The debacle of the Foreign Aid Budget becomes more ludicrous by the week. The tragic events of Hurricane Irma, however, have shown it to be completely foolish and unworkable. The idea of placing into law the requirement to pay .7% of everything that we make as a country to Foreign Aid is, in my opinion, illogical, immoral and should be illegal. It presently compels the UK to borrow money, pay interest on the amount borrowed and then give it away. Presently the amount is an eye-watering 13 billion pounds or so (plus the interest) that adds annually onto the two trillion pounds national debt.
This is the fiscal incompetence that could be expected from a very spoilt twelve-year-old child - or indeed the present Labour Shadow Cabinet.
Insane as this clearly is, it gets even worse as we come to the tragedy in the Caribbean. The British Virgin Islands, Anguilla and the Turks and Caicos are British Overseas Territories, all utterly devastated by Irma. This means these Islands are self-governing but never sought independence from the British Empire. They remain under the jurisdiction and defence of the UK. These are in effect British people who are in crisis.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
Here is the politically correct organisation that decides where money set aside as aid can be spent and so not only do we as a country set aside an amount of money that pushes us further towards bankruptcy for Foreign Aid, but we then allow unelected organisations from outside this country to dictate where we can spend it.
These worthy idiots have stipulated that the Caribbean Islands in question are not poor enough to warrant this aid. It is true there are some very wealthy individuals swanning about on yachts in the area, Richard Branson to name but one, however, the vast majority are poor, rely wholly on the decimated tourist trade, have had everything devastated and have a right to rely on the UK for appropriate help.
Not more money but better use of money already allocated
Like these Overseas Territories, the UK as a whole has some very rich people but is struggling financially with a stubbornly high deficit and debt totalling almost two trillion pounds as noted earlier. We have an infrastructure that is creaking under the weight of almost a third of a million net migration per year, over the past four years and need to resolve the fiscal challenges of Brexit.
The thirteen billion pounds of Foreign Aid is our money required by people loyal to and protected by Britain and needed now. If we can't look after our own people they become a burden to others while we send aid to India and China, two countries with their own space and nuclear programmes, as well as numerous projects renowned for their idiocy. Any rational person can see this is outrageous.
The hubris of the Foreign Aid Project
The Foreign Aid programme was a vanity project demanded by Nick Clegg and acceded to by David Cameron. Continued by Teresa May it is a wholly illogical concept. There might be some merit in diverting .7% of net profit made by the UK as it would at least be available cash, but then, of course, the amount generated would be zero.
Placing our children in hock by increasing our debt is immoral. Margaret Thatcher once pointed out that the Good Samaritan did not just have good intentions but resources to carry them out. We must get the UK to a position of financial strength before engaging in gesture politics. But we must support our own people, hit by a disaster not of their making, now.
