Join the Battle! Wasteful Foreign Aid

maryeliza54 I sign many petitions, but like you I always do what we used to call 'due diligence'; checking the background of the proposers. I had no intention of signing this petition, but still did the same with this chap and agree with your summary at 08:40:45.

I'm proud of our record in giving foreign aid. I definitely would not sign this petition.

I just could not put my name to a petition without knowing the background to the organisers. I do see why petitions are popular and they can generate much publicity but it’s so easy to set up. Maybe too easy

Good detective work maryeliza. There are so many petitions winging into our In boxes, it's wise to check before signing anything.

I never sign a petition without first checking the provenance of who started it even when, at first sight, it looks like something I would agree with. Generally the bigger the idiot who starts it, the more they will be all over social media as that is one of the ways they get some self validation

The petitioner is a right wing flag waving xenophobic UKIP supporting idiot who can’t even make up his mind where he wants the money to go as long as it doesn’t go to foreigners. He wouldn’t be able to make a logical well informed point about anything to save his life. Signing his petition fuels hatred of foreigners which is his overriding goal.

The petitioner has a point in that we do give aid to countries like India and China who don’t, at first glance, need it. And I agree that aid should be targeted rather than just given to a government to squander. But that’s the only bit I sort of agree with and it’s a lot more complicated than just giving cash. I certainly don’t think the money should be diverted to our ‘Defence’ budget.

And it's a NO from me, for all the valid reasons already mentioned.

Haven't signed. Of course not all aid will go to where it's most needed but a lot does get through and people would suffer even more if we stopped it.

And even if we did save the miniscule amount (compared to our total income) why should it be spent on the military?

If you look at a tax pie chart, the biggest slice is to welfare. Not sure if that or the 10% "other" spend covers legal aid. However, getting back to the subject of wasteful foreign aid calling for a democratic debate in an elected Parliament... wherever that UK taxpayers' money could eventually be allocated for better use - perhaps to our declining farming industry or our declining security forces and emergency services.

No signature from me either.

I would happily sign a petition against subsidies for the house of Commons Bar however!

Or how about this one?
you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/repeal-the-decision-to-exclude-animal-sentience-from-the-eu-withdrawal-bill

Of course some of our foreign aid money is wasted on frivolous projects. A lot of the defence budget is wasted on badly planned and ineffective projects. Come to that the same applies to health and education expenditure.

Lets start petitions to ban the government spending money on anything because they cannot guarantee that in any budget some of the money will not be spent on frivolous, ineffective or wasteful projects. Because it will.

No

And it's a no here too.
Sounds like a similar soundbite to the red bus slogan pre-referendum and 'taking back control'. If it appeals to that demographic then it isn't for
me!!

So I looked up the petition founders FB page - he has rubbish privacy settings so I now know far more about him than is healthy especially his line in oh so funny nudge nudge did I just use a naughty word with a sexual innuendo joke? Well bless him - he gets a bit muddled up with his petitions to abolish the foreign aid budget. The petition linked to on here wants the money spent on defence and the armed forces but he’s also got a petition for the same thing but this time the money saved is to spent on the nhs, and social care. Doncha just hate it when a man keeps changing his mind - could I sign both petitions or do I have to choose which?

The money needs to go to make sure people have clean water, food and a roof over their heads, not to supplement foreign dictators wealth as a lot of it at present.

I'd happily sign if that was what it was asking for, but it isn't.

I would like to see far more accountability and, as Poppy said, to make sure that the aid goes to the people who really need it - and for education - and not into the wrong hands.

However, I won't sign it because it is far too specific and I do not agree that the money should be diverted to our Defence budget, which is another matter altogether.

No from me too

So many people on here burying their heads in the sand. The money needs to go to make sure people have clean water, food and a roof over their heads, not to supplement foreign dictators wealth as a lot of it at present.

And it’s a ‘no’ from me.

If you read the full petition it states that the 0.7 GDP target for foreign aid should be abolished and the money spent on increasing Defence and the Armed Forces. If we spend less on foreign aid the world will becomes a less safe and healthy place and we will definitely need extra for our Defence budget! More children will die of preventable diseases, fewer children will be educated, employment opportunities will diminish in the developing countries, and we increase the misery of those who live on less than a dollar a day.

Bah! Humbug! Are the refugee tents not working? Are they not being sent back from whence they came?

No I will not sign that. We are essentially a very rich country. We must be rich, many UK households create tons of viable food waste every year. I seriously object to signing that petition.

Foreign aid is rarely given altruistically. There are usually strings attached which benefit the donors. It’s often given to countries which have been plundered in the past . Giving money to poor countries can no doubt be misused. Maybe better to ensure it’s used better to help those most desperate and not just hoard everything, especially when much of the wealth has been earned through the exploitation of the dispossessed. I won’t be signing.

One of the problems is to define what is "wasteful" . many people confuse "foreign aid" with "humanitarian aid" - they are not always the same thing at all.

Most governments use aid for a wide range of political goals that benefit their own country - for example aid may be used to gain the assistance of a foreign government for mutual aims of preventing terrorism (training, equipment, refugee projects)/drugs (alternative crops/aid to enforcement) or as a mechanism in trade relations - for example many "aid" deals require the money is used to purchase specific items made in the donor country.