Michael
24-09-2014, 06:13 PM
UKIP are proposing a huge cut in Britain's Overseas Aid budget in their manifesto due to be published this weekend. The party will announce that they would reduce the pot from £10.3bn to £1.3bn – a total of £45bn over the next parliament, Breitbart London can exclusively reveal.
A senior UKIP source claimed this would make a major contribution to reducing the deficit, without walking away from our international duties. He exclusively told Breitbart London: “We have a crazy situation where our government's borrowing and debt are out of control and yet we continue to borrow in order to give away.
“For decades we have been told overseas aid makes the world a safer place, but ask anyone on the streets of Britain whether they think the world feels safer and you'll struggle to get any positive answers.”
Although the cut is almost 90 percent of the budget it would still leave enough in the pot for the UK government to spend twice as much as Spain and Italy combined. UKIP insiders are said to believe that Spain and Italy are the right countries to compare the UK to.
All three are European, amongst the richest countries in the world and have colonial ties. UKIP hope highlighting the huge disparity between the UK's overseas aid budget and that of Spain and Italy it will justify the policy. However, by keeping the budget at twice the level of Spain and Italy combined they do risk being seen as too timid by some of the UKIP faithful.
In one very well documented case Britain gave huge amounts to India, whose space programme budget is larger than the UK's contribution to cutting poverty in the country. They have also spent enormous sums on war planes whilst many in the country live in dire poverty. This has led campaigners to claim Overseas Aid actually encourages countries to neglect the poorest in society, as they know Western countries will step in.
The UK carries a particularly heavy burden as it currently contributes £1 for every £8 of Overseas Aid donated in the world. This is because David Cameron committed the country to spending 0.7 percent of GDP on Overseas Aid, without any commitment to ensuring the projects are worth funding.
Our source said: “I'm convinced that if we strip out all the money being given to countries that don't need it, and all the cash used to prop up murdering dictators we'd find £1.3bn to be a big enough budget. At the heart of our policy is a conviction that this budget is harmful to both the British taxpayer and the countries receiving the money.
“If we find that £1.3bn a year is not enough then perhaps we can reappraise the situation when we are not in debt ourselves. But as long as we face a Greek-style financial meltdown we cannot afford to waste money.”
It will be announced at the party conference at Doncaster Racecourse this weekend. The manifesto is already attracting significant attention as a result of UKIPs surge in the polls. Today's Daily Express front-page confirmed a story from Breitbart London in July, that the party would abolish inheritance tax if elected.
The UKIP manifesto is one of the most keenly awaited documents of the 2014 party conference season and there has been a lot of discussion about it in advance. Last month UKIP head of policy Tim Aker MEP admitted Overseas Aid was likely to be a “target” for cuts.
The £45bn saving in the Overseas Aid budget is equal to the total budget of Building Schools for the Future, a controvertial Labour programme to individually redesign and rebuild every school in the country. Each one would be a state of the art bespoke facility tailored to the needs of the local community, however the Conservatives scrapped the scheme on the grounds it was far too expensive.
- http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/09/23/UKIP-Propose-45bn-Overseas-Aid-Cut
I really do dislike how a big slice of our overseas aid is given to countries who chose to spend it irresponsibly and/or who do not even need it at-all. Heck, we've got no clue where half our overseas aid even goes to, surely it'll soon trickle into the wrong hands - if not already. We already know we're giving £280 million in aid to India, whilst they're funding their space programs merrily. Why are we funding these countries when this money could be of significant use at home in reducing our ever-growing national debt.
A senior UKIP source claimed this would make a major contribution to reducing the deficit, without walking away from our international duties. He exclusively told Breitbart London: “We have a crazy situation where our government's borrowing and debt are out of control and yet we continue to borrow in order to give away.
“For decades we have been told overseas aid makes the world a safer place, but ask anyone on the streets of Britain whether they think the world feels safer and you'll struggle to get any positive answers.”
Although the cut is almost 90 percent of the budget it would still leave enough in the pot for the UK government to spend twice as much as Spain and Italy combined. UKIP insiders are said to believe that Spain and Italy are the right countries to compare the UK to.
All three are European, amongst the richest countries in the world and have colonial ties. UKIP hope highlighting the huge disparity between the UK's overseas aid budget and that of Spain and Italy it will justify the policy. However, by keeping the budget at twice the level of Spain and Italy combined they do risk being seen as too timid by some of the UKIP faithful.
In one very well documented case Britain gave huge amounts to India, whose space programme budget is larger than the UK's contribution to cutting poverty in the country. They have also spent enormous sums on war planes whilst many in the country live in dire poverty. This has led campaigners to claim Overseas Aid actually encourages countries to neglect the poorest in society, as they know Western countries will step in.
The UK carries a particularly heavy burden as it currently contributes £1 for every £8 of Overseas Aid donated in the world. This is because David Cameron committed the country to spending 0.7 percent of GDP on Overseas Aid, without any commitment to ensuring the projects are worth funding.
Our source said: “I'm convinced that if we strip out all the money being given to countries that don't need it, and all the cash used to prop up murdering dictators we'd find £1.3bn to be a big enough budget. At the heart of our policy is a conviction that this budget is harmful to both the British taxpayer and the countries receiving the money.
“If we find that £1.3bn a year is not enough then perhaps we can reappraise the situation when we are not in debt ourselves. But as long as we face a Greek-style financial meltdown we cannot afford to waste money.”
It will be announced at the party conference at Doncaster Racecourse this weekend. The manifesto is already attracting significant attention as a result of UKIPs surge in the polls. Today's Daily Express front-page confirmed a story from Breitbart London in July, that the party would abolish inheritance tax if elected.
The UKIP manifesto is one of the most keenly awaited documents of the 2014 party conference season and there has been a lot of discussion about it in advance. Last month UKIP head of policy Tim Aker MEP admitted Overseas Aid was likely to be a “target” for cuts.
The £45bn saving in the Overseas Aid budget is equal to the total budget of Building Schools for the Future, a controvertial Labour programme to individually redesign and rebuild every school in the country. Each one would be a state of the art bespoke facility tailored to the needs of the local community, however the Conservatives scrapped the scheme on the grounds it was far too expensive.
- http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/09/23/UKIP-Propose-45bn-Overseas-Aid-Cut
I really do dislike how a big slice of our overseas aid is given to countries who chose to spend it irresponsibly and/or who do not even need it at-all. Heck, we've got no clue where half our overseas aid even goes to, surely it'll soon trickle into the wrong hands - if not already. We already know we're giving £280 million in aid to India, whilst they're funding their space programs merrily. Why are we funding these countries when this money could be of significant use at home in reducing our ever-growing national debt.