Its fine to save money letting women die in child birth this year, as long as we are going to spend money preventing other women die in child birth in other years.

[Market1]

( second posting, as first one vanished...)

We have been culpable in contributing to horrendous poverty and conflict in so many areas of the globe, through political interference in the past, and climate damage now, so it is right and proper that we think long and hard about supporting pregnant women abroad in the future, and as long as we promise to continue thinking long and hard, it is fine for a few thousand to die in child birth while we think, after all, they are a long way away, and their English isn't very good.

And if they don't fancy their chances of survival in their home countries, there is always an easy road and a warm welcome waiting for them here! And a mere quarter of a million unsafe abortions? That is nothing to concern ourselves about.

YANBU - it is fine, we need to save money, and a few thousand deaths in childbirth is nothing in the grand scheme of things
YABU - we should support these women through overseas aid today, even if their English isn't very good....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66378364

Thousands of women already die in childbirth in Africa as a result of FGM. This is not supported by the British government.

All this article reminds me of is how much I hate the BBC. They are 2 adjectives away from basically being tabloid news.

I'm in two minds about this one. Yes, we should be helping with overseas aid and I'm glad that we do. OTOH, it's not possible to help everyone. Where do you draw the line?

Cuts to foreign aid don't go deep enough AFAIC.

There isn’t enough publicity about FGM in African countries and the appalling history of how women have been treated in the past. It still exists to this day and even in Britain girls are still sent back to a country where this takes place for “a family visit”. White colonialists are always being criticised for taking over parts of Africa but they were the ones who first publicised the horrific abuse of young girls in the name of a culture.
I am sick and tired about hearing how bad Britain is as a nation. We are nowhere near perfect but we are better than a lot of other countries

I'm sure you're aware that the money is being redirected to cover the costs of asylum seekers who have come to the UK.

Where would you rather the money came from? Cancelling free school meals for primary children, or cutting adult care services even more? Reducing care for SEN pupils? The NHS?

We have the highest debt levels we have ever had. We can't have everything, so what would you choose to do without?

I was disgusted by the news of the cuts this morning. Another callous, short sighted, unforgivable decision by the government.

Tax the rich.

Prise some of that unearned, undeserved, unjust wealth from their grasping hands and redistribute it where it is needed.

It's the only answer.

Well, the narrative on the left is that everything we do is shit and tainted, is it any surprise that the right is able to utilize that to do less? A sensible middle ground of politics, away from black and white thinking, filled with pantomime villains, affords a better platform to make informed decisions and useful policy.

well the cost of free school meals could be halved for a start, by giving half of the current spend directly to parents to shop with, rather than to schools, who spend almost all of it on the staff that prepare it, and very little on the food.

By pass the cost of the staff that buy, prepare and serve the food, let parents do that, and you get ten times the nutritional value for half the cost

Foreign aid should be scrapped entirely, at least until the country is debt-free and we have world-leading services here.

It's not that foreign deaths don't matter, it's just that it's not our responsibility to deal with it. We used to have appalling childbirth death rates, but as a country we decided to do something about it. It didn't happen overnight, it required effort through several generations.

Those abroad who are not satisfied with the services available in their country, or their government, need to do what we did - work to improve things. Accept that change doesn't happen overnight, it will take a few generations at least.

But above all, we need to stop thinking that we are somehow responsible for everyone else. Foreign aid is inherently racist, it is given from the point of view that we are better than them.

OP,
You need to let go of the British Empire. We are currently a poor backwater country with a crumbling health service that is currently letting 500 people a week die.

We are not in the god like imperialist position to be able to save people in other countries from their own governments also not funding healthcare for them.

Your voting seems off as you don’t really want the aid cut do you?

Who told you this cock and bull story?
Dinner staff cost the same whether they are making 200 school dinners or 100 school dinners. The FSM funds go to buying and making more food. The cost of the staff is zero extra.

@ begs the question -
The rich (top 1%) already pay over 28% of all income tax - if I were any colour of government, I would be very worried about that, because they are also the most mobile sector of society. Tax them enough, and they’ll leave - then we’ll really be in trouble. (And I am very far from being one of them.)

Nobody "told me a cock and bull story" - I can see it for myself in the schools financial records, and not only that, I can see what crap the kids are being offered.

That is a different thread, anyway. I was asked where the slack was in our system to finance over seas aid - and one of the options I was given is so clearly a horrific waste of money that it just begged to be pointed out.

So, you are seeing schools only hiring staff to buy and prepare school dinners for FSM students? So how do schools with no FSM funds buy and prepare their school dinners?

Schools hire staff to buy and prepare all the food for all students and there is literally no change in the number of staff regardless of the % FSM students.

None, zero. Nada.

You think it is more efficient to have parents pack lunches than to run a centralized meal program at the school. Bulk purchasing provides efficiencies in pricing that would be lost by individual shoppers. You also have parents who are often very pressed for time trying to provide for their families. We haven’t even gotten to the problem of the money not being spent for it’s intended purpose.

if you are going to complain about government policy, at least do it with some forethought. half-baked ideas weaken the credibility of your entire argument.

What happens if you give parents the money for FSM and they use it to buy drugs or to gamble and give the kids nothing or just a jam sandwich every day?

I am sure the vast majority would make good use of it but what about the rest?

Think you need to consider how much their own country are helping them, as to what I know a lot of them don't live in poverty yet were meant to send our taxes and other money to help them when we still have people here that need help. When does it stop. GB pay aloe of money overseas compared to other countries
On the other hand it's a disgrace that these place are letting this happen

The impacts of these cuts are horrifying. My first instinct is to be angry. My second is to realize that one nation can not be responsible for all the worlds ills.

should these particular cuts be made, I don’t know. Maybe the budget would have best been balanced in another way . Maybe this was the only option. Drawing our attention to the issue is worthwhile and so is further study.

@Begsthequestion 'Tax the rich.

Prise some of that unearned, undeserved, unjust wealth from their grasping hands and redistribute it where it is needed.'

You mean like our consultants and surgeons who are already heading off to be paid more, and have better lifestyles in the US or Australia ! Or the likes of Dyson and Branson who have already left.

The top 1% already pay 30% of all income tax revenues in the UK. (LSE, Jan 2021).

Wealth tax is a possibility but very few countries have made it work, and it would drive many of the net contributors, people we want to keep, to live elsewhere.

Tax is a world market and people with skills resources can move relatively easily.

The idea we can fix other countries is going to get more strained. We’re struggling in our own way. Sure not to same extent but it’s going to get harder.

You’ll hate me but I would rather funding went into the care and well-being of British women & children.
I do not oppose the reduction in foreign aid. They have their own governments and laws and that is the root cause of their plight.

Yeah let's not tax the rich, and wait for the inevitable breakdown of society into riots and mayhem instead.

See you on the barricades xxx