To think that the foreign aid budget should go to schools that are getting cuts

[HannahSmithson45]

Aibu to think that schools in the uk should not have their budgets being cut while money is sent abroad on many questionable projects.

Why should British children living in deprived areas with schools that are deprived have their schools cut.

My children's school is losing £600,000 and 18 teachers. Yet we are paying for ethiopian spice girls.

This pisses me off, it's right to be charitable but if we have a budget deficit then it doesn't make sense.

Frankly I'd rather we focused on corporate greed and getting companies like Amazon to pay their sodding taxes, and cut back on the thousands that MPs spend on their expenses for their second homes etc; rather than take money away from the world's poorest and most desperate people, but there you go.

well I am sorry Lockie, but if you think it would be a direct swap from one recipient of cash to another , just like that, then yes, you must be quite thick. I am not 'sneering', just saying.

But again more sneering at thickos

You said it, noone else did. But if the cap fits.....

Who said anything about a swap? Because I said it could be better spent elsewhere?

If it wasn't given in foreign aid it would still be in our budget and shared to other budgets no? Or is it some big complicated system that you don't want to explain

User....ding ding ding ding ding more sneering. Anything to add that isn't about other posters?

Look, I'm not actually against foreign aid. Happy for it to be spent on basic sanitation, vaccinations, maternity care, sexual education etc. But even you lot who blindly support it must be a bit embarrassed when you read about some of the things it finds?

*funds

Sorry that's my thicko showing a bit

YABU & actually as of 2015 the UK ended its aid programme to India, so the argument that we shouldn't be giving money to a space programme is actually out of date.
Also Lockie to help you with your time line the empire didn't end all that long ago. My in-laws are Indian and my FIL was born into an India still under British rule. I am in my 30s so this really isn't a long time ago.

I believe we should only be giving foreign aid to the poorest countries, and it should be better regulated. We have given millions to India, when even their own government said they didn't need or want it ffs. There is also a widely held belief by some government officials that the aid given is not monitored adequately and is being severely abused. The millions we give to countries like Pakistan and Banglidesh does not all go to the poorest people, often diverted to people who are significantly better off than others they live alongside. Our country currently gives out more in foreign aid than any other country. Why? We're certainly not the richest country, so why do we top the league when it comes to giving out foreign aid?

HannahSmithson45, you are not being unreasonable.

So-called aid has bought neither political freedom nor economic growth. According to the United Nations Development Program, 70 countries are poorer today than they were in 1980. An amazing 43 are poorer than they were in 1970. Fifty years of failure have demonstrated that foreign assistance more often harms than helps. If the money was simply wasted it would be bad enough. But much of foreign assistance from the United States and other industrialized states, as well as international agencies, such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, did more harm than good. For instance, the aid agencies never met a dictator that they didn’t like and wouldn’t subsidize—generously. Mengistu’s Ethiopia, Ceausescu’s Romania, Deng’s China and Mobuto’s Zaire all received grants and loans from bilateral and multilateral sources.

www.cato.org/publications/commentary/foreign-aid-simply-wont-reform-dictators

we do still give aid to india

Why am I being insulted for holding a widely held opinion in this country.

An opinion being widely held doesn't by default give it value and worth. Think for a minute through history of the last century and many examples of widely held but very wrong opinions will come to mind.

Yes, perhaps the money will do more good in Syria than it would in the UK. This is irrelevant. It's our money, it should be spent here. When the UK is "fixed" and our schools are unwaveringly excellent, the hospitals are faultlessly brilliant, every British citizen has their own home, we have zero unemployment, zero debt, everything is perfect - then, perhaps, we should think about sending our money overseas

I agree. Why should we give a fuck about kids dying in Syria when my Auntie Maud has to wait nine weeks for a hip operation?

low income children are much more likely to be your badly educated, obese criminals of the future. Perhaps we could sling them some money and prevent that from happening

We do. Isn't that the point of pupil premium/free preschool places for 2 year olds? Arguably this should be better funded, but it's a different argument from the foreign aid one.

I agree. Why should we give a fuck about kids dying in Syria when my Auntie Maud has to wait nine weeks for a hip operation?

Because - even putting any compassion aside - those Syrian kids and their families are the ones on boats coming into Europe. And heading onto the UK, where they will be a greater burden on the taxpayer and the NHS - which may ultimately mean an even longer wait for your Auntie Maud. Even if you reject the case on charitable grounds, it's in our own enlightened self interest to help these people.

Anyone using the phrase 'African Spice Girls' outs themselves as not having done their homework and for believing everything the Daily Fail feeds them. Yegna, the project in question, is (was...) a radio channel reaching adolescents and women to teach them about their rights. Impact evaluation studies showed that 95% of teenage boys listening would now speak out against forced marriages; 75% of teenage girls listening had had their educational aspirations raised. Enormous amounts of work is done, both here and abroad, to ensure money gets where it is intended to go and achieves what it is supposed to - but that doesn't make good reading in the Daily Fail.

I think that was sarcasm/irony, Natalia

Enormous amounts of work is done, both here and abroad, to ensure money gets where it is intended to go and achieves what it is supposed to

Whoops - sorry BratFarrarsPony. Wasn't wholly out of line with the original tone, in my defence.....!

Ouch re: some of the comments. I don't agree with the OP on this question but I think it's possible to be polite when doing so.

I agree with those posters who say that foreign aid is about protecting ourselves as well and I think it is money well spent. Allowing political instability to flourish and poverty to spread (particularly in an increasingly globalised world) IMO can lead to us being less safe here in the UK through e.g. acts of terrorism. It's not a particularly charitable argument, more to do with realpolitik.

And I don't think that holding such an opinion is racist. I think instead it's an acknowledgement that the UK is a richer, MDC and therefore has broader shoulders. I also think that we can acknowledge that the UK does have better systems and institutions in many respects e.g. rights for women, democracy, relative (though horribly unequal) affluence etc.

lovelearning is an rather ironic username given the amount of foreign aid spent on education. Love learning...but only in the UK?

As someone who once worked for DfID I learned over the years that many people tend to actually know little about the aid programme or how the money is allocated (the old chestnut of India's space programme for example. In countries like that, it's Aid for Trade and we get stuff back. It is of benefit to us too. ) I suggest you look at DfID's website to get more info. If you have specific questions contact their press office, they are always happy to give info and discuss any misconceptions.

Personally if it's a choice between little Jack next door getting a slightly better education or little Nesrin in Syria actually not dying, I don't see that there is a choice. Just because Jack lives here, by an accident of birth, doesn't make him a more deserving candidate in those circumstances. And I'd say that if Jack was my own kid.

And yes what about the tax dodgers, the M Ps fiddling expenses and so forth? A vast amount of money is wasted in this country which could be put to better use.

I have a number of friends and family who have worked in foreign aid/development for various agencies e.g. the UN in countries like India, Sierra Leone, Chad etc. They all agree that it's a gravy train and most of the money doesn't go to the people who need it. I've also lived in a poor country (Egypt) which is given lots of foreign aid. Honestly I don't have the time to tell you about all the waste, inefficiency and corruption I've seen or heard about. If we are going to give precious public money in aid we have to do a much better job in scrutinising why we're giving it and how it's being spent.

the amount of foreign aid spent on education

curlylocks101, lovelearning spent many years in developing countries. She has seen where the aid goes.

no one is denying that this country doesn't have issues and that austerity has made so many people in the U.K. suffer. However, solving those issues shouldn't mean cutting foreign aid when it's a tiny part of our GDP anyway and we get stuff BACK from it.

Bloody hell. Compassion is alive and well here. I agree that the OP, and the like, are being a bit thick. Foreign aid obviously does benefit 'the foreigners' but, as many have pointed out, this will eventually benefit those in the U.K. Both sides of the house have funds squandered and misspent, it's not just the third world who have corruption and mismanagement of spending! Why not take those in power in the uk to task rather than resenting money going to poor children in their home countries because ironically if you don't help them, those poor kids and their families are coming here-and they will come, whether in the EU or not- and take up council housing, school places, GP appointments, benefits, tax breaks.... why don't you work how much that little lot costs before banging on about the foreign aid budget?