Let's get our priorities right

[anotheoldgit]

http://tinyurl.com/2423x96

Where should our priorities lie, aid to Pakistan or aid to our Heroes?

[sammmo]

our heroes.. final answer

[Gromit]

Our priorities should be divided. It is not a case of either one or the other. Soldiers are reasonably well looked after. Aid to Pakistan at the moment could save hundreds if not thousands of lives.

In the end, it is a personally choice who you donate money to. I would donate to both. Some would not donate to soldiers who volunteered for their job, and some would not donate to Pakistan because it is a long way away.

[carrust]

I gather we also send about £950m to India in aid every year. Funnily enough, that the cost of their nuclear arms budget!

[sp1814]

Both and neither.

Aid to Pakistan, hearing aids for the deaf, NHS beds for the pregnant, lighting for the motorways, desks for council workers etc...

None are exclusive to the others. Just because one cause gets money doesn't exclude cash for others.

[sp1814]

An idea...

The government should scrap child benefits for any household with an income over (say) £25,000 per year.

The money recouped could then go to funding support for veterans, extra money for the NHS, and more police on the streets.

Don't see why we pay people money to have kids anyway...and that benefit is paid out until the kid is SIXTEEN YEARS OLD!!!

Get rid of it...that would be a great priority.

[McMouse]

Scrap the Daily Mail and spend the money on errr.

[Gromit]

Well done the British Public!

They have now donated over £10.5 million to the flood victims in Pakistan.

[joeluke]

.......and how much would Pakistani people donate to the UK if we had such a disaster here?


My abacus is ready if that ever happens

[rov1200]

With the population of this overcrowded country of about 150 million what can you expect. Why can't we also send them some condoms as part of the aid.

[boxtops]

I doubt that the average person in Pakistan could afford to send aid here - it's a land of very poor poor people and very rich top n0bs. My money goes to Help for Heroes to help them when they get back here.

[Gromit]

// With the population of this overcrowded country of about 150 million what can you expect. Why can't we also send them some condoms as part of the aid. //

The UK is far more over populated than Pakistan which is about 4 times bigger than the UK.

For every square mile in the UK there are 660 people. In Pakistan there are just 500 people per square mile. We are the more over-populated country in comparison.

[rov1200]

It doesn't help when more than a million Pakistanis have arrived here and breeding like rabbits.

[andy-hughes]

Who are 'our Heroes'?

If you mean people who sign up for the armed forces and then go to Afghanistan, I do not regard them as 'heroes' as a collective group. They are doing the job they signed up for - why else do they fire at human-shaped targets in training, unless they may be required to do it for real?

Heroes are the very very few who save colleagues at personal risk.

No-one is a 'hero' for signing up for a job which involves killing people in an illegal invasion - it's not a war, it is an invasion.

[andy-hughes]

To answer your question properly AOG - 'aid' is sent to starving people suffering from a natural diaster - that is simple humanity.

Money for troops invading another country is called 'funding' and comes from government sources.

The two are mutually exclsuive.

I would give the entire defence budget to starving people, but that's just a person view.

[tastymorsel]

Couldn't have put it better myself Andy.

[jno]

the Taliban don't want aid from the west, as they hope to increase their popularity by providing it themselves. It's good to see so many generous Brits ready to help them achieve their global aims.

http://www.google.com...KA8mJhksAGN3Mbm_5M71w

[Gromit]

Sorry rov1200

If you discount the 1 million (breeding like rabbits) you still have 648 people per square mile which is a lot more cramped than Pakistan's 500 per square mile.

[rov1200]

I couldn't agree with you more Gromit. England is bursting at the seams. It needs a brave politician to do something about it.