The Uk In Debt? Not In The Least It Would Appear.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3337073/5million-foreign-aid-boost-fishing-Caribbean-Despair-Cameron-says-money-help-countries-make-maritime-advantages.html

£5 million to boost fishing in the Caribbean, all part of a £26millon aid package?

What could our own people do with that amount?

[Zacs-Master]

I have to agree with Sir Gerald Howarth, a former Tory defence minister, who said: ‘What is the point of this arbitrary figure of spending 0.7 per cent of GDP?
‘The idea that if we spend this amount all the world’s problems will end is absurd, or that by providing that magic figure we suddenly become paragons of virtue.
Apparently ministers find it hard to find worthy causes for the approx £12b we are forced, by the EU, to spend, hence crackpot ideas such as this.

[fiction-factory]

May be worth reading this, AOG, so you can get a picture of where it goes. Of course £5m is a drop in the ocean as it's about 0.05% of our foreign aid budget and works out at around 1p a month for each taxpayer, but it does give the impression that they are not really sure what to do with this 0.7% of GDP figure we have committed to. Given that some foreign aid is really a sweetener to get trade deals and is a way of influencing some governments, what % of GDP would be reasonable? 0.5%. 0%? Do you have a view, AOG, on the right level?

[fiction-factory]

Forgot link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34176846

[anotheoldgit]

fiction-factory

Stop churning out the Fiction in your factory.

http://blogs.new.spectator.co.uk/2015/04/why-do-our-leaders-continue-to-squander-money-on-overseas-aid/

[fiction-factory]

Where was the fiction? Are you able to be specific?

[THECORBYLOON]

The link says some folk are being paid £1000 per day but I am not able to read the source in The Times so perhaps ANOTHEOLDGIT can shed some light?

[Zacs-Master]

Corby, all you had to do was use the ink:
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/politics/article4414250.ece

[THECORBYLOON]

Fine if you subscribe but I don't, hence my question.

[Zacs-Master]

Then you need to be clearer. You doubted the source, not the validity of the source.

[anotheoldgit]

Thanks Zacs-Master for steering our Corby in the right direction.

[jomifl]

I was once incidentally involved in a overseas research project which qualified for 'foreign aid'. How it worked was that the equipment to be used in the project was to be supplied by British manufacturers and would generate British jobs. The equipment would have been left in the foreign country when the project was finished because it would not have been worth bringing a lot of second hand unwanted kit back to the UK. No johnny foreigners were to be given a wad of cash, though some would have benefitted from trickle down effects such as payments for local services. Foreign aid is not as simple as some would like to think.

[anotheoldgit]

THECORBYLOON

/// Fine if you subscribe but I don't, hence my
question. ///

Neither do I but one can read this by just clicking on Zacs-Master's link.

*** Britain is paying professional aid staff up to £1,000 a day to work in Africa and Asia as part of a spending frenzy to meet a government target. ***

[Old_Geezer]

0.7% is not a miracle figure that alleviates the world's problems; it is a figure decided upon that represents a decent attempt to help those in need. It is a good idea to have some measure of whether your nation is doing its bit, or leaving it to others.

As for where the help goes, that is left to others. I guess someone made the argument that the Caribbean islands were in need and money spent on the fishing industry there would help them sustain themselves in future better than spending elsewhere. As to whether that is a good decision, I wouldn't know; but it isn't earmarked for spending in this country anyway.

[THECORBYLOON]

Only the first three sentences are viewable, not the entire article unless I subscribe.

[Old_Geezer]

Anyone is charge of a budget that starts to waste it at the end of the year on order to meet a target and not get into trouble, has not achieved what they should during the year and should be asked to justify the underspend. It's possible the budget is too large, but in a world full of problems that seems unlikely.

[Svejk]

Yes, despite, no doubt, thousands of 'teat-suckers' efforts, they can't find enough fatuous schemes to waste the money on.
Last year they had to 'off-load' £2/3 billion to a Swiss company that specialises in getting rid of Aid money. One of the ways it gets rid of it, is paying enormous salaries to the people that work there.

[Old_Geezer]

...in order...

>:-(

[THECORBYLOON]

So then, a statement is made about folk being paid up to £1,000 a day but who are they, what are they doing and for what period of time? A lot more information is needed.

[anotheoldgit]

THECORBYLOON

What more do you need to know?

[THECORBYLOON]

What is it they are doing and for how long would be a start.