To think Gordon Brown has got it so wrong?

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To pledge £6 million to the Haiti government following earthquake. I appreciate the funds are to help those in the wake of a horrendous natural disaster but I am wrong to think that our country in rather in need of £6 million and in a bit of a crap financial position.

Don't get me wrong I can't even begin to grasp the devastation and I support all the charitable efforts by organisations such as christian aid but this country is in a mess and it is us that are paying the price and facing tax increases etc to foot the bill.

All views welcome!

How can kit be wrong to give financial help to people who have lost everything?

If we all just looked after number one...

£6m is nothing in the grand scheme of things, it will mean a lot more to people in Haiti than the difference it would make in the UK, and a contribution is a sign of basic humanity.

YABincrediblyU

What has happened there cannot even be comprehended here, how can anyone begrudge the aid?

It's the right thing to do and I would be ashamed if we didn't.
Have you seen the pictures on the news?
Our country's not in that much of a mess

Perhaps desperate situations like this have already been budgeted for? We are not having a great time here but we are all millionaires compared to the ordinary people of Haiti. Wouldn't want to walk in their shoes for a second.

£6m is a bit of a drop in the ocean for us though really isn't it? It would help the people of Haiti much more than it would us ATM.

Their Country is devastated, how could we not help?

A woman had a baby in a Haitian hospital last week. That hospital is now flattened. What do you think has happened to mum and baby? Begrudge a few quid now, OP?

YABU it really is piss-all in the grand scheme of things. heard some horrific news reports on the radio this morning, just awful.

No I don't think he has got it wrong.

Would you think that say, the USA, should withold funds from the UK if hundreds of thousands of people (including children and babies) were suddenly killed or left seriously injured, homeless and destitute overnight.

Have a fucking heart.

and what about the pictures of that Primary School? Imagine if that was your local primary!

Maybe you should have looked online at scenes of devastation from Haiti before you posted this - very insensitive.

Is this going to be a story in the paper OP?

one of the reports was a father with his dd in hospital, both her legs had compound fractures and her head was split open, she'd had no medicine, no painkillers and you could hear this child moaning and crying. the earthquake hadn't destroyed the medicines, there were none there in the first place.

Good lord. Have you SEEN the pictures?
It's horror. And it's going to get worse.
There is NO medical system in Haiti.

Haiti is one the least developed countries in the world.

This couldn't have happened in a worse place.

I think we should be offering far more than 6 million.

Agree. Am actually completely freaked out by this OP. Really, what kind of person thinks this? This is beyond AIBU.

I'm no supporter of Gordon Brown but it is right that we should help those in greater need than us - and they are in greater need. They need shelter and food, and not free laptops.

YABVU!

YABU, YABU, Good God YABU.

Did you hear the report on the Today programme this morning? The reporter arrived and the first thing he encountered on getting to the hospital was a pile of dead bodies, including a dead baby. I was feeding my own baby as I was listening and could hardly bear the comparison between my baby in her centrally heated house, and that poor little thing.

OP - have a good think. Do you really mean this? I do hope not.

Well I would agree if there had just been a devastating natural disaster here that had claimed 30,000 lives and destroyed the majority of our infrastructure.

But there hasn't.

So YABVU.

YABU obviously in your meanspiritedness. However the Haitian givt is dodgy as fuck and I'm not sure how well they can be trusted to administer the funds properly.

I'm no supporter of Brown, but YABVVVU. Seriously. Look at those poor people. They've got nothing left. They've lost their babies, their friends, their parents, their homes. £6m isn't going to even come close to the help they need. I'm sure we can cope with being slightly less well off for slightly longer if it'll even begin to help them. We're already in the top 3% of global wealth in this country. What most of us perceive as hardship would be utter luxury to the vast majority of people in the world. They need it WAY more than we do. I wish he was sending double that.

I do think GB gets it very wrong and I absolutley recognise the utter devastation this has caused.

Hundreds of women and children die each day in poverty stricken countries in the third world, many of which are have no real medical system, no educational esablishments to speak of.

If you saw those countries as a slow drip feed of devastation compared to the sudden onslaught in Haiti, would it be any different? Where do we draw the line?