Ring Fencing International Development

[dubsie]

I can't understand why international development is being ring fenced. Any ideas I'm a little confused why we are about to sack half the country but protect some crooked regime abroad with billions of our money.

[Authoritarian]

They keep going on about the dependency culture that our own generous benefits system creates, yet apparantly this doesn't apply to Johnny foreigner.

Ring-fencing it is an appalling decision, why should we giving aid to India and China FFS?

Edited July 4, 2010 by Chef

[Harry Sacks]

That's an easy one. International development is all about destroying what industry developing nations have and replacing them with sweatshops making products for the west in an environment where wages and human rights have been all but eliminated. The Wold Bank and IMF call slave mastering "structural adjustment".

[ken_ichikawa]

I can't understand why international development is being ring fenced. Any ideas I'm a little confused why we are about to sack half the country but protect some crooked regime abroad with billions of our money.

International development = bribes with strings.

We loaned Tanzania millions sometime ago, we forced them to buy an obsolete air traffic control system which cost even more.

Remember no free lunches international aid 'emergency help' is NOT free you send a team to rescue people buried under something the UK will send a MASSIVE bill with about 50000% interest on this 'aid'

I used to date babs who went on to marry a Japanese guy who's dad also offered international 'aid' to nations which means loans, they barely got away with interest rates below two to three hundred thousand percent.

[PhoneyMcRingRing]

This is a bit of historic policy IMHO. It's a throw back to the live 8 days and a move to disple the "Nasty party" image. Utterly ridiculous we are giving aid money to countries like India

Phoney

[Bob Loblaw]

I can't understand why international development is being ring fenced. Any ideas I'm a little confused why we are about to sack half the country but protect some crooked regime abroad with billions of our money.

Racist

[Authoritarian]

That's an easy one. International development is all about destroying what industry developing nations have and replacing them with sweatshops making products for the west in an environment where wages and human rights have been all but eliminated. The Wold Bank and IMF call slave mastering "structural adjustment".

Nonsense. Whatever we need from Africa we have to take for ourselves (i.e Nigerian oil) as they're too incompetent to do it for us, and the East would have introduced sweatshops with or without the tiny amount - in comparison - of aid they receive from the West.

[Zngland]

I can't understand why international development is being ring fenced. Any ideas I'm a little confused why we are about to sack half the country but protect some crooked regime abroad with billions of our money.

because when we're destitute we're going to need all the goodwill we can get

[Authoritarian]

According to the Telegraph the DFID's budget is small - about 1% of state spending. But they could cut this instead of raising VAT.

[dubsie]

That's an easy one. International development is all about destroying what industry developing nations have and replacing them with sweatshops making products for the west in an environment where wages and human rights have been all but eliminated. The Wold Bank and IMF call slave mastering "structural adjustment".

You are probably right. I can't see the benefit of pumping money into these mineral rich countries. Surely most of the money ends up on the black Market to fund wars.

[Injin]

I can't understand why international development is being ring fenced. Any ideas I'm a little confused why we are about to sack half the country but protect some crooked regime abroad with billions of our money.

Think of it as the statists buying very expensive plane tickets out of the mess they created with your money, with your money.

Edited July 4, 2010 by Injin

[dubsie]

I can honestly see a state of anarchy coming to our shores. 40% cuts will mean huge job cuts and front line services which we all need slashed. Think about how bad our roads are now then think about 40% cuts in council budgets.

[Zngland]

I can honestly see a state of anarchy coming to our shores. 40% cuts will mean huge job cuts and front line services which we all need slashed. Think about how bad our roads are now then think about 40% cuts in council budgets.

But but will house prices fall, Dubsie?

Seriously , riots , protests , anger aimed at who?

Who do you think will be the "bad" guy in this movie?

[Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz]

They're partly protecting the defence budget - wtf for - the head honchos have been wasting our cash hand over fist for decades - just noticed another massive tank order. WTF for? Wasted billions. Over and over again.

PS. perhaps international aid is really cover for war (sorry, sorry, defence) exports.

Edited July 4, 2010 by gruffydd

[Bob Loblaw]

India to build hospital on the moon

INDIA is to build a state of the art, multi-million dollar hospital on the moon.

A $10 billion rocket containing $1 billion worth of concrete and shovels blasted off this morning in what the government described as a 'great day for Indian healthcare'.

The lunar project will include a 2000-bed hospital and a gigantic warehouse filled with penicillin, as well 500 primary schools and thousands of disease-free public lavatories.

A government spokesman said India now hoped to become the first nation without indoor plumbing to land a man on the moon.

Charlie Reeves, a backpacker, said: "One of the first things you notice about India is all the cholera you get every time you go for a dump.

"The next thing you notice is the millions and millions and millions of children tugging constantly at your shirt and begging you for money so they can eat."

He added: "Who knows? Maybe one day one of these starving untouchables will grow up to become a spaceman."

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Save the Children, said: "Well, this is going to help us enormously."

Puna will celebrate the moon mission by working an extra 12 hour shift

[Harry Sacks]

Nonsense. Whatever we need from Africa we have to take for ourselves (i.e Nigerian oil) as they're too incompetent to do it for us, and the East would have introduced sweatshops with or without the tiny amount - in comparison - of aid they receive from the West.

Tosh. Wake up.

[Harry Sacks]

You are probably right. I can't see the benefit of pumping money into these mineral rich countries. Surely most of the money ends up on the black Market to fund wars.

Yes, and spent on luxury cars and palatial accommodation for their corrupt politicials.

[dinsdale]

I can honestly see a state of anarchy coming to our shores. 40% cuts will mean huge job cuts and front line services which we all need slashed. Think about how bad our roads are now then think about 40% cuts in council budgets.

A 35% cut would take us back to the levels of 10 years ago. Is that really so bad? I don't remember cowering behind barricades. And what's the problem with roads? - they seem generally OK to me.

[MrPants]

I have to say I see no need for this budget to be ring fenced, in fact personally I'd abolish it. It seems to me the Foreign Aid Bill consists of two parts:

1) Charitable donation

and

2) Hidden subsidy to exporters

Neither of these are things government should be doing. Charitable donations should be an individual matter, it is not for the state to decide that it is right and proper that we all give a certain amount to a certain group of people. Taxpayers are quite capable of making that decision for themselves. And subsidies for British companies, well that's just corporate welfare and encouraging wasteful production, there's no need for that either.

Scrap the whole department and that's about half your VAT rise covered in one go.

Edited July 4, 2010 by MrPants

[BLT]

2 things to add to this discussion

1) I read somewhere recently (think it might have been on here) that we along with developed nations have made a commitment to this, so it's not just us.

2) it'sonly 1%, it will make eff-all difference to us, but to others in the third world where people live on less than $2 a day, and life saving goods such as vaccines cost 30p, then I think it is a very small sacrifice to make

[Guest tbatst2000]

I can't understand why international development is being ring fenced. Any ideas I'm a little confused why we are about to sack half the country but protect some crooked regime abroad with billions of our money.

Cameron felt he had to prove conclusively that the current Tories were not the same as the lot that got kicked out in 1997 and promising to ring-fence international development was a cheap way of doing it - it's a very small budget relative to stuff like health and education after all. I'm generally in favour of governments sticking to manifesto pledges so I guess it's right they're not chopping it but, all the same, we shouldn't be giving a penny to places like India and China and we certainly shouldn't be funding things like awareness campaigns and other assorted crap in the UK. It should be direct aid to countries that need it provided direct to the people in trouble bypassing their almost universally corrupt governments or nothing at all.

[babesagainstmachines]

International development is not charity. It is spending British taxpayers money on creating investment opportunities in foreign countries for our rich elites. Usually by kicking millions of peasants off their farms and dumping them in slums or refugee camps.

[dubsie]

International development is not charity. It is spending British taxpayers money on creating investment opportunities in foreign countries for our rich elites. Usually by kicking millions of peasants off their farms and dumping them in slums or refugee camps.

I think you are 100%. Sounds like another attempt to undermine the western economy. When think the UK was once the centre of the world for business and sport and now look at us.

[dissident junk]

I too do not understand why IA is protected, so I had a look at the DfID website last week.

I wish I hadn't because it made me very cross.

Apparently, we gave £373,000 to Russia in 06/07.

Why did we give money to Russia? Why? I know it's not a vast amount but why did Russia need that £373,000 more than, say, Glasgow?

I can understand East Timor, Cambodia, places like that ... but South Africa (£40 million 08/09) and Brazil (£860,000 08/09)?

And then India. I couldn't believe it: £297 million in 08/09. The country has more billionaires than Britain.

[dubsie]

I too do not understand why IA is protected, so I had a look at the DfID website last week.

I wish I hadn't because it made me very cross.

Apparently, we gave £373,000 to Russia in 06/07.

Why did we give money to Russia? Why? I know it's not a vast amount but why did Russia need that £373,000 more than, say, Glasgow?

I can understand East Timor, Cambodia, places like that ... but South Africa (£40 million 08/09) and Brazil (£860,000 08/09)?

And then India. I couldn't believe it: £297 million in 08/09. The country has more billionaires than Britain.

it's very strange, we have major problems over here. Some parts of the UK are virtually third world why are we not pumping this money into areas of high unemployment.