Muffled Vociferation has had one of her justified rants, this time on the subject of Gordon Brown's intention to pass a law obliging the UK to increase its foreign aid spending to 0.7% of GDP by 2013.
As MV points out yet again is Gordon Brown spending money that is not his to spend and which belongs to us, the people.
In any event increasing spending without ensuring that it is actually helping the poor makes little sense. For far too often it has been known that 'aid' more than likely ends up in the pockets of the head honcho - and those of his nearest and dearest - of the country concerned. And let it be known that that is after our own 'pressure groups' have had their cut first.
On that latter point consider two reports* by the International Policy Network which showed that the Department for International Development has passed millions of pounds to groups such as the Trades Union Congress and the National Union of Teachers, along with NGOs. Caroline Boin, IPN Research Fellow and development policy analyst, said, “Measuring the success of foreign aid by how much we spend is ridiculous. Spending more on poorly managed programmes, or even the salaries of DfID’s civil servants, would satisfy Brown’s law—but achieve nothing for international development.”
Further comment by me is unnecessary as MV has said it all!
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