AIBU to think that people donating to the RNLI to save people from drowning shouldn’t object to 2% of that money going to save children in poor countries from drowning?

Growstuff, you are correct regarding the financial cuts, but the RNLI is run very well. Our government can't run the Country properly, so why let them loose on the RNLI? It would be a disaster.
I also see Loislovesstewie's point, why do we have to, by law, give a proportion of our GDP to foreign aid. I believe that both China and Russia receive a few bob. Beggars belief! There is so much that needs to be done for the less fortunate in our own Country.
I suppose that I am racist as I believe that the UK should come first. I am sure that there are indigenous people who can teach swimming to children in Bangladesh.
The RNLI is essential for an island nation and I will continue to support them and enjoy the hospitality offered in the restaurant in the Poole HQ. Lovely food, at a great price. Recommended.

And I am also uncomfortable with a charity based in the UK being seen to endorse so called 'modest' clothing. We have women who live in Muslim countries being treated appallingly because they want to be able to choose not to wear hijab/burka/niqab or other so called modest clothes. So, in our spirit of inclusivity we decide that we will fund women to wear a garment that covers nearly all of the body. Does no-one think that it looks like an endorsement of the place of women in the world?
I know that the response will be that it is up to the women to choose to wear these items but can we really believe that there is choice when choosing not to can result in death?

We seem to make a habit of interfering and getting it wrong.

Yes, deeply offensive, Jennifer Eccles. Your view of the world is sad and quite mistaken. Remember just because you believe something....it does not mean it is true.

So you would rather these women drowned because they would not wear clothing that you, Loislovesstewie, do not think appropriate.

Why should these women not wear these perfectly practical swimming costumes. How do you know that it is male coercion that makes them wear these clothes and not personal choice?

Let's face it, they are not very different to the clothes women wore to swim in in this country at the beginning of the 19th century.

I think my point is that the RNLI should. be transparent in how it uses its donations. If people want to help with foreign aid of any description that's fine, it's their money to do with as they please. Where it is wrong is when people give to an organisation expecting all of the donation to be spent here when increasing amounts are sent overseas. The WWF for example backs different projects and you can decide which one you wish to send money to if at all. If the RNLI did the same there would be no problem.

JenniferEccles
"Can you all not see that by providing a convenient water taxi service to those wishing to enter our country illegally, we are just encouraging others to follow suit?
WHY can you not see that?
So many of these are clearly not refugees at all or they would have sought asylum in France or any of the other safe European countries they would have passed through.
But no, they want to live here, don't they because we are seen as such a soft touch.
The only solution is for the boats to be towed back to France repeatedly until the message gets across that those wishing to come here need to follow the correct asylum seeking procedure.
It is not the job of the RNLI to 'save' illegal immigrants."
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

I am absolutely speechless. And furious. In equal measures.

What a spiteful post to make.

Thank GOD that the lifeboatmen are not as racially prejudiced as you are. It is the voluntary "job" of the RNLI to save anyone who is in peril at sea. Thankfully they don't discriminate and refuse to save racists - so be thankful for that should you ever be unfortunate enough to need their services.

Godfathers, I wish there was a facility to put a poster on permanent ignore.

Thank you for highlighting this story crystaltipps. It inspired me to go straight onto the RNLI web site and donate. Surely we dont want any children to unnecessarily die of drowning in any country in the world if there is something we can do about it?

I am making the point that we are siding with people who think women should dress only one way. I don't give 2 hoots if they want to wear burkinis, but women may want to choose not to wear them. As far as I am aware there is no choice for lots of women and I think it is naive to suggest that women in some countries have that choice.
We are lucky because , in the UK, we can wear what we want ( mostly) but that is not the case in other countries. Do you really think that women could wear ordinary swimming costumes or bikinis as seen in the UK , Europe etc? Of course not. There are women in Saudi Arabia who are being ill treated, and worse, because they want more freedom. A young women in Iran recently died having set fire to herself. Her crime was that she wanted to watch men's football , but was banned from the stadium because she was female. So after she was arrested she killed herself. Women in many countries aren't even second class citizen's , they are far lower than that. And many women in those countries could do with the support of Western women, but instead we have charities taking sides and endorsing so called 'modest' clothing.
I don't know if the women who are having burkinis bought for them are wearing such clothing by choice, just as when I had to stick to a dress code at work it wasn't by choice. In my case I would have been happier in jeans and t-shirt but instead the rules were smart business dress. At least the choice I had was to take myself to other employment which suited me better.

And for goodness sake we aren't in Victorian times. If we were we wouldn't have contraception, safe abortion, equality of opportunity, the same rights to education as men. We weren't able to divorce our husbands at one point, or own property, or lots of other things that we take for granted. In effect we too were the property of our husbands or fathers and we have moved on from that.
As I said; I am not happy that it looks as though a UK charity is endorsing women having to cover up . No, I wouldn't be happy to have to wear such items but I have the choice.

Avalon The RNLI was transparent. We are regular donors to the RNLI and this information was reported on in the annual report as well as several articles in the RNLI magazine. I have known about this outreach work for several years and think it is brilliant.

jennifereccles, how much lower can you go, are you competing with yourself? A human life is a human life and if life is in peril on the sea, RNLI will move heaven and earth to save it. How much further would you go? Only rescue British citizens, or only British citizens on British registered ships?

My son is an RNLI volunteer. He has done some of his training in Poole and says that it is time the top heavy admin was reduced. We are all more than happy that some funds are used to keep those children in Bangladesh, who have so much less than us, safe. The more we train and help other poorer nations the better our shared world will be.
Also just like to say I'm a very proud Mum.

I was really appalled to hear of the hatchet job the Daily Hate and Times did. I've always supported the RNLI but not with a regular donation. That's changed and I'll be doing a regular monthly donation now. The Daily Hate has always had fascist overtones (eg support for the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s) but The Times was once a paper of repute. The whole tone of those dreadful articles was 'if they're brown, let them them drown'. Obscene.

I don’t mind at all that the RNLI do this, drowning is a terrible way to go for both children and adults.I used to be a collector for them for years, and know that they are proud to be volunteers ( and a charity.)
They do wonderful things both here and in some poorer countries that don’t help their women and children to learn to swim.
Only a small percentage is spent overseas.

I get fed up with the kneejerk reaction that automatically blames the men in the society if women from other cultures do not share our liberated views on what clothing to wear where. It is not as if our freedom to wear as little as we like had brought us a male co-ercion free society - or even contributed to it.

Women can quite legitimately and voluntarily subscribe to a religious faith that we do not share and are unfamiliar with and also voluntarily choose to dress in a manner that is more enveloping than we would find comfortable. That is their choice and we should respect it.

It has got absolutely nothing to do with opressive cultural norms in some countries. It is about what women feel comfortable in when swimming.

People who stop donating because they object to teaching these children to swim need to give their heads a wobble and have a bit of a rethink

I cannot believe that people would begrudge 2% of their donation going towards saving 40 CHILDREN a DAY from death by drowning.
So if these children were living down the road from them or say 40 children in their local swimming pool drowned JUST ONCE they would be up in arms declaring something must be done. But it's ok it's only little kids in another country so they dont't count. What about a little compassion? The RNLI are transparent about this and it is on their website. I was pleased to hear on a phone in programme that donations had gone up since this story broke, so hopefully will counteract these knee jerk reactions stirred up by the hateful press in this country.

I stopped my DD to them months ago.

Why aren't the parents teaching their children to swim. It costs nothing.
We can't and shouldn't act as nanny to the world, a safety net for everyone.

Predictably today post from you GG54.

EllanVannin…..not towards teaching children in flood zones to swim!

GabriellaG54 are we to assume that you are with the Daily Fail on this? and resent the 2p in the pound? based on parents in one of the poorest countries in the world who most likely cant swim themselves (they don't have swimming as a hobby activity there due to the fact they spend most of their time working so they can afford to eat). Honestly, the degree of selfishness in the UK at present is vile.

This thread reminds me, when I have had the misfortune to hear comments about 'foreigners using our NHS' when a huge proportion of the NHS is made up of foreign staff, I always suggest that when that person next visit a hospital, they tell all the staff how they resent foreigners. Much like the Brexit voters who have contributed to the loss of thousands of decent, hardworking EU nurses and doctors, as a nurse, I would happily have moved on to the next person as I have no wish to look after xenophobes or racists.

Come to your own conclusions because you'll make it up anyway.
I don't have to explain my actions nor feel embarassed about my choices.
People with a holier than thou attitude make me sick and if you believe everything written on the pages of GN, then you align yourself with readers of the (as you call it) the Daily Fail.
You have no idea why I stopped donating so don't make it up to suit your agenda.

Oh dear, lots of middle class virtue signalling going on here.

Please carry on, but don't complain when you lose relatives because RNLI have reduced cover around our own coast to fund this little venture.

I do think that our lifeboats should be used to help rescue sailors in stormy weather and other seafaring folk who get into difficulties. I, too, would escort the illegal immigrants back to France or whatever with the advice that, if they really are persecuted they apply through the proper channels (no pun intended) and come into the country legally.

Who knows how many potential terrorists we have let into our country. For the sake of clarity I do NOT buy the Daily Mail!

Nor do I...but I do read it online. Do you?