Are you for or against foriegn aid

If anyone thinks that our government (or any other government for that matter) gives foreign aid out of the goodness in their hearts, then they are the ones living in BongoBongo land.
Governments give foreign aid for one reason, political / economic leverage. Today’s basket cases are tomorrows major trading partners, look at India. Our trade with them far outstrips the aid we grant them.
Trade = jobs at home, so the short sighted 'spend it at home' bunch need to take the blinkers off.
It business, nothing more.
I am for it, benefits both countries.
 
Against, it should be down to individuals to donate, not done as a collective off our taxes.

I'd say the same for support for religious organisations etc too though.
 
diane118 said:
we pay in our taxes 0.7% towards foreign aid.
A person on an income of £25,000 pays £5,465 in tax, of which £52 a year would go to the overseas aid budget. That is the cost of buying a loaf of bread a week, do you begrudge the starving of the world that or not.
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I'd rather have the choice who I gave that £52 a year to, not have someone else choose for me. So I'm against this silly 0.7% GDP distribution of my taxes to overseas organisations.

I do give to charity, but that's my choice and in this case a chunk of that £52 if I was allowed to decide would go to local small scale charities, not overseas.
 
I am for the concept of foreign aid however, like many things done by the government, it seems to be implemented quite badly. Perhaps if the money were instead given to targeted NGOs that do a better job spending it?
 
Depends. I'm certainly in favour of foreign aid being sent to countries like Jordan and Turkey at the moment to help them cope with their respective Syrian refugee crises. I'm not in favour of it being sent to countries like India or China, who compete with us economically and have plenty of billionaires of their own or Pakistan, who are pretty much our enemy at the moment. The failure of foreign aid is that it has ended up being, as someone put it, poor people in rich countries giving money to rich people in poor countries. Of course, our politicians love it, you can almost hear them thinking which international NGO will pay me the most once I've quit British politics.
 
No these men need our tax money so desperatley.
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DM

But we must keep demonizing our Own people who don't work and leave these poor rulers alone with our tax £££.
 
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elmarko said:
We spend hardly anything on it in the grand scheme of things, so for obviously.
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i wouldnt say £12bn a year is hardly anything. of course we waste other money too but you explain to someone who is struggling to eat this month (friend of mine) that his tax is being used to pay for water features in africa....

as above post, though im ok with money going to the poorest of the poor but it does grate when money is going to countries that dont look after their own people and squander what they have

take india. can we really justify giving money to a country that can afford its own space program?

£800k in aid was spend on a water feature in morocco. other countries have had money invested in TV. lots of aid is taken by warlords in africa and used to fund wars. to me that isnt what the money is for. and if we cannot control what the money is spent on then it shouldnt go.

having had my wife rushed into hospital with suspected meningitis this week (she is ok now) its clear how badly funded our own state is. people are dying due to cuts in services and health, should that money really be going abroad? should low wage payers really be having money taken from them to give to other poor people?

i think we need to get our own houses in order before we give it all away. how many billions a year are used in foreign aid, propping up the EU, bailing out banks, lending money to banks to 'help' us yet they charge 7% upwards to borrow money that was given by the taxpayer?

i do think that in the worst recession in living memory that people should be responsible for their own charity, it shouldnt be taken from taxes. if people feel strongly that they want to help then they should be free to give to charity themselves and it be tax exempt.

sorry for the rant.
 
No problem with that money going to benefit those that genuinely need it. What I do have beef with is handing over money intended for humanitarian aid to corrupt regimes such as those mentioned above, that then go on to use the money to feather their own nest, or buy another batch of knock off AK-47 and RPG-7 clones from the likes of China, to oppress their own people or wage wars with.
 
Found this and hunger is decreasing according to the Food & Agriculture Organisation of The United Nations ........................... number and percentage of undernourished persons
2010-2012 868 million (12%)
2007-2009 867 million (13%)
2004-2006 898 million (14%)
1991-2001 919 million (15%)
1990-1992 1000 million (19%)
So our Aid must be helping them.
 
tintin82 said:
If anyone thinks that our government (or any other government for that matter) gives foreign aid out of the goodness in their hearts, then they are the ones living in BongoBongo land.
Governments give foreign aid for one reason, political / economic leverage. Today’s basket cases are tomorrows major trading partners, look at India. Our trade with them far outstrips the aid we grant them.
Trade = jobs at home, so the short sighted 'spend it at home' bunch need to take the blinkers off.
It business, nothing more.
I am for it, benefits both countries.
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I know this but I just cant get myself to agree to it! Saying that the money it costs me has no real effect on me.

On one side, I believe we are wasting it by sending it to other countries that waste it. Are we SURE that 100% of the money we send to some of the African countries goes to the starving? How much of it goes to Warlords/government bribes etc?

But then again the people it would be spent on here would waste it equally. Most likely would go to pay for Sky TV for benefits scroungers.
 
diane118 said:
Found this and hunger is decreasing according to the Food & Agriculture Organisation of The United Nations ........................... number and percentage of undernourished persons
2010-2012 868 million (12%)
2007-2009 867 million (13%)
2004-2006 898 million (14%)
1991-2001 919 million (15%)
1990-1992 1000 million (19%)
So our Aid must be helping them.
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Those numbers prove nothing in relation to our contribution.
 
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