Britain Gives £5M Of Overseas Aid To African Girl Band

[lindapalmara]

You couldn't make it up! This is on top of £4M already given to them.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4046308/Britain-gives-5-million-Ethiopian-Spice-Girls-new-talk-4-million-ve-handed-them.html

Say what you like about the Daily Mail and MOS but they are good at investigation this sort of scandal.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4044700/Mail-Sunday-victory-campaign-leads-foreign-aid-freeze.html

Charity begins at home. Social Care for our elderly.

[waterboatman]

An increase in pension wouldn't go amiss either!

[fiction-factory]

Yes, looks like a waste of money or poor choice on the face of it. But of course the money comes out of the Foreign Aid budget which is set by law at 0.7% of GDP, so this money was never available for social care for the elderly

[Old_Geezer]

Well if we want to fund stuff, hot girl bands must be the way to go.

[ToraToraTora]

abolish this madness now!

[New Judge]

"...so this money was never available for social care for the elderly"

I think that's the point that linda is making. UK taxpayers' money is under the control of the UK Parliament. It can be made available for whatever Parliament sees fit and it currently sees fit to spend a chunk of it (about 1.7% of all public spending) on schemes like this. Be interesting to learn what this "investment" provides for the UK (since we are constantly reminded that his overseas "development" fund often brings returns).

[vulcan42]

fiction-factory, the law you speak of was only passed in the UK last year and apart from the United States we are the biggest contributors to foreign aid. Other countries are cutting back, if we hadn't passed the law we could have done the same and helped the people in our own country.

[Khandro]

Citzens of the UK should be grateful to have a free press to make such demands and bring matters like this to the attention of the government, in other countries (such as Turkey) criticism of the government is now forbidden.

[-Talbot-]

I'm not against foreign aid but I think this waste of money should ...



Stop right Now

[anotheoldgit]

/// The three year phase has the long-term goal of 'changing how girls are valued and perceived in Ethiopian society'. ///

If this money has to spent in such a way, then surely it would be better spent, if it was spent on classes for Ethiopian men, on the correct way to treat their women folk?

[joggerjayne]

I don't get it.

There are five girls who want music careers.

So ...

Fly them to the UK ... hire a load of venues for them ...

Brighton ... The Haunt, Concorde2, Komedia, The Old Market

London ... The Barfly, Dingwalls, The Roundhouse, Koko, Scala

Etc ...

Do the same in towns all over the UK. If they are any good, they will soon become well known ... and have music careers.

Total cost of such an exercise ... maybe £200,000?

[andy-hughes]

I also hear the message offered by successive governments, that Overseas Aid is viewed as in investment, with plus-returns for the UK exchequer.

But I am mystified by projects like this, and find it hard to see the value or worth for the government - if they want to invest in pop groups, we have got thousands of them!

It is an easy target for anyone to say that 'charity begins at home' - but surely the government is not stupid enough with our money simply to spend it like it appears they have here?

Is it?

[joggerjayne]

£4m will keep the band going until 2018?

If me, and four of my pals were given £800,000 each, I think we could survive until 2018.

So the money will help them "develop a branded media platform"!! What kind of nonsense talk is that?

There's no suggestion that it will help them ... get out there and play music.

I despair for the music business.

[Khandro]

Many people along the way will line their pockets before what's left gets to the actual target.
It would be interesting, and would it not be unreasonable, to expect to have detailed accounts with receipts of this, just as one does with all charities within the UK?
As this is public money, such details appears not to matter.

[youngmafbog]

It's nuts. Just because it is law doesnt make it ok. Sometimes the law is an ass. Needs changing pronto.

[New Judge]

It was a law brought in by Mr Cameron to make him and his chums look good on the world stage. We can all look good if we have oodles of other people's dosh to splash around. Despite assertions to the contrary there is nothing in Overseas "Development" for the UK. The "small amount" of money in question (equivalent to about half the money ted in council tax, or a quarter of the defence budget or half that spent on transport or industry) should be diverted for use in the UK.

[anotheoldgit]

joggerjayne

/// Total cost of such an exercise ... maybe £200,000? ///

Which they could pay back, out of their earnings.

But why waste our money on these foreign girls, I am sure we have enough girls of our own who would wish the same chance in life.

[hereIam]

'Social care for our elderly'. Could not agree more.

[fiction-factory]

Yes, i never said the law was a good one- in fact I have said previously it sees pointless given that there is already a 0.7% of GDP target agreed by the G7 which major economies stick to pretty closely. As well as wanting the law to be scrapped I have also sai d we should have a more flexible target.
But the fact remains that we currently spend this amount on foreign aid. The money is clearly not always spent wisely as this case seems to show so better management is needed, but nevertheless this money is not currently available for elderly care. If the Foreign Aid law was changed we could perhaps save a few billion a year in years to come but of course elderly care would have to fight for a share of this along with the NHS, education, pensions and all the other demands on public spending.