It feels wrong to hand millions to India when they have a nuclear and a space program. To African ‘leaders’ for their gold taps etc...

Did you know we also hand millions in aid to... China? Yep China!

As an individual I wouldn’t for one minute consider getting in debt to give to charity. I given monthly amounts and if I lost my job the first thing I’d get rid of would be my monthly donations.

It’s time we reduced (for a period of time) what we throw around the world and focus on these shores and fixing things like poverty, homelessness etc...

In extreme circumstances tough decisions need to be made.

I think trimming this budget by say £6-7bn... increasing NI and tax for higher earners would certainly help us get back on the road to recovery.
 
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I can sympathise with the sentiment and would agree that certain countries who can “afford” to look after their own should not get aid but, and it’s a big but (a bit like Obi’s) as a supposedly developed country whose development was at the expense of so called third world countries we have a moral responsibility IMO to look at the bigger world picture.

I would continue with aid but be more selective as to who it is given to and in what form.
 
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Personally I would cut all foreign aid, except those who need it in extreme circumstances such as for medical reasons or a natural disaster.
 
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Didn't we fund an airfield in some African country under Tony Blair despite the fact they have no planes?

It's mostly used so the UK can exercise soft influence over countries by making said countries financially reliant on us. France still does it in Northern Africa.

It should be cut, people have wanted it cut for years.

My only issue is it appears to be going straight on the defence budget... which is already one of the highest in the world.

But, people wanted that too... so what can I say.
 
Welshie said:
Didn't we fund an airfield in some African country under Tony Blair despite the fact they have no planes?

It's mostly used so the UK can exercise soft influence over countries by making said countries financially reliant on us. France still does it in Northern Africa.

It should be cut, people have wanted it cut for years.

My only issue is it appears to be going straight on the defence budget... which is already one of the highest in the world.

But, people wanted that too... so what can I say.
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Yup. Pretty much this.

People don't seem to understand the damage our "aid" does to those receiving it. It should be scrapped for a more targeted approach where it genuinely helps those in need.
 
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Stop it all.

We give it to countries with corrupt regimes or who focus their efforts on bolstering their military. **** them all.

India receives billions yet it is one of the fast growing economies in the world. China. Why the **** do we give money yo China? Africa. Just about every African country is corrupt to the core. Withdraw their support. This country needs every penny to recover after this. Put the people of this country first.
 
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If we could ignore how the world works, it would nice to cut it. It would nice to do away with all the military capability too, we waste countless millions killing folk and trying to rape countries of their wealth under the auspice of ‘peace keeping’.

Reality is though given how much of the pain we have contributed to over time, and our still massive thirst to exert influence over nations, I can’t see this really being fully cut. Gotta grease the wheels <laugh>
 
The beel is strong in the media over the reduction from 0.7% to 0.5%.

We're still one of the best contributors. A fact they ignore sadly.

With our economy on it's knees and a record amount borrowed it's sad to see some not realise that we need to fix ourselves... to be able to then go back to fixing others.

The government have confirmed it will go back up to 0.7% but only when we can afford it.

Chief beeler is Cameron... the fan of pigs heads.... says it all really...
 
Actually don't have an issue with foreign aid. The view that it is used to fund corrupt regimes does not hold up. Most of it is either paying our share to multilateral organisations like the UN, WHO etc or funding projects often involving UK consultants to help development in mainly African and some Asian countries.

There is a great website where you can look at what we actually spend, where and what the projects are that the money is being spent on:

https://devtracker.fcdo.gov.uk/

Do agree though that sometimes the projects being funded just seem a ploy to get some expensive international consultants, projects in these developing countries, with very little thought as to whether they are the most useful projects for the countries concerned. Remember doing some field work in Timor Leste a couple of years after it had just become independent from Indonesia. The country was in a right mess, you needed a four wheel drive to travel anywhere as the roads were falling apart and the Indonesians had destroyed a lot of the bridges before they left and burnt a lot of the public buildings. We were talking to this UN Portuguese consultant in the hotel one night thinking she would be there to advise on infrastructure projects - she was actually being paid US$2K per day to advise on equal opportunities for women in the new country!

If we cancelled the HS2 project (which is now projected to cost around 80billion quid) we could keep our aid funding as is and also pay for some useful transport infrastructure up north. Getting to London or back half an hour quicker doesn't really seem worth the cost.
 
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JakartaToon said:
If we cancelled the HS2 project (which is now projected to cost around 80billion quid) we could keep our aid funding as is and also pay for some useful transport infrastructure up north. Getting to London or back half an hour quicker doesn't really seem worth the cost.
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The problem with scrapping HS2, would you buy a plot of land, go through planning, build your foundations, start to build your walls and then decide you won't continue, because that would be the stage you're at with HS2.

I used to be completely against it, but when you realise we are decades behind a lot of other countries when it comes to our rail network, it makes sense to modernise it. I think it will be worth it as long as they do actually reach Scotland with it an don't just stop at Birmingham.

Our aim in the UK should be to get as many vehicles off the road that we can. If it means rail and ships for freight, that would be best.
 
Rafman said:
The problem with scrapping HS2, would you buy a plot of land, go through planning, build your foundations, start to build your walls and then decide you won't continue, because that would be the stage you're at with HS2.

I used to be completely against it, but when you realise we are decades behind a lot of other countries when it comes to our rail network, it makes sense to modernise it. I think it will be worth it as long as they do actually reach Scotland with it an don't just stop at Birmingham.

Our aim in the UK should be to get as many vehicles off the road that we can. If it means rail and ships for freight, that would be best.
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It will still be ****.
 
JakartaToon said:
There is a great website where you can look at what we actually spend, where and what the projects are that the money is being spent on:

https://devtracker.fcdo.gov.uk/
Click to expand...

I had a look at that and a lot of it just looks like government moving money from one place to another without actually doing anything, especially when you see how much money is being spent on "consultancies", "planning" and "research".

Then you have the aid fund where they say the British public get a say in how the money is spent, do we? That's news to me and that makes up hundreds of millions.
 
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