Foreign Aid

[lindapalmara]

Shouldn't this fiasco be stopped. It was a vanity project for Cameron and Clegg after May named Conservatives as being seen as the nasty party. Doesn't this country need these things more.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10333762/uk-taxpayers-fund-salt-china-foreign-aid/

[naomi24]

Yes, it should be stopped.

[ToraToraTora]

yes it should be stopped, we are giving dosh to countries with a space program For Funks Sake!

[Zacs-Master]

What foreign aid is really about (scroll down to the ‘here’s how’ bit):
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/transformation/inconvenient-truth-about-foreign-aid/

[Old_Geezer]

Wouldn't be so bad if we could see a quid pro quo.

[Zacs-Master]

We do see quid pro quo, it’s just that it doesn’t appear as direct, traceable results.

There have been some foreign aid disasters, and the whole system leaks like a rusted sieve but it’s the oil which lubricates diplomatic, financial and defence machines.

[Old_Geezer]

From the article we see goverment sending public money and commercial concerns benefiting as part of the effects. Probably makes sense to prioritise where funds are allocated such as to benefit oneself as well, but I'm unconvinced about the overall plugs benefit claim. Nor that it always goes to the people we're trying to help.

Some so called benefits, such as not taking overflow population from some parts of the world, ought not be needed anyway. If some parts can't provide a basic safe life for it's citizens then it ought not be producing excess trying to come here in the first place. If they chose to agree/use the handouts to stop emigration that's their choice.

[retrocop]

Ironic innit. We give financial aid to India and China who are industrial giants in the modern world and they in turn churn out more pollution than we do. I note Greta never went there to lecture. Had she run out of wind? Here in Malta we see Chinese tourists wandering around in smog masks. Either they carry some transmittable disease like TB or they are insulting their Maltese hosts. No aid to the world’s worst polluters.

[Zacs-Master]

China also happens to be a superpower, with nuclear capabilities and an extremely strong economy. Do you think it might be a good idea to be friends with them?

[retrocop]

Sorry. I might appear old fashioned but I choose my friends. I don’t buy friends and can’t be bought. What ever happened to diplomacy?
That doesn’t been lobbing out bungs worldwide.

[Zacs-Master]

Yes it does, it always has. Diplomacy is always made smoother with the odd little financial fillip.

I admire your personal moral stance, retro, but I’m not sure it translates to nation states.

[andres]

For every £100 of our national income only 70 pence goes to foreign aid. Now if it went to those countries in desperate need all well and good. There needs to be an overhauling of the system and stop giving it to the countries that don't really need it and concentrate on those that do.

[sevenOP]

"In 2017, WASH Chair Graham MacGregor and WASH member Feng He – based at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) - were awarded £6.6 million by the UK's National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to set up a new Global Health Research Unit called Action on Salt China (ASC)."
http://www.worldactiononsalt.com/projects/saltchina/

[emmie]

i believe it should be, but sure that it won't happen.

[david small]

For fear of missing out on possible or promised reciprocation they will shell out our readies, and what’s more you will like it.....do you hear?

[gulliver1]

Well why can't you keep all the Foreign Aid Payments in London . There are loads of Foreigners there . Even the foreigners can speak The Old Lingo , Me Old China.

[fiction-factory]

I don't know what your reasons are for saying foreign aid "was a vanity project for Cameron and Clegg". We've always handed out foreign aid for as long as I can remmeber and the size of it relative to GDP/government expenditure hasn't changed much for decades. What was done was to enshrine it in law that we had to give a set % of GDP (0.8% from memory), but I'm sure Boris can overturn that. Most aid is not aid anyway- it's targeted to win political and military influence and get trade deals, but clearly a fair amount is wasted and spent on things we have no need to support. I'd be happy to see it cut to say 0.5% but I'm not sure it would be possible to cut it below that unless we want to cut off our nose to spite our face.

[grumpy01]

Why hasn't Foreign aid been channelled into things like relieving children from trachoma,the clean water project or standing up for young Asian girls for which we get pestered by the likes of Olivia (what haven't I been on yet) Colman? Surely these things would be more worthy of our funds than sending money to be channelled into dictators pockets.No,charities have to come on daytime t.v. pulling at the heartstrings of vulnerable pensioners and others on benefits who are housebound and therefore watch television a lot.