Seems the UK is only likely to cut the amount of aid sent to the spacefaring nation of India, rather than say definitely cut it too zero, after all if they can afford a space program and nuclear weapons, they clearly don’t need aid.
Justine Greening, who took on the post of Development Secretary last month, said she wants to see Britains’s links to richer developing nations become about business, rather than hand-outs.
The Minister is under pressure to get better value for money from Britain’s £12 billion per year spending on countries including China and India, which has its own space programme.
Speaking at the Tory Party conference in Birmingham, Ms Greening signalled India will be a target for cuts.
“We should recognise that as countries get richer, we need to be responsible about how we transition in our relationship with them from aid to trade,” she said.
“Those are the discussions that I am having with the Indian government at the moment.”
This is the same aid budget that will rise to £14.5 billion by the year 2014.
I really fail to see why we’re in discussions with the Indian government, they didn’t by our products (Jet fighters) yet are still sucking at the teat of our aid packages. Perhaps we should be more like the USA and state that aid comes at a price, you buy our stuff, we give you bribes give you aid. Then again, I am a firm believer of any government aid being spent at home, leave the rest to our consciences when it comes to funding foreign aid schemes.
I really don’t know where the Tories got the idea from that ring fencing and even expanding the foreign aid budget was a good idea. Perhaps it was simply an attempt to move away from the ‘nasty party’ tag that the hard of thinking on the left seem to have stuck them with. After all, it appears to make common sense to me that what socialists believe to be worth spending on should be subject to extreme scrutiny as it’s probably funding something detrimental to the country as a whole. After all that’s where the inefficiencies in the NHS come from, the use of full time union reps paid for by the taxpayers, the complex benefits system which has moved from a safety net to somewhere a person can live comfortably for the rest of their lives (in some cases) because taking on a job leaves them worse off. To the foreign aid budget which funds kleptocracies in Africa and nuclear powers in Asia.
There is so much this (or any) government could have done to reduce the cost of the state to the taxpayer. Yet year in year out costs (and government) increases.
Yet still some people out there keep voting for them.
That I believe is where we have to start changing things, so long as the political parties continue to take our votes for granted, the more they take advantage of us.
This more than anything else needs to stop, and only we can do that…
Wasn’t there a story going round to the effect of the Indians saying “we don’t want the bloody aid in the first place, but the Brits are insisting we take it”?
Simply giving millions of pounds to unanamed officials and saying, “Use this to the benefit of your countrymen (and women). We won’t of course, check to see how your money is being spent or require audited accounts, but it does make us feel good and allows us to tell our (simple-minded) countrymen (and women) that we are all in it together making the world a better place.” doesn’t actually help anyone.
For instance, a village in Africa had a family who made mosquito nets. The locals bought their nets from this family which not only supported the livelihood of this family but caused money to be floated in the local economy. Then along comes the kind-hearted charidees with a shed-load of mosquito nets. The result if that the family go from being a productive group in the community to being yet another group of dependants on foreign aid. When the shed-load of mosquito nets wear out, there is no one left with the knowledge of making new ones. The Chinese and Japanese Governments have many faults (which government sdoesn’t?) but their foreign aid consists of them sending engineers, doctors and scientists to third world countries, using equipment mnanufactured and sourced in their own countries so they can see where their aid is going and have a say if it found to be ‘diverted’ to unauthorised recipients. This country should tell all their ‘clients’ that no more aid will be sent unless it can be shown where the last lot went. Mind you, this is dependant onthe politicians in this country really caring where the money goes, as it is not them providing it!