Charity begins at home: Farage calls for foreign aid to be diverted to flooded areas

[-:Undertaker:-]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...mmunities.html

'Charity begins at home': Ukip's Nigel Farage calls for foreign aid budget to be used to help flood-hit communities

- Ukip leader condemns government's 'lethargic and inadequate' response
- Urges to use £11billion foreign aid budget to deal with 'colossal' damage
- Government announces £130million in new support for repairs
- David Cameron defends minister who visited floods without wellies

Britain’s foreign aid budget worth £11billion should be immediately suspended with the money diverted to help areas in the UK devastated by flooding, Nigel Farage said today.

The Ukip leader insisted ‘charity begins at home’ and urged the government to step up its response to the colossal damage to homes, businesses, roads and railways.

The call came as David Cameron was again forced to defend the government’s response from claims ministers have been slow to act and ill-prepared, even turning up to flood hit areas without wellington boots.

Ukip leader Nigel Farage insisted 'charity begins at home' and demanded foreign aid money be redirected to help communities hit by flooding


Flood waters have risen over night in Moorland, Somerset, where residents have been advised to evacuate their homes

Heavy rain and gale force winds continue to batter much of southern Britain today, with new warnings of further flooding.

Homes across much of the Somerset Levels have been evacuated while ministers are drawing up an emergency plan to repair a vital rail link at Dawlish near Exeter after its collapse when huge waves whipped up by high winds smashed a 100ft section of sea wall.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles today announced an extra £30million for this year and £100million next year to pay for repairs, urgent work in Somerset extra maintenance.

But Mr Farage insisted it was not enough. He said: ‘Anyone with an ounce of common sense knows that a government’s primary duty is to the well-being of its own citizens. Charity begins at home and it is not mean-spirited to say that, it is just basic common sense.

‘The amount of damage caused by the floods and storms across a large swathe of the south west and other regions too is colossal.

‘Yet the Government’s response is both lethargic and inadequate. People would be forgiven for thinking that they don’t really care and that ordinary British families are not their priority.’

The government and the Environment Agency have faced mounting criticism for the handling of the floods and the response as more rain and high winds swept across the country.

Today Mr Cameron was forced to defend his response during an interview on BBC Radio Manchester.

He insisted: ‘We have been very pro-active we have an emergency planning system in government called cobra which we called on straight away.

‘We’ve been planning this across government. I chair a meeting yesterday which has everyone around the table, the police, the fire service, the local authorities, all ready to help with whatever we can.’

But the Prime Minister was critical of the Environment Agency's decision to cut back on dredging rivers over the past two decades.

'The fact is, since the Environment Agency was founded in the late 1990s, it took a view - and increasingly other organisations took a view - that dredging wasn't appropriate,'he said.

'I think that's wrong. I have a constituency that does flood frequently. I pushed for dredging and some dredging has taken place and it does make a difference.

'We've got to make sure that our system is focused on protecting people above all else, so some of the arguments against dredging have to be taken on and we need to start dredging again more systematically. The Environment Agency now accepts that.'

He added: 'The scale of these weather events and the scale of the flooding has shifted even more something that was beginning to shift anyway. The Environment Agency had taken a very anti-dredging view for many years. That was beginning to change and now it's changing faster, and that's something I welcome.'

Downing Street revealed the army could be called in to help rebuild the Dawlish railways line in Devon.

Hear hear. It's time the government of this country started putting it's own people first rather than the rest of the world.

Let's hope UKIP and Farage now keep up the pressure and drive the political agenda in regards to foreign aid as they have been lately with an EU referendum, immigration and grammar schools. I would sure like to see Mr Cameron, when visiting flooded Somerset, asked why he thinks the people of Somerset and coastal towns should be left to fend for themselves whilst the British Government funds the Indian space programme/nuclear weapons programme.

The article is already at 10k+ shares, and the top-rated comment is 3,900 positives to 75 negatives. Go figure.

Thoughts?

[Kardan]

I think the £50bn being spent on making the trains from Birmingham to London quicker by 20 minutes would be a great place to take the money from personally - more money needs to be spent on this certainly.

[FlyingJesus]

I'm not voting either way because I don't think either is the best use of charitable expenditure

[The Don]

Of the 720 Billion spent, foreign aid accounts for 1.5% of that. I'm sure the funds could be found from somewhere else, no?

[FlyingJesus]

What comes under "other" I'm hoping it's been put aside in an account for me

[-:Undertaker:-]

I think the £50bn being spent on making the trains from Birmingham to London quicker by 20 minutes would be a great place to take the money from personally - more money needs to be spent on this certainly.

Oh I agree, that's another great place to make a saving. I'd also slash EU payments, quango spending, MoD waste and many other areas of spending. But you'd agree on slashing the £11bn foreign aid budget too, right?

Of the 720 Billion spent, foreign aid accounts for 1.5% of that. I'm sure the funds could be found from somewhere else, no?

Foreign aid is probably the most wasteful of all of them, and boy are there many to choose from. There's much you can say about HS2 for example as Kardan has (and I agree with him that its a complete waste of money) but at least with HS2 this country gets a new railway to show for it. With foreign aid, Robert Mugabe gets a new limo to show for it.

But absolutely, as I said with Kardan, there are many more areas ontop of foreign aid that we should be slashing right back.

[Ardemax]

I think the £50bn being spent on making the trains from Birmingham to London quicker by 20 minutes would be a great place to take the money from personally - more money needs to be spent on this certainly.

If anything the journey time should be made longer for people travelling from London to Birmingham to prolong their quality of life.

What comes under "other" I'm hoping it's been put aside in an account for me

Unless you're besties with the Tories it's unlikely, sorry.