Vocal Voices

The sacred cow faces the Axe.

Rishi Sunak to axe foreign aid! £15billion a year could instead be spent on UK defence

This one is going to raise hackles. But it is a vote spinner. 40,000 dead, country in decline, catastrophe at home and we're expected to just keep on turfing out £15 billion in aid.

I can see a lot of people being happy about this although it might stretch the 80 seat majority a bit.

But would you vote this down and then go to your voters and say "It's for your own good"???

It is a long overdue move, in my view, because "foreign aid" has never been about what it was supposed to be. It has been mainly about buying (British) influence overseas and filling the coffers of African despots, not to mention funding (what, exactly?) in India, which arguably has far more resources than we do, including a space programme. The African despots can these days get a better deal out of the Chinese anyway.

However, I don't think it will turn out to be a vote winner as such. Voters are a long, long way past caring. And it only scrapes the surface of the Covid deficit.

At the end of it all, it merely puts back the day when they have to introduce a massive direct taxation hike to pay for the last 7 months, although I would expect to see a fairly hefty tax on internet transactions levied first.

Foreign aid can continue, but in a different guise - it does not have to be "cash money".

The UK can send in personnel and equipment for as long as it is needed then we can bring everything back home once things calm down. We always own it. A lot of the civilian personnel are volunteers and if they are military then they are already paid for whether they are in Umpalumpaland or Upminster. The same goes for most of the equipment.

Getting rid of Foreign Aid completely will not be a vote winner across the board. There are too many of us who have concerns for our fellow human beings wherever they are and will always support some form of aid.

You can please all of the people some of the time......

They only need to please 50% or so.

The danger, of course, is that you upset your core voters but I don't see too much of a risk with that.

Perhaps if we stop it all we can go back and revisit whether countries with a bigger GSP than us who send missions to the moon and Mars, should be in receipt of our aid.

I don't see that as a bad thing.

Also going there and helping, to me, is a much better prospect. I always supported water aid for that. They go there and build water infrastructure that lasts.

Suff wrote:Also going there and helping, to me, is a much better prospect.

Which is basically what I am saying. We send equipment, personnel, knowledge, expertise and training. It is still foreign aid but not as it was. We do not have to send some Prince or General our bank details and PIN, we can send them real aid. It is then up to them to accept or decline our offer of help - we did our bit.

As you said, if we send the military then we build for them. Putting the aid money into the military then makes sense.

Unfortunately a lot of countries would not want UK military wandering around. Some of them with communities most in need of aid.

But it would be up to them.

I hope he sticks to his guns. There are times when we need money at home and this is one of them. Flooding is another where money could be diverted to help those who have been flooded. I have no objection to foreign aid when it goes to providing clean water, schooling, surgery for eyes/lips etc, which can make the lives of young children bearable. But it should not be set in stone and the law that says it should should be repealed.

Meds, what you say is what many of us already think and would be happy to pay for. But, as Suff says, if countries or regions will not physically let us in to help out then that has to be their choice. Cash should never be an alternative and cashpoint aid should end, but we really should keep the humanitarian side of things going.

We will see. But in this country it seems to be that it is those who shout the loudest who are the ones who get listened to, and the woke brigade will be incandescent with fury if foreign aid is cut.

Once we get over the current crisis and the next 4 months, I think there are going to be a lot of groups foaming at the mouth and finding they are getting nowhere. Time will tell.