Is the UK right to stop aid?

Do we get any international aid?

International aid is one of those "nice to have" things.

But since we are all paying off the money that was stolen from taxpayers by irresponsible bankers, aid may have to wait a few years.

Should aid to the 16 countries be stopped? - Yes.
Does aid help bring stability? - Has it done so in Africa?
Should Britain be increasing its aid budget? - No.

Stop spending on overseas aid that increases year on year with no real effect on providing a solution to the problems we are attempting to help with.

Spend the money on our own country for a change.

Yes it is right to stop international aid especially to countries who have plenty. The hope is it goes to help the poor and starving but in reality it goes to corrupt governments and when Great Britain has it's own financial problems it should cease. A good example is the £1 Billion given to India whilst a Space program exists and there is Pakistan a Nuclear Power. Britain has frittered away it's cash over recent decades and left it's own people wondering what the heck goes on. Wake up !

If China is supposed to be the world's second-largest economy how come the UK is sending aid anyway? In any case, the UK can't afford to send aid to anyone at the moment.

Well, obviously. Any country that chooses to spend money on nuclear weapons and a space technology while its people starve in the streets and live in sub-slum housing should not get a penny of UK cash.

The first question is: can the UK afford to give money away at all when it is unable to meet its duty of care to its own citizens?

And the second one is: can anyone afford not to when there still are people in the world who do not have food to eat or clean water to drink? (Mostly due to their own governments failing in their duty of care to their citizens!)

Just ensure that 'aid' is targetted properly and never, ever provided as cash or given to governments... workers on the ground building the infrastructure and providing training so that those in need are able to take care of themselves.

This is crazy stuff indeed! Our main competitors in business take aid from us? Surely this goes far too much above the pail?

Perhaps aid to such countries as Russia, India and China was politically correct in a time of so-called plenty in the UK - but not now. All of the above countries have their own nuclear programs and are wiping the veritable floor with us.

In the UK today we are seeing families and others living below our own standards for the 'bread line' yet we continue to give massive funds to others. It is up to other countries to make their own arrangements to support their own poor, and if they do not please tell me where it reads that we are duty-bound.

Giving aid to countries more prosperous and economically sound than ours is (and has always been) an obscene liberty at UK taxpayers' expense. Foreign aid is a huge expense when we are floundering in a quagmire of catastropohic, devastating debt. The amounts we pump into the bank accounts of corrupt despots (because that's where the vast majority of so-called aid goes - I have seen it first-hand on relief aid operations) is a disgrace and would fund a massive amount of front-line services in UK.
If other countries can scrap foreign aid and devote urgently needed funds to their own problems, then why can't we? Because we are governed by fools!

The UK actually gives aid to China. In case HMG has not noticed, China is now the world's second largest economy. And we give them aid ? The Chinese government must be laughing all the way to the bank.

Yes, but that was the utter balminess of the La,La-Nu-Lab. just as long as it was other peoples money they were using to throw away fine. Post after post on various topics raised this question umpteen times. "Why were we giving millions of aid away to Nuclear weapons owning countries, with a number of those states having their own on-going space programs besides. As for stability, that`s what it would bring to the pockets of the fat cats. Nuts, crazy, just plain balmy, and great that the question of international aid is seriously being looked at again.

I'm no international expert, but I think spending Aid on securing our safety is a much stronger argument than to "benefit us economically". The latter sounds like simple bribery. Certainly, I can't imagine why on earth we would be sending Aid to China - not only one of the world's most repressive countries, but soon to be the richest! OTOH, there is a much stronger argument for aiding Iraq. Much as I believe that 9/11 gave us no choice but to go to war with the previous regime in Iraq, the other side of that equation is that we must do everything we can to help innocent Iraqis rebuild their lives.

If the Government wants to spend Aid for economic reasons, then it should spend it in the UK, outside the M25! But that's a whole other debate.....and a taboo one at that.

NO, we should not give aid to anyone.We should look after our own people.We waste enough money on ridiculous wars that most of our people do not want.

Why oh why are we giving money to Russia and China?? Surely it should be the other way round or are we still pretending to be a superpower?

I find this shocking,Iraq i can understand since we recently leveled most of their cities and did abit of "collateral damage"

I'd love to see the full list i bet alot of it goes to former colonies as guilt money like india.

Certainly!when refering to India Russia and China.they are wealthy nations with some of the wealthist individuals on the planet they can afford to support themselfs.if aid is a two way street,then maybe, it is our turn to hold out the hand.we are in dire straits at the moment and would appreciate a freind and their wallet. do you think they will be any takers??may be that is what dave is trying to do on his middle east jollys getting us some aid from our arab friends,do you think they may be intrested? maybe we could sell them something to make a few bob?it would help to ease the wellfare and health cuts if he could do a bit of trading on the side.it would be much appreciated by the less well off...

ALL foreign aid should be STOPPED, especially to countries with nuclear power and a space program like India and China!!!!! Utterly ridiculous.

I am absolutely amazed that we were giving aid to our direct competitors, it's bad enough that many of our high tech jobs are going their way. The fact that we are subsidising it as well beggars belief!
Let them look after their own people we have enough of our own who I would prefer to be supporting here at home in the UK.

Aid to CHINA??????? You must be kidding.

The time for giving aid is becoming increasingly hard to make.

There no doubt is a place for good, targeted, aid, in some cases, generally via NGOs.

But it seems that in all too many cases, aid serves only to make politicians here feel better, and to enrich certain people in the charity industry, or via corruption in the aid-receiving countries.

The government is right to be cutting back on aid, but it should cut further. I'd sooner see the money invested properly, in our defence and border controls, and expelling illegal immigrants from this country.

I believe that increasing the "overseas development Budget" will prove to be the nemisis of this government.
How can anyone justify giving away over £10 Billion and then increasing it to near £15 Billion when we have to borrow the money at high interest rates to give away??
It would be like an individual who had maxed out all their credit sources borrowing money from a loan shark to give to charity.
People will tolerate having to belt tighten if they feel it is justifiable, My income has dropped by around £50 a week due to the pathetic low interest rates on savings,but as the alternative would have been disaster for a lot of people with morgages etc, I was prepared to take the loss without whinging.( I am a pensioner on a grand total of £9650 per annum from all my combined income so the cut in my income came to around 20%).
The aid money, mostly wasted, whatever the bleeding hearts may say, would be much better used, trying to alleviate the effects of the cuts.
I'm sure that all the people who are losing their jobs or having to take pay cuts will be very pleased to hear that some African Despot, or some nuclear power is recieving such largess from the British Tax Payer.
The Headstone of the Cameron Government could well read. " He Ignored his own people and increased foreign aid".
So endeth my rant for today.

Is the UK right to stop aid?
SInce when did a super power like Russia need help from a second rate, going down the tube, country like ours?
Cut the lot.
We are in the deep stuff (or so we are told)
Why are we sending money to India, a nuclear power?
Guess it just keeps the brolly brigade in cushy jobs in London.

Hold on a minute, I thought the UK had 1.6 million children living in "severe poverty" and yet we are giving billions of pounds in aid to other countries.

https://bbc.kongjiang.org/www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12544372

Maybe the "severe poverty" our children are suffering here in the UK is not that bad after all.

In my view it is time to stop all overseas aid and spend the money getting rid of all the illegal immigrants who are in the UK now. At the moment they look as if they will be staying for ever and it will take a lot of money and determination to get them back to where they belong.

And as for aid to China, India and Pakistan, what on earth are our government doing? Stop that immediately and give aid only to the world's very poorest nations.

India, China and Iraq etc should be rich enough to help their own people. It seems a bit silly for us to be borrowing from them to give as aid to their own countries. I have no problem with foreign aid where it is necessary.

I pay my taxes and national insurance for policing, education, pensions and healthcare for British people, not foreign aid, MP's expenses and second homes, illegal wars, bankers bailouts and bonuses or foreign aid to countries richer than us.
When property owners have to pay at their own expense to evict immigrants squatting on their property who in turn get legal aid to combat the rightful owner you know the system as gone awfully wrong.
It is time the taxpayers of the UK rose up and reclaimed their money and their country back from the theiving parasites in the government and running the legal systems.

Right??? I should think any right minded person should think its well past time it was stopped other than on basic humanitarian grounds. Are we not supposed to have 1.5 million kids here in "abject poverty" whatever that is.
I think comment @ #1 covers it beautifully !!

Yes they are. The UK is a poor country with the people getting poorer each day.

No aid should ever go to a state that has nuclear weapons.Our money is indirectly being used to build and service another countries weapons of mass destruction.
The money we give,if stopped;will be replaced by national taxes of that country.Money that would otherwise go to nuclear weapons.However,Only if that country is moral and good and believes in their own national welfare programmes for their own people.We must ask nuclear states to scrap or cut the nukes they have for aid.India and pakistan have the atom bomb now and i don`t want my tax payers money to go towards the building of the indian hydrogen bomb.There is a natural progression towards this.Indian billions to build hospitals and education for all children.Not british billions to build the asian bomb.

Yes, yes and YES it should be stopped. However it doesn't go far enough and I'm angry that the overseas aid bill is to go up a third. It should be going down and completely stopped.

When our own people are dying because they cannot get drugs, our elderly are suffering really badly and many are on the poverty line, pensions are all messed up (raided) so people in general will have less to live on, front-line services are to be cut...even toilets in some areas which surely must breach peoples human rights...then all aid should be stopped. Full Stop.

As I feel that the BBC HYS forum has no effect whatsoever and is probaly not even read by anyone in politics, I would suggest that any concerns such as Immigration, Foreign aid, welfare etc would best be sent directly to the Man at the Top.
You can send such concerns to camerond@parliament.uk.
(for the benifit of the moderators, this email address is in the public domain so they don't need to block this post. ).
If he recieves a few million emails he might just take notice of how many of the electorate feel.

The government wants to curb spending on the UK's disabled and yet increase help to other countries. The UK is short of jobs for its own population and yet we give money to India who can afford a space program and nuclear weapons whilst taking jobs from our country. I could never understand GB and nu labour over this but the coalition is even worse. Why should the UK population have the screw tightened to fund countries who seem to see us as a soft touch?

Here's an interesting link where you can find out the figures involved and to where.
https://www.dfid.gov.uk/About-DFID/Finance-and-performance/DFID-spend/

No, we shouldn't be giving money away to China...etc. If our government is to be believed and we don't have enough money to help students with their education and benefits for the disabled and unemployed how do we have enough to give away.

I'll tell you what we do need though, the greedy rich to start being taxed in proportion to their wealth! What is the point of taxing people when most people have next to nothing, we should start taxing land, private property and savings above a certain amount.

Aid to 'poorer' countries is fine, though a lot of that seems to go into the pockets of the despotic governments running them rather than the people on the streets that actually need it.

Giving money to countries which seem to have far greater resources than ours looks more like bribery to me.

Increasing the amount of our taxes being sent abroad is very hard to understand when we are being told that massive swinging cuts in our own services are required in order to help our economy recover.

Certainly,with regard to the three countries cited here,Russia,China and Iraq there's no logical case for British aid.Russia and Iraq are immensely rich in natural resources and agricultural capability and China is manufacturing and trading itself into a position of dominance.

As to other countries,I do think that we should only provide aid if it's a matter of helping people in a hard situation when their country is in no position to do the job all by itself....though it should also shoulder the burden as much as possible and not leave it all to others.Helping people should be the aim.The claim that it's somehow good for Britain and stability is a myth that's been exploded over and over again.So many foreign governments have taken British money then spat at us.

It goes without saying that British aid should be closely accounted for so that it doesn't become a source of enrichment for tyrants and their cronies.Also,we should expect RESULTS and be as ready to make cuts to failing projects abroad(and not throw good money after bad) as our government is ready to make spending cuts at home;that seems reasonable.

It seems worth while pointing out what is meant by 'giving overseas aid'.Basically,the British government collects tax money from people and business in the UK and gives some of it to people in other countries.That begs the question of whether we should be expected to do that in a large way and that comes down to the question of whether Britain is a 'rich country'.

Seeing that,nowadays,British industry produces very little,there's minimal natural resources to exploit,Britain is a net importer,in a big way,of all sorts of manufactured goods,energy and food,runs a huge overseas trade deficit and the government is up to it's neck in debt and sustains its spending by huge borrowing,the rational answer is no,Britain is not a rich country.It seems to me that the constant claim that Britain is a rich country is bogus and has a lot to do with past governments trying to coax us into a false comfort zone to hide their own economic policy failures and the true extent of Britain's decline.

We need a new realistic attitude in regard to overseas aid no less than we need a new realistic attitude to all aspects of British government spending.

Cut all aid. Invest in and support our manufacturing industries and real wealth producers, and invest in the education of our people -however one wants to define them.

If this is successful re-start an aid programme on humanitarian grounds having first ensured that it will not go into the pockets of crooked politicians.

Simple eh.

18. At 12:14pm on 27 Feb 2011, lochraven wrote:
Aid to CHINA??????? You must be kidding.

Complain about this comment

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Where have you been Lochraven, this question has been knocking around for some time now. Hey! did you miss the item of news conducted by Mark Eason, he highlighted the levels of growing poverty in Liverpool because of the previous governments handling of the economy, and the cuts.
Many children are now in a severe poverty state, With Mark Eason walking down a Liverpool street between rows of all it`s houses boarded up-to enhance the regions plight-actually I know the street well and the street is earmarked for regeneration, they tried that one on a Blackpool road as well, it is earmarked for the same reason. I was interested in the item of news-why, for once just for once the correspondant was alone, yes all alone without the shouting milling throngs around screaming into the correspondants earhole. Yes he was meant to cut a lonely figure in a neglected city in the UK. Redirect the international aid to our own.

22. At 12:21pm on 27 Feb 2011, Magi Tatcher wrote:

Hold on a minute, I thought the UK had 1.6 million children living in "severe poverty" and yet we are giving billions of pounds in aid to other countries.

https://bbc.kongjiang.org/www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12544372

Maybe the "severe poverty" our children are suffering here in the UK is not that bad after all.
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True, what does it matter if children never have a hot meal or the luxury of heating in winter. Let's get our priorities right, how would British Gas ever be able to announce a 24% increase in profit in one year if all the children of poor families can afford the heating? They should think themselves lucky they have a crust of bread to chew on eh Magi.

The distribution of UK aid looks rather eccentric, until it is remembered that, although it is never stated explicitly, there is a strong suspicion that aid is often linked to arms sales and other profitable deals for UK companies.

Even if the supply of aid is carefully monitored so that it goes directly to those in need, it indirectly helps the government of the country, which can reduce its own expenditure in the areas which are assisted.

One of the lessons that we should learn from the current wave of North African revolutions is that, if life is reasonably comfortable for the middle classes of a country, the urge to do something about a brutal and corrupt government is weakened. It took the world economic crisis to trigger the changes which are now taking place.

Therefore aid to countries which have brutal and/or corrupt governments should be limited to providing vital assistance to poorest. It should not be linked to trade, which tends mainly to benefit the middle classes.

I didn't even know we gave aid to Russia.

Have they not overtaken Saudi Arabia as the worlds largest exporter of oil? Do they not have enormous amounts of resource wealth?

31. At 12:28pm on 27 Feb 2011, grumpy wrote:

As I feel that the BBC HYS forum has no effect whatsoever and is probaly not even read by anyone in politics, I would suggest that any concerns such as Immigration, Foreign aid, welfare etc would best be sent directly to the Man at the Top.
You can send such concerns to [Personal details removed by Moderator].
(for the benifit of the moderators, this email address is in the public domain so they don't need to block this post. ).
If he recieves a few million emails he might just take notice of how many of the electorate feel.
______________________________________
Well said!

I know this is just one forum, and not necessarily a reflection of general public opinion, but it does seem pretty close.

It is clear that there is widespread disillusion with aid. I suspect that attitudes have gone full circle, with attitudes now having hardened towards things like foreign aid and immigration.

There is a widespread feeling that politicians tend to put foreigners, here and abroad, ahead of the mainstream population.

I for one would end government aid (whilst encouraging NGOs, free and fair trade), and immigration. The money wasted on foreign aid should be invested in sending illegal immigrants home, and ensuring proper border control in future. Also, let's stop wasting money on immigrants here - no NHS care, no race relations industry, they can pay for their own kids to learn English before they're allowed into school.....

We have been giving aid to some really odd places, haven't we? Russia? China? India?

None of these are poor countries. They have poor citizens that their government chooses not to support (because they have other stuff to spend the money on - space programmes, massive armies and institutionalised pseudo-feudalism, for example) which is not the same thing.

Spending aid money on at least two of the fastest growing economies in the world - mental. It should be spent on countries that need our help (most of which we have bombed hugely and exploited massively in the past).

I'm actually shocked by this - not by the fact that it's stopping, but because I never knew I was paying money to Russia so that they could siphon off the massive mineral wealth and centre all the power in oligarchic mafia-style corperations, ensuring that the loacl population never sees any benefit from it (because it's all in Chelsea, for example). Glasnost? I'll say.

I thought we were shelling out for mosquito nets, medicine, wells and roads. Blimey.

From the bits and pieces that I have managed to find,I understand that the countries that are going to receive aid from us,are the countries who are willing to buy from our arms dealers.If this is true, then I say shame on this stinking Government.

I'm happy for aid to go to developing countries if it is effective. There need to be controls in place (especially in countries that have a tendency for corruption) to ensure it is being used for the purpose it is provided.
Also on the subject of the many millions living in poverty - there needs to be a focus on birth control and limiting families. Infant mortality has fallen sharply in recent decades but the same number of babies are being born - no wonder these families cannot feed/clothe/educate their own children. They need to learn they do not need to have huge numbers of children to support their families - in fact it just exacerbates the problem.

Too right it should a stop. We should stop giving aid to countries in Africa as well. We need to help ourselves first instead of ploughing billions into other countries.

The aid should be in the form of birth control and water wells. Anything else is just making people more dependent upon us.
Since the ordinary people of Britain are experiencing a drop in their standard of living recently it is understandable that they aren't too crazy about sending aid to the likes of Russia, China, Iraq and India. All of these countries have a number of millionaires and multi-millionaires which contrasts obscenely with the incredibly poverty stricken in their countries.
Throwing our hard earned tax payers money at these countries doesn't help them for long and perpetuates the helplessness.
Charity should begin at home with their own people.

As your opening comment asks-"do we get any aid"?The simple answer is no! We are spending £7.9billion on aid and to be quite blunt we just cant affiord it.For years we have been giving aid to countries actually richer than ourselves.Why?What are we getting in return when we most need it?Talk about penny wise and pound foolish.We cut Lollipop Ladies because we supposedly cant afford them,we cut Care for our own elderly,we slash jobs and cut benefits but continue to GIVE huge sums to countries who never give us back anything but grief.My mum used to say "charity begins at home",if we are so rich that we can waste billions on other countries then surely we must have more than enough money to ensure our sick,elderly and genuine unemployed have enough to live on.Im not interested in other countries who simply take our money and buy fleets of Mercedes for their fat cats or stash much of it in Swiss bank accounts.What donkeys the British are!

Per capita GDP income is a more useful measure when considering whether limited resources should be distributed to others, as opposed to absolute GDP. Some countries like China may have a considerably higher GDP than the UK but with a population of c 20 times that of the UK the same GDP is split up between 20 times as many people, so 20 times as many mouths to feed.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29_per_capita

Per capita GDP of the UK lies 20th, 14th and 26th in the 3 lists produced by the IMF, World Bank and CIA respectively.

Taking the first alone (IMF) the IMF places UK at 20th in 2010 with a per capita income of $35,053 pa.
Russia lies at 51 at $15,807 pa
China at 93 at $7,518 pa and
India at 127 at $3,290

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Chartiy should begin at home. I dont want any of my taxes going abroad. All overseas aid should be stopped and pumped back into this country.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Is the UK right to stop aid?

When some of these countries can afford a space programme or buy weapons, yes!

32. At 12:33pm on 27 Feb 2011, North Briton wrote:

The government wants to curb spending on the UK's disabled and yet increase help to other countries. The UK is short of jobs for its own population and yet we give money to India who can afford a space program and nuclear weapons whilst taking jobs from our country. I could never understand GB and nu labour over this but the coalition is even worse. Why should the UK population have the screw tightened to fund countries who seem to see us as a soft touch?
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Is it our power hungry politicians who want to swan into these countries with their big entourage promising aid?
These politicians are so out of touch with the average citizen that I feel they are now unable to see things through our eyes.

Like many people, I'm wondering why Britain is giving aid money to China; the fastest growing and second largest economy on the planet??
Likewise with India. Yes, there is a lot of poverty in India, but if the Indian government can afford a Space program and a Nuclear weapons program, then they are obviously not that hard up!!
Foreign aid is the responsible thing to do and richer countries have an obligation to help out those less fortunate, but the foreign aid budget should definitely not be increased in such hard times. There is an increasing number of people in this country struggling to find work, struggling with ever increasing prices of food and fuel. Maybe we in this country, need some of the aid the British government is so keen to dish out.

For years I've felt that giving any 'foreign aid' is fundamentally flawed. Certainly, it's very hard to see why taxes striped from me and my family on pain of imprisonment, are funneled to support regimes who have space programs, nukes, and large standing armies. Beyond that, after watching aid being poured into black Africa since at least the late '60s (anybody remember Biaffra?), not one bean of it seems to have stopped one mob slaughtering another while their children starve. It often seems that we've only subsidised genocide.

10. At 11:53am on 27 Feb 2011, HaveIGotThatWrong wrote:

The UK actually gives aid to China. In case HMG has not noticed, China is now the world's second largest economy. And we give them aid ? The Chinese government must be laughing all the way to the bank.

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Thanks to Labour, we are giving India 800 million for its poor. This whilst India runs a space exploration program. Why if India can afford to run a space program are we giving India 800 million for its poor?

UK Aid - shocking information to read during austerity measures in the UK.

Recommend post 07 @ 11:51am on 27 Feb 2011 - 'Megan'.

Recommend post 33 @ 12:35pm on 27 Feb 2011 - 'toycollector'. This post provides a very useful link to UK Aid - a government website.

Why do we give aid to rich countries like India and China who, unlike us, can afford well manned, well equipped armed forces - and prestigious projects like a space programme? If anything they should be giving aid us.

Is the UK right to stop aid?
Its a no brainer as are alot of other wasted handouts this terrible government just dont see.!!!

Q. Is the UK right to stop aid?


A. CORRECT!

Charity begins at home, and the MOD is definitely a needy cause!!!!

Stop all aid to overseas countries, too much of the cash ends up in the pockets of politicians, overpaid aid organisers and officials of corrupt regimes. Even giving food aid to starving people makes the problem worse, nature and lack of resources in the past kept population from expanding beyond sustainable levels, interference from well meaning western governments and charities increases population and higher population means more competition for food and land, and the famines become greater.

45. At 12:58pm on 27 Feb 2011, mac wrote:

From the bits and pieces that I have managed to find,I understand that the countries that are going to receive aid from us,are the countries who are willing to buy from our arms dealers.If this is true, then I say shame on this stinking Government.
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Well said mac! Though give Camoron credit where credit is due, he did say we only ever sell weapons for "defense" purposes!

Another interesting fact, if you count up all of the money the US, UK and the coalition of the coerced has so far spent on the war jolly in Afghanistan and then divide it by the number of "terrorists" killed there, it works out to approximately $2.3 billion per terrorist. What value for money!

Charity begins at home. We should stop all overseas aid and us the money here in the UK,

Fantastic news if this is true? I hope most of the 16 are african and that we continue to reduce any aid to overseas countries from this point onwards.

I do have doubts whether this will actually happen and is probably ConDem spin just like Labour used to do but if it has started then we must put pressure on the government to continue. Could be a good vote winner

The Simple fact is that this country is bankrupt and it's people are "licking it off the stones" to give away money from these peoples pockets countries that have taken their jobs is "taking the proverbial"

45. At 12:58pm on 27 Feb 2011, mac wrote:
From the bits and pieces that I have managed to find,I understand that the countries that are going to receive aid from us,are the countries who are willing to buy from our arms dealers.If this is true, then I say shame on this stinking Government.

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So Russia and China are buying arms from the UK ?......Hmmmm
somehow don't see that one and if they do, do our U.S. cousins know??
See more likely we would be buying surveilance AWACS aircraft and then aircraft carrier jump jets from the Russians and Chinese as we blew £4 billion and still can't afford to get our own in the air !! Probably giving all the rest away in foreign aid ;-)

Perhaps our country isn't in that bad a situation after all and Mr Cameron (is that better moderators?!) is just using the deficit as an excuse to roll back the welfare state. We are all familiar with Tory ideology, the "I'm alright Jack" approach and "don't question our authority, ever!" Their plan is as it has always been, privatise everything that has any value! Right down to the ancient woodlands, then see how the the people get on exercising their freedom and democracy in the gaps between all that is privately owned.

aid is not the same as giving away a gift it is in a sense money for old rope and since aid to other countires has been a speciality since victorian times and before,the difficulty of tearing up agreements is a fumbling bloc for better relations in countries in the far east.
At home the Thatcher years in government refused aid to the coalmining industry in Wales and in the north of england because the then Prime Minister favoured her beloved Poland rather than be thankful for a home grown coal industry,such things happen in politics,in government,in haste,and certainly in the international game of super powers trying it on with immense confidence,firmly believing in what can be done at home can be put into practice else where at less cost and in exchange for making allowances,a seal is a deal in arms,or bottles of water,depending on the value of aid and how it advances the people in the country it is going to not forgetting that any move to advance good relations with any country is not a bad thing if the kids on your own bloc are well fed.

. At 1:13pm on 27 Feb 2011, Burgess wrote:
Q. Is the UK right to stop aid?


A. CORRECT!
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Well argued!


At 12:36pm on 27 Feb 2011, moreram wrote:
No, we shouldn't be giving money away to China...etc. If our government is to be believed and we don't have enough money to help students with their education and benefits for the disabled and unemployed how do we have enough to give away.

I'll tell you what we do need though, the greedy rich to start being taxed in proportion to their wealth! What is the point of taxing people when most people have next to nothing, we should start taxing land, private property and savings above a certain amount.

________________________________________________

Taxing the greedy rich in proportion to their wealth is a good idea, only problem is that rich are also the same people who wield the most power, and if you tax them too much they will simply move to tax havens.

The UK is not stopping the gift of foreign aid, sad to say.
It is stopping aid to ONLY 16 countries, yet the press release goes on to say "overall, the international development budget will rise by a third in this parliament as a new approach focuses on value for money"

What?
Giving out money to ungrateful, undeserving foreigners is NEVER value for money.
Listen Cameron, you muppet! Stop all foreign aid! British money for the British.
As for giving money to India? Why are handing millions to a nuclear power with a space programme?
If half their population is in poverty that's their government's fault and problem it has nothing to do with us, we shouldn't pay. Let all the rich Indians lift their own people of poverty, the fact that they don't demonstrates that they don't care, so why should we?

Its true alot of aid is mis-directed, but does improving things in developing countries stop their inhabitants migrating to Britain? I'd gladly pay more in taxes if it served to stop the swathes of illegal immigrants still arriving in this country.
We've seen very little in the news about the hundreds of boats arriving at Lampadusa off Italy carrying 'asylum seekers' from Tunisia. And if they're coming, you can bet people from Egypt, Libya etc. won't be far behind. I suspect there's a news clamp-down on this, in order to stop EU citizens taking to the streets in protest. All Europe is in financial crisis to varying degrees. We can't take any more people. And of course once they're in Europe, immigrants can travel where they like.
I'm sorry for these people but we're already the most densely populated country in Europe and I don't want what's left of my countryside concreted over to build houses for millions of immigrants who we haven't invited, can't support, and who offer nothing we really need or want - only more overcrowding and demand for scarce resources.

Yes....only the truly needy should get help, not oil-rich countries or those spending like mad on becoming a world power....they're not going to help us....

58. At 1:10pm on 27 Feb 2011, Tony of Britain wrote:
10. At 11:53am on 27 Feb 2011, HaveIGotThatWrong wrote:

The UK actually gives aid to China. In case HMG has not noticed, China is now the world's second largest economy. And we give them aid ? The Chinese government must be laughing all the way to the bank.

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Thanks to Labour, we are giving India 800 million for its poor. This whilst India runs a space exploration program. Why if India can afford to run a space program are we giving India 800 million for its poor?

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Simple, a space research programme cost billions so they can't afford State aid & benefits for their needy, so we pick up their bill for that, so we can't afford an aircraft carrier or planes to fly from it or an early warning airborne radar service for ourselves and a great deal more while we are doing that for them and bailing out banks at the same time.... what a laugh !!

6. At 11:50am on 27 Feb 2011, Colchie wrote:
"Well, obviously. Any country that chooses to spend money on nuclear weapons and a space technology while its people starve in the streets and live in sub-slum housing should not get a penny of UK cash."

Beautifully put (Which begs the question why DO they get aid?).
People in the uk will die as a result of cutbacks because the rich cannot be bothered to get their cheque-books out.
We need a govt. OF the people FOR the people - probably far too late.

The aid budget should be slashed to zero - too much is either given to nations that can afford space programmes/nuclear weapons or ends up in Swiss bank accounts of some tin-pot dictator!

It's callous, but this country is broke (Thanks by the way NewLieMore & the corrupt bankers!) and if we have to spend the next 15-20 years repairing the damage handing money as has happened in the past has to stop!

To stop financial aid in apparent cases like Libya is justified.
There is only broken information from Libya that speaks for itself, the situation changed dramatically with EU citizen flown out by German planes.
There is a British warship at the coast of Libya for EU citizens to escape form the situation in Libya that has been called "it´s like a slaughterhouse".

No one could understand to spend financial aid or tax payers´ money in countries that violate human rights. Furthermore, continuing the aid would mean a support of this violent regime.

Hang on a minute i thought international aid was to increase?
Or is that yet another promise not met, and before most of you start to rip into me i agree the aid should be stopped especially to any country with nuclear weapons and/or a space program.

While the Condem mumpties are slashing budgets, perhaps Cameron can pull the UK forces out of Afghanistan - keep British troops at home, rather than sending them to die in the filth of Afghanistan to bolster the ego of Obama!

72. At 1:31pm on 27 Feb 2011, Sweeney wrote:

. At 1:13pm on 27 Feb 2011, Burgess wrote:
Q. Is the UK right to stop aid?


A. CORRECT!
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Well argued!


At 12:36pm on 27 Feb 2011, moreram wrote:
No, we shouldn't be giving money away to China...etc. If our government is to be believed and we don't have enough money to help students with their education and benefits for the disabled and unemployed how do we have enough to give away.

I'll tell you what we do need though, the greedy rich to start being taxed in proportion to their wealth! What is the point of taxing people when most people have next to nothing, we should start taxing land, private property and savings above a certain amount.
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Taxing the greedy rich in proportion to their wealth is a good idea, only problem is that rich are also the same people who wield the most power, and if you tax them too much they will simply move to tax havens.
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Then let them go and never allow them to step foot in OUR country again. It seems they are only interested in being here in the first place because they get away with daylight robbery.

Seems OK to me. I have no idea why we should be giving ANY sort of economic aid to countries who have enough funds to develop their own nuclear weapons. If they have that sort of money then they don't need it from us. The fact that we have been giving these countries subsidies which releases money to help them develop such weapons whilst other countries have not been able to get enouigh funds to fight diseases like AIDS, malaria etc or provide clean water for its population it just obscene even if we could afford massive overseas aid programmes which we cannot do at present.

41. At 12:45pm on 27 Feb 2011, prophet_samuel wrote:
I didn't even know we gave aid to Russia.

Have they not overtaken Saudi Arabia as the worlds largest exporter of oil? Do they not have enormous amounts of resource wealth?

Complain about this comment

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....And they are sticking little flags on the seabed, claiming oil yeilding areas as their own. You better believe it, Russia has a vast untapped wealth just waiting to be sourced.

:
45. At 12:58pm on 27 Feb 2011, mac wrote:
From the bits and pieces that I have managed to find,I understand that the countries that are going to receive aid from us,are the countries who are willing to buy from our arms dealers.If this is true, then I say shame on this stinking Government.

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So Russia and China are buying arms from the UK ?......Hmmmm
somehow don't see that one and if they do, do our U.S. cousins know??
See more likely we would be buying surveilance AWACS aircraft and then aircraft carrier jump jets from the Russians and Chinese as we blew £4 billion and still can't afford to get our own in the air !! Probably giving all the rest away in foreign aid ;-)


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It is obvious from your comments that you did not understand my comment,try reading it again, aloud and slowly,thats a clever boy.Now then, perhaps you can now make a sensible remark?

@81, I think you'll find being in Afghanistan etc. was a result of lies from Blair and Bush, but I agree we should pull out (should never have been there in the 1st place).

CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME!

I dont mind this country giving aid out, but im sick of countries getting it but doing nothing to sort the mess there in out. The countries are still rife with bent governments, civil war, etc, enough is enough, about time the government of the UK gave more aid out to its own people.

About time too; we can't afford to support our own country never mind giving money to countries, such as China, that are better off than us. In fact, we shouldn't be giving money to anybody until our own economy is in better shape.

When we're out of the red and we've paid down this country's debt then we can think about other people; right now we need to look after ourselves.

I disagree to stop direct aid to Iraq.

Should aid to the 16 countries be stopped?

Definitely. Why on earth are we giving aid to countries with strong economies like China anyway?
And further more, aid to India should be stopped, not just frozen.

Does aid help bring stability?

I can't think of any examples where it has.

Should Britain be increasing its aid budget?

Britain should be eliminating its aid budget until such time as it can afford it. I realise that could be quite some time.

22. At 12:21pm on 27 Feb 2011, Magi Tatcher wrote:

Hold on a minute, I thought the UK had 1.6 million children living in "severe poverty" and yet we are giving billions of pounds in aid to other countries.

https://bbc.kongjiang.org/www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12544372

Maybe the "severe poverty" our children are suffering here in the UK is not that bad after all.

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Or doesn`t get you kudos on the international stage.

Yes the policy should change. There shouldn't be any foreign aid. We have equally good causes at home and they should be given clear priority. Replace the aid budget by increasing the money available for residential/nursing care for our old people. Maybe maintain a pot to allow us to contribute to specific disasters. When you add in the amount we spend on those seeking asylum and on supporting those immigrants who can't or won't support themselves, the total foreign aid bill becomes massively unsustainable at the expense of what people who've paid taxes all their lives have every right to expect.

Great Britain is being emotionally blackmailed by all and sundry for its colonial past.

why not include india they have invested in a space programme , so dont need aid from any one

This is the same Government that is so desperate to save money that it hits pensioners and the unemployed to save it, yet it can increase the amount it gives away! Maybe someone should break the news to them that their priorities are WRONG! Look after your own first!

Yes I agree to stopping aid to most of the countries mentioned however Iraq is another story We owe them a lot for the mess we have made of their country

Foreign aid is a luxury for the times when we have excess money as a nation.
At the moment we are in debt and trying to get back in the black. We're tightening the belt at home.
It's entirely reasonable we tighten the belt overseas too.

I feel genuine empathy for developing countries and want to help them with the basics.
But we can't even afford to run our own country at the moment.
Sorry, but we need to cut overseas spending.

70. At 1:30pm on 27 Feb 2011, moreram wrote:
"Perhaps our country isn't in that bad a situation after all......"

Sadly we are.
Skimming through 'The Economist' in the library yesterday, I see the UK deficit as a % of GDP is worse than any of the other economic basket cases such as Greece, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, USA......
Cancel all aid. Pay down debt instead or if it must be spent, there are plenty of deserving causes in the UK.

Things change we cannot continue to give money in international aid to leverage contracts for industry.We now have a large charity sector doing that job better.

Clearly we faced under labour giving people in poor nations the right to work in the UK who then send our money back to their families or give direct aid for political reasons.

Clearly our charity sector is the modern face of aid so no more aid payments.

Clearly we now have a huge poverty problem in the UK so we need the money at home now.Death by starvation in the UK is as unpleasant as death in libia of starvation.


After all the government is legally required to look after UK subjects first before any other nation.we are no longer the bread basket for the EU or any other nation so get used to it and convince china it has to do more!!!!!


This is outdated thinking and has no credibility.

So we cut grants to our domestic charities and increase overseas aid by a third over this government? Now why would we do that? To grease a few palms maybe? By all means give aid to poverty stricken areas but give that money direct to the charities concerned and not to despots who only pocket it. If they had a conscience the government would do everything to eradicate poverty in this country first before pouring money into rich countries abroad.