PRESS RELEASE
Aid cut makes a mockery of ‘Global Britain’ promise
Responding to the Chancellor’s announcement that the foreign aid budget will be cut, Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Layla Moran said:“Today the promise of ‘Global Britain’ became hollow. Shirking away from our global responsibilities by cutting development spending during a worldwide pandemic is short-sighted and wrong.“The Liberal Democrats enshrined the 0.7% in law precisely so it was flexible with the economic reality. By changing the law the Government is breaking its promise to the British people and to the world’s poorest.“The Liberal Democrats will always stand up for the life-changing power of UK aid, and I will work cross-party to oppose this callous move.”
An article by Vince Cable:
“Why the overseas aid budget needs to be protected” to read the article click HERE
* Cllr. Tahir Maher is a member of the LDV editorial team
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One Comment
Much is missing from the reporting of this story. I have covered dozens of aid projects around the world and there are massive flaws in the way money is spent. At one stage the British tax payer was funding aid to India which, in effect, paid for India’s own space program. Money is shovelled into failing projects simply to meet the end of year budget spends. Some of the stuff I saw in Uganda and Sierra Leone was chilling in its ineptitude. This, at least, will force Britain to examine other ways of helping. One, for example, would be to end the punitive EU tarriffs on processed confectionary from Africa. Processing raw West African cocoa for export is not viable, enabling the government and Western multi-nationals to control the market to the detriment of local communities.This, in turn, encourages slavery and forced child labour. Out of the EU, Britain could help end this abhorrent culture. We should think not aid and development, but trade and development.