Political expedience, exaggeration, truth and lies

Recently David Cameron decided that he would commit this country to ring fencing foreign aid at 0.7 per cent of GDP. This sounds like a very altruistic thing to do, but I have a few concerns about doing this. Over the years Britain, as well as many other nations have given many billions of pounds in aid in the belief that what they are giving is going to change many lives. African countries have received much of what the rich nations have dished out, but as we know most of these nations have remained in poverty. So what is the point of giving aid if it does no good? Well many would argue that some of this money has made a difference, and it may well have done. But in many cases the money that has been handed over to many countries has been used by those in charge (despots) to do more harm and to kill many innocent individuals. Ironically many governments have handed over our money in the belief that it does good but in so many cases causes huge misery.

Dambisa Moyo, a former Goldman Sachs economist said; 'aid programmes have left African countries more debt-laden, more inflation prone, more vulnerable to the vagaries of the currency markets and more likely to experience conflict and unrest. Aid, she declared is an unmitigated political, economic and humanitarian disaster.'

I believe there is a place for helping the poor, I am a christian and I believe if you can you should assist were possible, but I also believe that so much of what we do, and our rich governments do are done with very little thought to the consequences of their actions. As I have said above, a great percentage of the money that has been handed over to many poor nations has been used by their leaders to buy weapons, which are then used in turn to kill their own people. A lot of money that was handed to Rwanda in the 90's was used to kill many of the people in that country.

David Cameron is a politician, and I believe he has calculated that if he says he is going to ring fence 'over seas aid' it will make him and his party look warm and cuddly. I do not believe it has anything to do with caring for others but is a cynical kind of political posturing. I suppose you could argue that it does not really matter what reason the government decides to give just as long as they give, but I do not believe we should be handing over billions in aid without first looking at what that money should be spent on.

There are so many issues which the government chooses to ignore the people on, and overseas aid is one which many in this country feel uncomfortable about, I do think in this time of austerity this issue should be looked at carefully.

For many of our political elite the issues that concern many people are ignored, immigration is a good example. As you can imagine this issue does not affect those in power, because they have jobs, houses and can afford to send their children to good schools. The EU, human rights, crime, poor education, 2.5 million unemployed, over stretched public services, etc. These and many other issues concern many people, but I believe because these issues do not affect those in power and the 'chattering classes' they do not really care. And because they do not care they will not do anything about these real issues. David Cameron and those around him somehow think that if they are seen to be giving poor people in foreign countries money it will somehow salve their conscience. They believe this is what the population wants, but because of their arrogance and ignorance they will continue to ignore and sneer at those who question the wisdom of this policy.

Many people feel disenfranchised from politics and this will just drive a greater wedge between those who are in power and those who elect them. I can only hope that one day we will have politicians who are willing to listen, but unfortunately for us this is very unlikely whilst we have this lot in power.