Where's the money been found.

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

Rolling public services back to where they were in 2003 - 2005 is hardly comparable to many things our foreign aid finances.

Noteworthy also is that the foreign aid can and does yield returns of its' own - aid is a very regularly used diplomatic tool.

Nick Clegg puts it better than me.

Yes appreciate that foriegn aid does reap some rewards for us financially ,that is why i said less aid and not no aid

Originally Posted by martyh

Maggie we don't have a bottomless pit of money to give away we have our own social and economic problems to deal with with less money to play with ,so something has to give and less foriegn aid is a start

£70 million won't plug or solve any of our current problems.It won't even keep the NHS running.It is simply peanuts compared alongside what we owe.

And compared to what Pakistan needs it's not even a plaster.

Maybe you should re-read the Widow's Mite parable again while you are about it..

Originally Posted by Maggy J

£70 million won't plug or solve any of our current problems.It won't even keep the NHS running.It is simply peanuts compared alongside what we owe.

And compared to what Pakistan needs it's not even a plaster.

Maybe you should re-read the Widow's Mite parable again while you are about it..

Tell that to the people who aren't getting their council houses updated as promised in tyneside because 50million has been removed from the budget .There are 5 blocks of flats which are probably going to have be pulled down in cruddas park because the LA has run out of money because a private invester has pulled out ,70million would complete the project and pride some much needed housing in my area.

just to add ,i think it is absolutley ridiculous comparing the nhs budget to the 70million we are sending over to Pakistan .70 million is a drop in the ocean compared to the nhs budget or the welfare budget ..but it is a very large amount to some LA's and should not be dismissed as a poultry sum

So - should we update some LA houses, or help prevent starvation and the spread of deadly diseases?

Originally Posted by martyh

Tell that to the people who aren't getting their council houses updated as promised in tyneside because 50million has been removed from the budget .There are 5 blocks of flats which are probably going to have be pulled down in cruddas park because the LA has run out of money because a private invester has pulled out ,70million would complete the project and pride some much needed housing in my area.

just to add ,i think it is absolutley ridiculous comparing the nhs budget to the 70million we are sending over to Pakistan .70 million is a drop in the ocean compared to the nhs budget or the welfare budget ..but it is a very large amount to some LA's and should not be dismissed as a poultry sum

I could also say it to all those children who were expecting their schools to be rebuilt this year but now will be continuing to be taught in substandard schools.However £70 million won't cover those costs either.

I guess we will just have to agree to disagree.

Originally Posted by Hugh

So - should we update some LA houses, or help prevent starvation and the spread of deadly diseases?

Or possibly use it to house some of our own homeless .Just to make it clear i am not advocating a complete stop to foriegn aid just a measured reduction

[speedfreak]

I get the feeling not many will agree but I dont mind having my say even if it isn't agreed with. Rather than people talking about what we may or may not get out of it, as a tax payer personally I dont mind aid money being given like this. I understand the charity begins at home comments but you can hardly compare council houses that need revamping to families living like this





There are kids living in that. Wheres the humanity? Personally I dont give two hoots if we get some trade agreement or any agreement to do with terrorists in return for the aid money. We are all human beings. Forget the money issues, if one of your family were over there living in that would you have the same view?

Originally Posted by speedfreak

I get the feeling not many will agree but I dont mind having my say even if it isn't agreed with. Rather than people talking about what we may or may not get out of it, as a tax payer personally I dont mind aid money being given like this. I understand the charity begins at home comments but you can hardly compare council houses that need revamping to families living like this





There are kids living in that. Wheres the humanity? Personally I dont give two hoots if we get some trade agreement or any agreement to do with terrorists in return for the aid money. We are all human beings. Forget the money issues, if one of your family were over there living in that would you have the same view?

---------- Post added at 18:32 ---------- Previous post was at 18:31 ----------

Originally Posted by martyh

Or possibly use it to house some of our own homeless .Just to make it clear i am not advocating a complete stop to foriegn aid just a measured reduction

How measured?

Originally Posted by speedfreak

I get the feeling not many will agree but I dont mind having my say even if it isn't agreed with. Rather than people talking about what we may or may not get out of it, as a tax payer personally I dont mind aid money being given like this. I understand the charity begins at home comments but you can hardly compare council houses that need revamping to families living like this

There are kids living in that. Wheres the humanity? Personally I dont give two hoots if we get some trade agreement or any agreement to do with terrorists in return for the aid money. We are all human beings. Forget the money issues, if one of your family were over there living in that would you have the same view?

My argument isn't about not giving aid ,it's about ringfencing it so the budget can't be touched .We have plenty of people suffering hardship in this country ,people who are losing their homes/jobs through no fault of their own ,budgets to help these people is being cut why can't the budget to help people abroard?

[speedfreak]

Originally Posted by martyh

My argument isn't about not giving aid ,it's about ringfencing it so the budget can't be touched .We have plenty of people suffering hardship in this country ,people who are losing their homes/jobs through no fault of their own ,budgets to help these people is being cut why can't the budget to help people abroard?

As I said I dont see how anyone can compare our own issues to those faced over there. I wasnt just commenting about you, it was aimed at anyone who questions aid money being spent like this. I used the council house thing as that was the most recent post about it all. Im sure £70/60 million isn't going to sort all the issues out so how do you set where the cap is? How do we know if they havent spent as much, maybe in the past more aid would have been given?

Personally I wouldnt be bothered if giving the aid money meant I had to pay a few quid more in tax regardless of our own issues. Now I'll leave it there, I try not to do many serious threads so Im off to chat about Donkeys

[cookie_365]

Originally Posted by speedfreak

I get the feeling not many will agree but I dont mind having my say even if it isn't agreed with. Rather than people talking about what we may or may not get out of it, as a tax payer personally I dont mind aid money being given like this. I understand the charity begins at home comments but you can hardly compare council houses that need revamping to families living like this





There are kids living in that. Wheres the humanity? Personally I dont give two hoots if we get some trade agreement or any agreement to do with terrorists in return for the aid money. We are all human beings. Forget the money issues, if one of your family were over there living in that would you have the same view?

Me say what he say. And if it angers Arthur then it has to be the right thing to do

[Ignitionnet]

What they said. Somewhat surprised no-one has noted my ongoing philosophy of posts in this forum and the 'apparent' contradiction. I say apparent because there isn't one really

This is one of those threads where i feel that both arguments are correct ,giving aid is of course the right thing to do ,but how much and how often ? I am sure that there are people on this forum who give to charities on a regular basis maybe through DD from a bank .I am also sure that those same people look at their finances from month to month and say "i can't afford it this month my kids need new shoes" and either stop it or cut back ,the same principle applies in government imo

Originally Posted by martyh

This is one of those threads where i feel that both arguments are correct ,giving aid is of course the right thing to do ,but how much and how often ? I am sure that there are people on this forum who give to charities on a regular basis maybe through DD from a bank .I am also sure that those same people look at their finances from month to month and say "i can't afford it this month my kids need new shoes" and either stop it or cut back ,the same principle applies in government imo

I may have to count the pennies but so what if I eat less chocolate/sweets/fruit because I put a couple of quid in the Oxfam box for Pakistan flood victims when I was passing the Oxfam shop yesterday.

How can we not give.

Are we human, or are we dancers?