George Osborns Speech

[Dottie1943]

I was amazed at what George Osborn said today "we will not borrow to get us through this problem" or something similar, we shall he said get through this by being careful and cutting back on spending, if that is the case George please stop sending money to India and Pakistan for humanitarian reasons, for the same reasons keep the money in the UK!!!!

[Rita Postlethwaite]

Well said Dottie!

[Papaumau]

Oh Dottie, I so know where you are coming from when you say that !

I have a slightly different tack on the subject ( well I would wouldn't I ?    ).

As I see it Britain is a VERY rich country and politicians - of all flavours - are always keen to say thay the government is "skint" when in fact  it just does not organise the money in this country correctly enough.

It is a fact that seventy-percent, ( some say more ), of the money in Britain is in the hands of around thirty-percent of the people, ( some say less ), and that the remaining thirty-percent of the money has to be shared around us and the government spending. ( That is one good reason why many governments - some more than others - have to borrow so heavily to do what they want to do ).

I have always thought that if this cash, ( including all of the hidden money that the tax-man never sees ), was to be collected properly there would be no reason for us not being able to look after our poor & homeless and our sick and our old and our weak....AND....be able to afford to send help to the dying children and the innocents in the third world too.

In other words...Done right, one does not need to be done to the detriment of the other.

[Hugh]

In the case of India they are so rich they have their own aid program. They are not interested in looking after their own poor because we are doing that for them

[Eddie1738]

Dottie - Totally agree.   Why are we sending millions in aid to India and China when they have the resources and money to develop nuclear technology.   It is widely believed that the Chinese economy will become the dominant world economy within 3 years.   If we stopped sending money to these and other non entitled recipients, who in many cases induldge own fantasies or use it to bolster ttrany in their own country then we would not have to sack a ssingle member of the armed forces, a single policeman, a single doctor and so on.   The Govt must get a grip to cut out waste and billions can be cut in Central Govt departments without inflicting any pain on the public.

[Dottie1943]

The joke of this is, yesterday David Cameron said on TV about BAE that the reason they are having to make redundancies is because countries like India had dropped their orders, what I want to know what came first the Chicken or the Egg?

Sounds to me like we will give you this for the schools if you give us your orders for aircraft!

[Deetta]

Dottie, completely agree with you.   We have grinding poverty in certain areas in this country, children living in awful conditions, homeless people on the street, old people who will most certainly be living in freezing conditions this winter because of the high cost of heating, people losing their jobs and struggling to hang on to their homes and keep their families together.   
Charity really should begin at home.  Especially these days when all the European countries are now facing such an uncertain future.  We should look after our own, and not send money to rich countries like India, which has enough money to sort itself out for a change, instead of constantly leaning on western countries to give them more handouts.

[granny bee]

Seem to recall Gordon Brown saying he would look to see if a decent state pension was affordable in 2012.
We are soon in 2012 and according to the doom and gloom expounded by the current lot of politicians in power there is no money for such indulgences, yet overseas aid, carrying on wars etc.etc. are affordable!!

[Dottie1943]

Deetta and Granny bee

Why is it that the countries that we send this cash off to for the sake of "aid" are all the same countries who can afford to but arms, planes, nuclear war heads, submarines and the UK is cutting back on our own defences, pensions, police, hospitals, roads etc etc etc!!!

Why is it that people like you and me can see what is happening in this country (and I am sure there are 1000's more like us) yes the politicians cannot see further than the end of their noses?

There has to be a reason why the PM is doing this, why then does he not just come straight out and tell us why at least that way we may actually all pull together rather than moan about it!!!

I tend to believe though there is no reason.

[granny bee]

Possibly the answer is it merely boosts politicians egos on the world stage?

[caminito]

Taken from a newspaper article ......

The Chancellor pleads poverty and says he can’t cut taxes, but the Government doles out £11 billion in foreign aid, most of which ends up in Swiss bank accounts.

That’s more than we spend on the police and the Armed Forces.

Servicemen and women, many of whom probably voted Tory, are receiving their P45s in the post and face a bleak financial future.

Police numbers, too, are being cut. Somehow Britain can still find a sultan’s ransom to give away to foreign regimes — some with  their own nuclear weapons and space programmes.

Where’s the logic in that?

It smacks of conscience money, simply so that Dave can feel good about himself.

[Papaumau]

I look at it like this:

Should we be happy to sit back and watch rich countries like China and India allow their bottom-level innocents to die of starvation and disease ?

While I do recognise the right-idea that we should look after our own poor and sick and weak, I STILL feel that there is enough money hidden in this rich country to do BOTH.

I directly support an organisation called Medicines Sans Frontiers as this organisation goes to where the help is needed no matter where this need is required to go. They do not see politics or war or corruption in their vision for world aid and they do not deny this medical aid to countries that SHOULD be doing it for themselves.

We HAVE TO lead by example !

I think that all of the rich countries of the West could take a leaf from this wonderful charity's work.

[sparky]

Papaumau, whilst I respect your views and ideals, I suspect that you are in a minority on this issue, which is another good reason for having a better system of assessing public opinion on this and many other issues, Immigration, the EU, Human Rights act,  etc, and then for the government to ACT on the information and not as they do now, stick two fingers up and say we will do what we want, even though they are elected and paid by the taxpayer to reflect the wishes of the electorate.
As for charitable donations, I will and do support the ones I feel strongly about and I do not want anybody, least of all politicians to decide for me, who I should help with my taxes, anybody that wants to support overseas charities can then do as they wish

[caminito]

Ditto

[bromers]

Ditto again.