divert foreign aid to flood-hit British families

joelsnan I agree that some countries that receive 'western aid' appear to have 'fat cats' at the top.
Some may assume that the 'fat cats' have made their money by misuse of aid or it might be that they have inherited the money,'earned' it either legitimately or otherwise. It is difficult to know. However it is true that organisations (e.g Red Cross etc) do provide direct support and aid at times of emergency. What needs to happen. in tandem, if not already happening,is aiding the development of infrastructure to enable local governments to manage more effectively at times of crisis.

The same situation surely exists in the West..we have hugely wealthy people in positions of power but we still have children living in poverty/ feeling helpless in the face of disaster. The difference in the West is that there is an established infrastructure that should be able to manage disasters through existing local resources.

In less developed countries, frequently ravaged by wars/famine/drought floods, do not have the same infrastructure or national reserves

Precisely, stansgran! And I do not agree that there are cliques, but that is really not worth the effort of discussion; we have been there before..

Dear durhamjen
How wrong can you be! it is surprising the images that can be conjoured up by t'tinternet.
As mentioned earlier my other sources are freely available for your own research. I only quoted CPS as this body had stated that the %debt/GDP was probably even higher than that quoted by the government. I have been reading economics articles this morning, which now place UK at 20th in the world in terms of government debt. However you can also find that UK has the 6th largest global economy (bored).
Interestingly despite all of this, the UK has the highest level of relative poverty than all but 4 of members of the EU with 1 in 6 UK CHILDREN designated as living in relative poverty.
I still maintain my stance that government overseas aid is a political rather than a humanitarian tool given to many countries who do not need it. Valuing life at all levels of society is all that a lot of these countries need. We are fed the heart wrenching pictures of children starving and not shown the fat cats in the same countries, who, like us, should be caring for their own.
Again, personal charity giving and disaster aid are different issues.

I think it's irrelevant if people are right or left wing as long as they avoid attacking

Soutra I said some gransnetters it was you who used the term the silent majority and yes I stand by what I said, I think some people are afraid to post and go against the grain, especially when some posters think they hold the high moral ground and are clicky.

Joelsnan, you said you used a cross section of references, but the only one you mentioned was the CPS, whose board consists of Lord Saatchi, Tory, George Bridges, previously a campaign director for the Tory party, Tessa Keswick,who was a researcher for Ken Clarke, Andrew Knight, chairman of Rothschild Management and a director of NewsCorp, Fraser Nelson, that well known editor of the Spectator, and so on, not a list of leftwingers, along with 3 other house of lords Tory peers.
So you can possibly see why I consider you to be right wing. You do not sound very middle of the road to me.

Cynical? Toi?

Margaretm74

Not at all, it probably has an element of truth.

My view is that there is probably sufficient money in this country to help those whose homes /livlihood have been destroyed without cancelling any overseas aid!

As a nation we are good at raising millions in one night(Ch in need/ comic relief etc)

Not sure why the paper that suggested diverting overseas aid to British flood victims did not set up a fund raising campaign ....or did they want to make a political point more than really help the victims of flooding in UK?
Is that too cynical...

My daughter too. It must be the way we brought them up. My sisters and I were only discussing how we always knew who was mother, even when our mum was in her latter years��

Yes margaretm and I have to say I get very fed up with it

Does your DD lecture you too? I'm not the only one then.

I don't think I am afraid of GNers but I sure am afraid of my daughter who discovered via Facebook that we are not in agreement on this subject. Oh boy did I get a lecture! She's clever too, didn't understand half of what she said!

I think we can safely say that there isn't as much of that sort of behaviour on here these days, and everyone should feel free to voice their opinion. No one can ever be absolutely right.

You know what, Joelsnan, I couldn't agree more! Sometimes real debating is hard - this is a topic that has arisen many times on here when issues have become contentious. Personal acrimony achieves little, and unfortunately some sniping and unpleasantness can happen.

No, go for it. Who says who holds the moral high ground. This is what debate is for. If one two or more affirm their views in what appears to be an over assertive manner, all the more reason to continue with the debate. We can rarely all agree and nor should we.

When we have a thread such as this one, when a number of prominent posters are all in agreement with each other, and obviously have no doubts as to the rightness of their opinions, then I think it might be difficult for someone holding a different view to express themselves.

This is especially so when the topic, like this one, has a moral element to it.

Hi Ariadne
No, I am relatively new to this site

I have noticed only one instance of discourtesy on this thread – and it hasn't put me off posting.

Like ninny had to return to ask a question, albeit different from hers:

In what way can a few people disagreeing with one be termed a "backlash". It debases a debate into a personalised spat. And the same applies to suggesting that some GNetters are afraid to post. OH no, they are not, unless they have been subject to the sort of personal vituperation that arises from time to time when reasoned argument goes out of the window.

(Joelsnan I may not completely agree with you, but - your erudite approach seems familiar; did you post on GN some time ago?)

Hi charleygirl
You have as much right to state your opinion as anyone else on this forum. Do not allow others impoliteness put you off. Your opinions are as valid as anyone else's. If others don't like what you say...so be it. But don't stop saying. The world will descend into a sadder place if everyone is put off expressing themselves through bullying

I had my head bitten off once many months ago, never again. I now stay in the wings.

I'm all for vocal,petallus just found it hard to swallow the notion of GNetters "afraid" to voice their views

What about 'the vocal minority'?