Foreign Aid budget cut

[MellowBird85]

Do you agree with it?

YANBU - Yes it was the right decision to cut it.
YABU - No they should’ve left it alone.

Those infrastructure projects come at a hefty price for the local populace who are seeing their corrupt leaders sign away mineral rights, state assets and crippling their economies with unsustainable debts that come with hefty default penalties. Any notion that the Chinese are doing this out of benevolence is nonsense. It is all part of their silk road/ belt and road initiative and the projection of soft and at times hard power. Of course on this thread some people are more concerned about historical events 200 years ago

Indeed, and as you suggest it's a bit odd that so many focus on what happened centuries ago instead of what's taking place now

Not that criticising the Chinese regime would make the slightest bit of difference of course ...

Dillon the roads in Ghana are not fine outside of Accra - also dangerous. I vowed to avoid travelling at night in particular... & In the city they are grossly inadequate for the volume of traffic and gridlocked for much of the day.
I spent 4 years on a ministry of roads and transport project to rehabilitate & upgrade the most important rural roads for rural people in selected northern districts

Can't expect rich dictators to pay more tax. But they can expect UK workers to pay more to support foreign aid. Foreign aid should be left up to the charities to take over. And then people can give more if they wish.

It's naive to think that all aid money gets to where it should but having worked on DfID funded projects in child health and education with two separate charities I know that accounting for money spent is very tight and there is a lot of reporting that has to be done before the next tranche of funding is released.

Those projects did good work, largely benefitting women and children.

It's also naive to think that cutting aid will make a jot of difference to the needy in this country.

I would support reform of overseas aid spending but not this cut. However, the general public don't know the complexities of overseas aid so Boris knows it will be popular. Yet again people are being manipulated.

It's not a black and white thing but what people so often don't realise is we don't give foreign aid out of some sort of altruistic sense of duty, we give it because it helps us, an attempt to keep these regions stable and avoid the need for our military intervention, refugees etc .

I would support reform of overseas aid spending ...

Lots of people have said this and I'd be genuinely interested in what they feel it would look like

In particular I'd like to know what impact there might be on the charity industry's own spending, and what ideas there might be for tackling corruption both here and in the receiving countries

Oops I clicked the wrong way!

I think this is awful. That money buys us a place in the world and soft power/influence, so it's in our best interests, for one thing.

Plus the same people who want to cut spending also tend to be against refugees and immigration. Aid spending helps develop countries so people stay put instead of leaving in search of something better.

For another, those who say 'we should spend it on our own' are also often the people who also say we should cut benefits. This money will not be spent on British worthy causes, any more than Brexit will fund the NHS.

I have worked in the aid sector as well, UK money helped desperate people out of poverty in a way that will have lasting effects. A few stories of malpractice or corruption make headlines, all the excellent work done gets no coverage.

For me, there is something really nasty and ugly about people who bleat about helping our own, charity begins at home etc. It's not either or. If the government wanted to help people in need in this country, it would. This is just a needless reduction of British influence and increase in the level of misery in the world.

Charity begins at home never meant "look after your own", it means that learning to care for others and be charitable begins at home.

Well its really a choice (but not ours) between aid going to mostly people who need it in other countries, or to the likes of Dido Harding or DomCum's various mates. Know which one I prefer.

Now that Boris is on about spending billions on the armed forces can you imagine the levels of corruption that are going to go on? all his mates in Oxford running (for example) timber import businesses or whatever will suddenly overnight be running weapons factories and be given contracts for millions.

Somebody with power really, really needs to keep an eye on this and where the cut foreign aid money is going. Musnt let poor Priti Patel fall over and accidentally land in some massive treason like last time.

Public tendering rules need to be changed back immediately as well.

Although a country that is prepared to drown children at sea really doesn't have too high a moral ground to lecture other countries from.

Strange, in the past 13 years toing and froing across the Channel, I've never seen children taken out to be drowned. I've never read about it in the press either when I lived in mainland Europe; not did I read about it in the UK papers.

It is down to France to9 stop the trafficking, which they won't, despite the millions the UK have poured into joint efforts to do so. There are rules about where you claim asylum, and the UK is no way on the list of countries that are first footfall.

Is France not a safe country - or whichever other countries they have travelled through to get to the coast? If not, what is the EU doing about it?

I don't agree with migrants bypassing the procedures laid down to claim asylum.

Now that Boris is on about spending billions on the armed forces can you imagine the levels of corruption that are going to go on? all his mates in Oxford running (for example) timber import businesses or whatever will suddenly overnight be running weapons factories and be given contracts for millions.

Don't be daft - the weapons HM Forces use are ordered years in advance and are NATO standardised for the most part.

@thegcatsmother

Now that Boris is on about spending billions on the armed forces can you imagine the levels of corruption that are going to go on? all his mates in Oxford running (for example) timber import businesses or whatever will suddenly overnight be running weapons factories and be given contracts for millions.

Don't be daft - the weapons HM Forces use are ordered years in advance and are NATO standardised for the most part.

Isn't the extra money for the military all going to some space project? Entirely believable that there'll be a link somewhere.

Yanbu. It should be scrapped entirely. Millions are just scraping by with food bank help, yet the government are giving away money. It just doesn't make sense.

Charity begins at home. If India and China stopped getting aid perhaps they would reduce their space programmes and fund their poor themselves. The amount of wealthy Chinese is huge so maybe they need to raise taxes their end.

"reform of overseas aid spending"

I'm no longer in the sector but thoughts would be along the lines of

• making larger NGOs really account for things like the need for expensive vehicles, housing etc. Obviously this is very country and context dependent
• greater scrutiny and accountability for government to government funding. I am sympathetic to previous posters concerns about funding middle income countries such as India who choose not to tackle poverty at a governmental level and where local charities could raise funds from the well off in the community However, also appreciate the diplomatic aspect to this.
• tightening of eligibility criteria for funding and evidence of local input and responsibility i.e evidence that local people have initiated and support the project
• ensuring large infrastructure projects are sustainable in terms of maintenance, training local personnel etc. For example, are replacement parts available locally, will there be people to run the facility when the expats have left

Thank you, KateF; it's not my sector so I can't appreciate all the nuances, but that all looks pretty solid to me - and I especially liked your focus on accountability

France keeps migrants in camps. So no wonder they don't want to stay in France. So glad to be out of the EU.

that isnt true at all gcats, with designated marksman weapons, certain new camoflage and IED resistant vehicles they've made orders that come through in a matter of weeks, particularly with the Urgent Operational Requirement system. You cant forsee any problems if the MOD did have to order years in advance? for instance what if soldiers had to wait years to get new body armour if the enemy are using larger calibre weapons suddenly?

NATO standardisation doesnt apply to things like food, sleeping bags, bottles, webbing, personal electronics and a thousand other things.

Anyway, the point is foreign aid isnt just handing over money to any country that has a bit of a crises. its often used as leverage and as diplomacy. it opens up good relationships between countries, grows alliances and gets them buying british products. I realise its hard for economically illiterate conservatives to understand the concept of investment though.

I think this is awful. That money buys us a place in the world and soft power/influence, so it's in our best interests, for one thing.

Plus the same people who want to cut spending also tend to be against refugees and immigration.

How does it help, poor, neglected working class communities in this country? What kind of soft power/influence do their taxes get them? Please provide concrete examples.

Perhaps they are anti-immigration because they now have to compete with more people for jobs and they have seen their wages and communities decimated. Still, it doesn't affect the middle classes and the rich who can just smear them as racists and bigots, safe in their cosy public sector jobs, in their nice, middle class homogenous communities.

A better economy

I don't think insulting each other (from either side) helps. It's a complex issue for those outside the sector to get to grips with. In terms of migration I do believe that improving conditions in the originating countries lessens the 'push' factor in influencing migration. I worked with many overseas doctors and one of the factors pushing them to migrate was limited opportunities for specialist training at home. A project I worked on offered them a six to twelve month placement to learn a specific skill in the UK. They then returned home to pass that knowledge on. We poach many skilled professionals from LMIC which is not a good thing. Migration is another complicated issue!

user1471565182 I was thinking more along the lines of torpedoes for submarines, TLAM, ordnance for jets, artillery etc, which aren't off the shelf. My late fil used to design the torpedoes that dh worked with on submarines, so I know they take time to design and manufacture.

The context of my reply above was weapons. Much as I admired Dh's combats when he was in a purple job, they weren't weapons; neither are webbing, water bottles or sleeping bags.

@G3orgeOrwell

I think this is awful. That money buys us a place in the world and soft power/influence, so it's in our best interests, for one thing.

Plus the same people who want to cut spending also tend to be against refugees and immigration.

How does it help, poor, neglected working class communities in this country? What kind of soft power/influence do their taxes get them? Please provide concrete examples.

Perhaps they are anti-immigration because they now have to compete with more people for jobs and they have seen their wages and communities decimated. Still, it doesn't affect the middle classes and the rich who can just smear them as racists and bigots, safe in their cosy public sector jobs, in their nice, middle class homogenous communities.

Well said, and also the scarce resources we have here and the demographic of areas changing beyond recognition