In her letter of July 7, V Kynaston is half right. It is simply SHE who lives in a different world to the rest of us.
Point 1) Charity begins at home, and whilst we still have child poverty, sub-standard housing, homeless issues and a multitude of other problems, ALL spare money should be spent sorting out our own problems first before we try and assist others.
Point 2) This country is £1.7 trillion in debt. As Claire Perry on page 37 (of the same paper) says, the interest payments alone are eye-wateringly staggering. We as a country do not have the money to spare to send abroad (whether to actual aid projects or into the hands of fraudsters and despots).
The stupidity of the foreign aid budget is that we have to borrow that money first in order to give it away! What right thinking person would run their own household budget in such a way? Would you borrow thousands from your bank when you are already tens of thousands in debt, just so that you can give it away to others? Utter madness!!
The good people of this country should not be forced through taxation to pay for foreign aid whilst our own finances in this country are in such a parlour state. Only when the deficit has been eradicated and we have more money than we know what to do with should we then turn our attention to the desperate poverty abroad.
Until such time those people who would rather help foreigners than their own countrymen can always donate to Oxfam, Save the Children et al in order to feel good about themselves.
The rest of us are trying our damnedest to simply get by as things stand, without being forced to contribute to the Government’s vanity projects.
Peter Mantell
Birmingham (ex-Westbury)