So I'm pretty liberal, conservative with a small c and have no issues with us Brits doing our bit for those less able. Now that's out there so no one can play some daft racist flag, I'm looking on the news for signs of foreign aid flooding in, intended pun, to assist us when we could probably use the odd sand bag or a bloke from abroad with a big siphon down his trousers. It seems to me that if the current state of affairs we are experiencing was anywhere else but at home, we'd have emergency donations, text XXX to donate a sand bag and contemplating how many flood victims we could rehouse in Surbiton. In the absence of anyone abroad giving a toss, I'd at least think we should reconsider our aid program to the likes of super economies like China and India and maybe redirect things domestically until our own house is in order (or at least dry). Am I being OTT nationalistic in this view?
It is the same as people who are long on benefits. They get used to easy money and when it is time to go the other way round we poor as we only got money you gave us. If you were to stop it some hug the tree hippie would come along saying if you stop it normal people will suffer. Frankly I am surprised at amound of aid that is given by UK that is then wasted. About half of aid going to africa at the moment should be stopped or changed. Charity building wells yes, charity bringing mosquito nets or medicine yes, charity bringing food no. Instead get them tools to grow their oww same goes for charity building homes. WTF yes make them as helpless as you can because then in long term they will cope ..... NOT.
I will be more charitable to over populated third world countries when they stop breeding like rabbits.
Our foreign aid is feck all compared to what we spend on guns and bullets. Probably. Get rid of that HS2 and scrap trident. After all who fucking needs a nuke? No-one is going to invade and a nuke will just ruin my garden. Use that money instead.
Foreign aid buys influence overseas, what we then do with that influence is another matter. Should it be scrapped ? No. Should it be reduced and targeted more effectively ? Probably.
Feck em! - I posted earlier this week about the amount of cash that has gone to India, Pakistan and Afghanistan where it is siphoned off and paying for corrupt officials to build villa's Dubai, and drive around in supercars. The country is clearly mad - China, 2nd biggest economy in the world that still needs handouts from us??... India and Pakistan - Both developing nuclear weapons yet still have slums that just feeds into terrorism (as the Taliban at least pays them a salary of sorts). Why were we still also giving to Greece, Spain etc as well - They got themselves up shite creek! - Let them paddle their way out! And where are all these so called friends of our nation lining up to help us? - Feck me, bush fires in Oz and we are expected to send out experts to help - Earthquake in Turkey - Yep, we'll risk the lives of UK helpers - UK get's floods and we are all told to bugger off!
+1 Don't get me wrong no man can say no to a leg over but put a sock on first, perhaps donate a pack of three. Not to sure but because we are in the EU doesn't the UK have to donate a fixed amount each year? and yes we should be an island again.
I'm also aware we seem to have volunteers helping in their free time and providing assistance to folk living on benefits. Would it be that harsh to expect local people, able to work and on benefits to assist in this sort of situation? I'm wary of being too Daily Mail but really?
Aid always sounds like you fill up an envelope with cash and hand it over to the country concerned. It often isn't like this. It's often in the form of advisors from the donating country on fat salaries. Still, can't think why the Chinese merit any aid of any description. They are already being educated in the best universities in the world in Britain and the US and will take this knowledge home with them to shaft us. This sounds a bit racist, but it shouldn't be. Just recognises that there is a worldwide struggle for jobs. If we can't make it cheaper, we have to develop nous. If you hand that over to your competitor too, where is your competitive edge? Actually I'm a bit anti Chinese (again) after watching the programme about elephants and rhinos being wiped out thanks to the Chinese importing tusks. One elephant dies every 15 minutes, if you're interested. That's an awful lot of dead animal just for some teeth. I do get bored with the Chinese insatiable appetite for killing and eating, or just killing, every single living thing. Too bad they seem to exclude mosquitos from this feeding frenzy.
Indeed. Most of the Overseas Aid comes straight back to the UK because the aid is used to pay for exports of goods and services from UK to the aid recipient, or salaries of UK workers. Thus the Overseas Aid budget is mainly a contrivance for indirectly subsidising UK industries and UK employment. Direct subsidies would be against WTO rules, but "Aid" can be represented as a virtue. Obviously governments cannot be frank about what Overseas Aid really is, or what it is for, because that would give the game away and it would have to stop. This is why all parties, including the Tories, are in favour of Overseas Aid and opposed to reducing it - they understand its hidden purpose very well. Scrapping overseas aid would be shooting ourselves in the foot bigtime. But that doesn't stop some people, who have not the slightest understanding how it works, from proposing it.
Overseas Aid budget is mainly a contrivance for indirectly subsidising UK industries and UK employment. nice conspiracy theory i guess but without proof thats all that is im afraid. the proof doesnt appear to be in the pudding.
When I visited my old college last year, I found out that they get loads of Chinese applicants now. There are so many highly qualified, highly motivated, brilliant Chinese student that the college could easily fill its whole year's intake with them in all subject areas. The admissions problem is not so much public schools v. state schools as Chinese v. the rest. This has nothing to do with "aid" by the way - the Chinese students can and do pay their own way, and more, these days.
That is a bit of a load of tosh Pete, no pun intended. Loads of aid goes in form of food and as far as I tried food of any kind is not a valid currency. Blankets are another example, so are tools, computers. What you are saying sounds exactly like what propaganda would want you to believe. Even if aid is in actual cash before it comes back here to buy goods corrupted individuals, including government of country aid is going to, damn right criminals, opportunists will take their cut. Then what is left will possibly buy stuff but again transport costs will make it less and so will taxes. If aid works in a way you say it does it is better to give that money directly back to business so they can lower their operating costs thus lowering end price and making more people buy stuff they make as now they can afford it.
As long as we (UK PLC) still has delusions of grandeur then we will strut around acting all superior dishing out aid. Maybe a bit of humility is in order and we can accept aid?? with respect to China, if we look at S Korea as a small scale model, then it began as a low cost, low quality manufacturer. After several decades of industrial, economic and education growth, the workforce demand more, salary inflation takes hold and it is no longer such a cheap manufacturing area. Or that is how I see it, and I see China going the same way (albeit much more slowly due to size of population and autocratic/commie-democracy). good luck to all you folk being fucked up by this lousy weather, by the way, so far us Northerners have got off lightly.
Very true, it also creates British jobs as much of it pays for things like regenerating war zones, work done overseas by British contractors and suppliers. We don't just hand over a cheque each year, the daily mail won't tell you that though..
