to make a bitchy response to this fb status

[SwanseaSlapper]

"We have Troops fighting a war without proper equipment..... Yet we donate millions to other countries before helping our own first. 99% of people on facebook won't have the guts to copy and repost this. WILL YOU, I thought charity began at home!!!"

It just offends me.

It's not about lining our own pockets,(I don't remember implying that we should get rich at the expense of poorer countries) it's about spending our tax money on the things we need first. As I have said, if we have money left over then by all means give it to others.

I am not saying that individuals shouldn't donate money to causes that they consider worthwhile, but while there are people here who can't get certain medicine because it is considered too expensive etc then I think the govt has no business giving money to other nations. There are lots of people in this country who are reliant upon charities because the govt claims not to have enough money to help them.

I think that however much money you give to some countries, it will never be enough to help those that need it and will be sucked into the corruption that exists in these places. That money would make a difference here though.

cupcakes, free speech is always under threat in DailyMailLand. From those forces of political correctness gone mad. Didn't you know?

(actually, Justice Eady seems to be the biggest threat to free speech in this country at the minute, though I suspect he's unlikely to be invaded on that basis...)

I have tried to type a reply about 5 times now and seem unable to without wanting to swear about how narrow minded some people are, how most of us have no idea of even a fraction of the suffering that is going on in pakistan right now, that we will think about this disaster whilst it is in the news and then move on when the next big story hits, whilst the families continue in aid camps, homeless, hungry, for months if not years. Have you seen how slow Haiti has been to recover? And areas of S,E Asia following the tsunami? It is not just immediate aid that is needed but prolonged support, this comes out of the foreign aid budget, not the defence budget. Totally separate funds.

Can you imagine Britain, a G7 country not even having a bloody foreign aid budget?! "sorry Sarkozy, Merkel, we decided to spend it on our boys...oh you didn't do the same? oh you realise the difference between an extra piee of artillery and somebody's right to life and clean water? oh we overlooked that but heck we sure are patriotic...."

It's not an extra piece of artillery, it's equipment to protect the lives of soldiers. You speak of seperate funds, but both are raised via taxation.
Incidentally, I believe we are giving money to China and India and Russia (possibly Zimbabwe, but not sure on that). If China can afford to stage an Olympic games and if India can have a nuclear weapons programme, then I question their need for foreign aid. I believe Pakistan also has nuclear weapons, which indicates that aid will not be spent where it is most needed.

I wasn't trying to make the point for paying for protection, just trying to appeal to your baser instincts as it seems the higher altrustic ones are malfunctioning.

Altinkum, I have no issue with offering expertise or with people making donations themselves. I just don't think the govt should be doing it with our money when cutting things we have paid for in out taxes.
I don't believe that the money will get to where it's needed anyway. Perhaps your anger should be directed at the corruption that exists in these other countries govts.

The old freedom of speech/defending our country nonsense might have been true in the world wars but let's face it; neither are true now.

Boring, hackneyed cliche.

Wow. Karma you are aware that the UK was an empire and took more than our fair share (and then some!) from some of these very countries.

A major factor in our being so much richer than them.

Shame on us if we can't even give them back a small portion of that in their hour of greatest need.

It's nothing to do with free speech. Is our speech noticably freer than before we invaded Afghanistan?

Very good point, ib.

Random figures: Last year, the government spent £640m on management consultants.

The Department for Communities and Local Government published its spending for last year, see here.
£13m on marketing and PR? Really?

Are these things more important than stopping kids from dying of cholera?

Incidentally, the 2010 select committee report on defence equipment can be found here.
The MoD does not cover itself in glory. eg,'no evidence of any systematic attempt by the MoD to understand the reasons for past mistakes or to consider how they could be avoided in the future.'

And we have stopped sending aid to China and Russia, India is 'under review'.

I never said we were the only ones donating. What other nations do is up to them and not really relevant to this discussion. As I said earlier, perhaps the govt should ask us. If the majority want to continue ploughing money into counties other than our own (some of whom don't need/deserve it) then I will accept that.

I think you could make an arguement that foreign aid should be better accounted for. People will realise that it goes to places like Haiti and Pakistan and will not mind as much as they would if they realised that money also goes to Russia and China (and possibly Zimbabwe).

I think it comes down to what you consider Britain to be responsible for. I don't think that as a rule we should be ploughing money into supporting other countries when our own is experiencing hard times.I see that you could make a case for one off natural disasters but only if you could guarranttee that it would actually help people directly and not get sucked into whatever their govt wanted to spend it on. I don't think that is possible, so we should stick to what is clearly our responsibility and that is the wellbeing of Britain

We are not experiencing hard times at all. We are just not having quite the same level of undreamed of luxury as we have for the past 20 years.

And what other country has such an enormous proprotion of taxpayers from Pakistan?

karma I think you have a good point.
this country is supposed to be hard up at the moment, to the point where massive cuts are being made, so sending money abroad to any country just seems weird to me.

I don't dispute that the govt wastes a lot of money and if it can stop doing so and therefore not make cuts here, then I would have no issue with foreign aid.I am not a defender of this govt (or the previous one come to that).
Glad to hear they are reveiwing where the money actually goes, this is not before time.
I don't think countries like Pakistan are poor because they were part of an empire. The people of Pakistan etc are poor because they have corrupt govts. Sorry, but I don't consider that to be something I can do anything about. I am more concerned with what goes on here (as I stand a chance of influencing it).
Once these cuts start really biting and more and more people find themselves unemployed through no fault of their own and existing on benefits which are being cut to below subsistance levels, you may find yourselves taking the viewpoint that home should come first.I'd like to see govt spending altered before it gets to that point.

Karmabeliver: You are cruel and deluded if you really think we are experiencing hard times. I'd like to see you say to a Pakistani flood refugee, to their face, "sorry, can't help, we're having hard times'?

You don't know you're born. How can you possibly believe that it's more important a British citizen has services and a job than a Pakistani citizen lives?

As for corrupt governments: yes, of course long-term aid must be accountable and come with strings attached (eg aid given in exchange for evidence of democracy & human rights).

But this is a disaster for which emergency aid is needed, a different case, and there is no time to draw up trans-governmental contracts promising good governance. People are dying now.

The aid money is getting through. Much of it distributed by the Red Cross - you think that organisation works in vain?

You live in luxury and security (and if you are British, you do live in relative luxury to the rest of the world), partly thanks to the British Empire. If you really believe in Karma you should understand how much we owe the rest of the world.

I think I'd reply: "If you agree with this statement, text AID to 70707, then HERO to 60999. Job done."

(BTW the first one donates £5 to the DEC Pakistan appeal and the second one donates £5 to Help for Heroes). What's the betting that most people who 'agree' with that status have never donated to either of these?