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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Foreign Aid budget cut

266 replies

MellowBird85 · 26/11/2020 14:25

Do you agree with it?

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

OP posts:
RainbowParadise · 26/11/2020 19:48

@DillonPanthersTexas

It's a disgrace that people live in poverty in this country and its a disgrace that people here think it's acceptable to abandon the poorest and most disadvantaged people, mainly children, in the world.

Do you have similar levels of vitriol for other advanced European counties whose foreign aid budgets that are the same 0.5% that the UK has just reduced its levels to?

Pretty much, but especially ours, who committed to 0.7% and that was also part of their election manifesto but they are now backtracking.

And ours, who are happy to pour the money saved into the armed forces. And who are shamed into funding school meals by a footballer.

Oh and who are happy to watch refugees drown in the channel, children and babies included. France are pretty disgraceful on that score too.

laudemio · 26/11/2020 19:48

I think Bill Gates does enough and other billionaires should follow his example.

DillonPanthersTexas · 26/11/2020 20:02

Britain historically has done so much damage around the world e.g. former colonies that they haven't even begun to make solid reparations for.

And how would these reparations be calculated then?

thegcatsmother · 26/11/2020 20:03

RainbowParadise Oh I forgot that the wealth of a country was linked to its square mileage

In the UK it's one particular Square Mile that generates much of the wealth.

I would like to see Foreign Aid reformed and re-targeted. We should be doing trade, not aid. The long term aid we give should be for very specific ends and projects, and the sort term aid should obviously include helping after natural disasters. This is where the MoD spend comes in, as often it is HM Forces who are there helping out after hurricanes in the Caribbean for example, or searching through collapsed buildings after earthquakes, or helping to rebuild schools and hospitals, or the ships act as hospital ships where necessary.

silentpool · 26/11/2020 20:09

Charity needs to start at home in this case. If the UK cannot balance its books, it must suspend donations, until it can. A lot of foreign aid money is wasted, I'd rather see it go on healthy school lunches and increased social housing.

RainbowParadise · 26/11/2020 20:12

@DillonPanthersTexas

Britain historically has done so much damage around the world e.g. former colonies that they haven't even begun to make solid reparations for.

And how would these reparations be calculated then?

Do you disagree that the UK has done a terrible amount of harm around the world then? That there isn't a moral duty for the UK to try to help LMICs?

I personally think that even without the damage of colonialism, as a wealthy nation we should be providing aid. Especially aid that has the aim of making real, long lasting improvements, that help LMICs get to a point where they hopefully won't need aid in the future.

Lockheart · 26/11/2020 20:15

@silentpool

Charity needs to start at home in this case. If the UK cannot balance its books, it must suspend donations, until it can. A lot of foreign aid money is wasted, I'd rather see it go on healthy school lunches and increased social housing.
Please read my posts on the last page. Foreign aid is not altruistic charity, it is an essential of global trade.
RainbowParadise · 26/11/2020 20:20

www.ukri.org/our-work/collaborating-internationally/global-challenges-research-fund/#contents-list

This is a very good example of how it actually works in reality

DillonPanthersTexas · 26/11/2020 20:27

Plenty of blame can be placed on the colonial powers of the day, not just Britain. Unfortunately for Africa, an awful lot of blame can also be placed on the first generation of post-independence leaders that has set the a pattern that continues to the present day. Without exception leaders like Nkrumah, Kenyatta, Nyerere and so on took power with sound motives only to build regimes that were dysfunctional, corrupt, nepotistic and unfailingly authoritarian. The often socialist systems they built lapsed into gangsterism that obeyed a single directive and that was to retain power at all costs. In many cases this meant exploiting tribal and racial differences, building huge networks of patronage and nepotism, enriching supporters and exploiting the rest of the population.

The following generations of leaders have been, if anything, worse. Seizing and keeping power by force and plundering their countries to boot. It could be argued that the likes of people like Mobutu, Amin, Bokassa and so on, men who bled their countries dry and whose policies led to poverty and war that continues today did way more harm then colonialism ever could have achieved.

Throw in under-development, lack of educational opportunities for Africans, Cold War power politics, ecological disasters, the IMF and Development Bank newly independent states in Africa were always destined to fail.

Mayra1367 · 26/11/2020 20:30

Yes , cut the budget

thecatsatonthewall · 26/11/2020 20:39

@silentpool

Charity needs to start at home in this case. If the UK cannot balance its books, it must suspend donations, until it can. A lot of foreign aid money is wasted, I'd rather see it go on healthy school lunches and increased social housing.
Open your eyes! As i said earlier, it won't get spent on housing or healthy meals, its going to BAE, Babcock and other defence contractors and then we'll sell these weapons to countries like Saudi Arabia who will bomb civilians in the Yemen.

£4 billion p.a. saved is tiny compared to what we have been spending on Covid, a track n trace system that doesn't work or for that matter HS2.

NewLockdownNewMe · 26/11/2020 20:39

@DillonPanthersTexas it doesn’t matter what other people did - as a country we plundered the rest of the world and built our good fortune on their bad fortune. Forget calculating reparations, sending aid to the parts of the world we played a part in taking apart is just a small step in the direction of restoration.

@silentpool you know, in theory I’m not opposed to your point of view. If this money were going to help those in the UK who need it, I could accept the cut. BUT IT WILL NOT. It simply won’t. The government have had to be shamed in to extending school meals during the holidays. They’re planning on cutting universal credit. They’ve announced a massive increase in defence spending. They’re going ahead with HS2 (which is designed to get people to London faster, except now everyone’s got the hang of distance meetings no one is going to London). They will not help the poor of other countries and they will not help the poor of this country.

RainbowParadise · 26/11/2020 20:42

'Throw in under-development, lack of educational opportunities for Africans, Cold War power politics, ecological disasters, the IMF and Development Bank newly independent states in Africa were always destined to fail'

Great, shall we just leave everyone who happened to be born there to it then? Why bother with them, should have let Ebola rip. Fuck the lack of educational opportunities for them, fuck Malaria, fuck genocide. Because they are just destined to fail after allHmm

Whatever the causes, colonialism, post-independence leaders, a decent 'outward looking country' as Sunak claimed we are, does not stand by and do nothing. Or short sightedly cut back on the work already done.

thecatsatonthewall · 26/11/2020 20:43

The following generations of leaders have been, if anything, worse. Seizing and keeping power by force and plundering their countries to boot. It could be argued that the likes of people like Mobutu, Amin, Bokassa and so on, men who bled their countries dry and whose policies led to poverty and war that continues today did way more harm then colonialism ever could have achieved

Really? we carved up Africa, using arbitrary boundaries and then, when kicked out, we allowed these dictators free rein because they carried on supporting the UK via the commonwealth.

We stood by and allowed them to screw over their peoples, the UK and other colonial powers are equally responsible for the mess we left.

MellowBird85 · 26/11/2020 21:22

Going OT a little here, but for PP’s saying the government was shamed into providing FSM over the holidays...my understanding was they gave extra money to councils to spend as they saw fit? Happy to be corrected.

This thread has been very enlightening btw, thank you.

OP posts:
Theworldisfullofgs · 26/11/2020 21:27

Councils were given money to help with covid issues . They had a deadline by which to spend it - which was before October.

They were told they were absolutely NOT allowed to spend it on FSMs. The government then spun it.

Holothane · 26/11/2020 21:27

I’ll be flamed but about bloody time, when our homelessness situation is sorted when people stop having to rely on food banks then yes start giving again until then we need to sort this country out.

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 26/11/2020 21:29

Turned out that ‘extra’ money had been given weeks, if not months, before for other things and had mostly already been spent.

Which is not unusual for Boris’s announcements about ‘new’ money.

Theworldisfullofgs · 26/11/2020 21:29

holthane have you read the thread?

This decision will have a negative economic on our country so it will take longer to 'sort this country out'.

SchrodingersImmigrant · 26/11/2020 21:30

@Holothane

I’ll be flamed but about bloody time, when our homelessness situation is sorted when people stop having to rely on food banks then yes start giving again until then we need to sort this country out.
That will be. Never.
Theworldisfullofgs · 26/11/2020 21:32

Why are people bothered about this but not so bothered about the ££££££ that the government have given to their mates on PPE contracts including the landlord of Matt Hancock's village pub?

RainbowParadise · 26/11/2020 21:33

@Holothane

I’ll be flamed but about bloody time, when our homelessness situation is sorted when people stop having to rely on food banks then yes start giving again until then we need to sort this country out.
Like I said, we could spend 100% of GDP on our education system and this kind of view would still exist read the fucking thread

Can't argue with stupid.

RainbowParadise · 26/11/2020 21:34

@Theworldisfullofgs

Why are people bothered about this but not so bothered about the ££££££ that the government have given to their mates on PPE contracts including the landlord of Matt Hancock's village pub?
@Theworldisfullofgs indeed.
SerendipityJane · 26/11/2020 21:35

@Holothane

I’ll be flamed but about bloody time, when our homelessness situation is sorted when people stop having to rely on food banks then yes start giving again until then we need to sort this country out.
As I said, believe it when I see it. Are budgets for those items going up by the decrease in aid ?