Downing Street signals intent to cut to the 0.7% Foreign Aid budget

[FlyingJesus]

I wouldn't say giving less than 1% to people whose lives have been torn apart is putting the British people second tbh

[-:Undertaker:-]

if that's good for you @FlyingJesus;

but personally if my family member was dying of cancer and got told they couldn't be treated because treatment costs exceeded a certain amount whilst the Government hands over £11bn a year to chronically unsolvable & corrupt countries i'd be more than apoplectic. Apply the same to the homeless here, pensioners (life time taxpayers) living without heating and so on.

Not sure why we're paying out for these countries when they got their 'independence' 50 years ago. time to let 'em have it.

[AgnesIO]

yes... what's so hard to understand? ideal: no foreign aid. semi-ideal: using foreign aid as soft power.

in my ideal scenario though it doesn't mean i wouldn't help. for example from money and supplies raised by charity campaigns for disaster relief i'd deploy the Royal Navy to distribute it because it'd also act as a training mission.

but you get my line of thinking, putting this country and its people first.

Again; this is already the case.

[FlyingJesus]

So what you're saying Dan is you want the government to pay for everyone here to have houses, utilities, and whatever healthcare they want, and it should come from taxes. Didn't realise you'd become a socialist

[-:Undertaker:-]

@FlyingJesus;

better than handing it out overseas, yep.

[FlyingJesus]

Good to know that you're more willing to go completely against your beliefs that you've been trying to force on the world for years than help someone foreign

[-:Undertaker:-]

Good to know that you're more willing to go completely against your beliefs that you've been trying to force on the world for years than help someone foreign

it's called realism because you don't always get 100% of what you want, yeah? it's like how i've said in the past how i'd have taken EFTA membership over EU membership even though my ultimate want was a simple FTA. y'know, have some flexibility where you may not get an outcome you one hundred percent agree with but which comes your way in some regards.

but yeah i would rather help someone British who's paid into the system than someone who is foreign. Correct! just as if you have a family member in financial need of a bed to sleep in you help them out whereas you don't invite a tramp into your house x

[EricaAmanda]

Why on earth does the UK give 0.7 and US, Japan 0.2 lol

More fool us I say. Other countries wouldn't help us out if we were in financial trouble.

Sweden gives 1.40% God damn it, cant we lower it to like 0.5% >.<

[FlyingJesus]

There's a big difference between making a compromise to make small victories and suddenly turning socialist just to avoid helping people lol

[Zak]

We are 6th as a %age after Sweden, Norway, Luxembourg, Denmark and The Netherlands. Roughly the same place as we are when ranked by GDP. Obviously whoever wrote the article omitted that on purpose.
http://www.oecd.org/dac/stats/ODA-20...ed-summary.pdf

Sweden gives 1.40% God damn it, cant we lower it to like 0.5% >.<

Thanks for the figures - I had no idea what others were contributing. I'd be asking serious questions on some countries contributions and I still think the UK's payment is too high. If only it were law - OK want to be a part of the EU? 1% of your GDP has to go to foreign aid. No arguments, no countries taking the mick.

I know this wouldn't apply to Canada/America etc but you get the point