Join the Battle! Wasteful Foreign Aid

Claire Short, the UKs first International Aid minister is backing this, she said:
Im afraid the department has lost capacity and 0.7% has ended up being destructive

Something in the news today about Boris Johnson changing the foreign aid "jam jars" so maybe the petition is already having an effect. I think he wants to help Rohingya refugees more, for instance.

So much for not shooting the messenger, then! Democracy still working - you had a choice. The Petition has been signed with more than the number required, and Government will debate Foreign Aid being sent to corrupt governments. Now that Mugabe has "left the building" so to speak, perhaps Foreign Aid will get to those in Zimbabwe who need it rather than to those who stash it in private Swiss bank accounts. Zimbabwe once again invited to join the Commonwealth of Nations headed by HM The Queen.

I certainly wouldn't sign it. It's not a 'battle' I would want to join in any way, shape or form.

Very well put,WIWYA.

Not signing. It seems obvious to me that quite apart from pressing humanitarian reasons for giving aid from rich countries, as ours still is, to poor countries, there is also an argument of self-interest. If life is so miserable for people that they think it is worth risking their lives to come to Europe, it must be pretty bad. If we do nothing to help things improve where they are now, they will want to come here in ever larger numbers, and who could blame them? Surely the self-interest argument would appeal to those who want to raise the drawbridge?

A no from me too. These petitions are often started by ghastly Britain First, they had a lot going with during remembrance day, suggesting that the only reason veterans are in the streets is due to immigrants jumping the housing queue. I don't know what worries me most, the fact that they churn out these lies or the fact that stupid people believe them.

The EU has cut the amount of money given on foreign aid, and reduced the number of categories.
Fortunately health and education are still considered important.

Has anyone on here signed it, apart from CelticRose?

I always think of a Celtic Rose as being concerned about other people. Obviously wrong.

Yes the negative response, in the main, to this mean spirited petition appeal has been extremely heartwarming. .

Hope that celticrose sees that the plea in the OP is gaining minimal support on GN and the original petition isn't getting an overwhelming number of signatures either.

A petition created with simplistic, muddled thinking. Growing world inequality is one of the things that is feeding terrorism, it's a moral duty for richer nations to help poorer. Yes there is corruption but that can be addressed. Count me out of signing too.

Not going to waste my time and energy campaigning against helping people worse off than myself. I'm out!

Traitors' Gate awaits

and who knows when that might not come back to bite you in some way?

So all my anti-Brexit retweets will help to identify me as a potential subject for eradication as an Enemy of the People

I’m also very aware that if you share a post on FB or retweet a tweet on Twitter, you are then associated for eternity on social media as supporting that shared FB post or that retweeted tweet and who knows when that might not come back to bite you in some way?

maryeliza54 that’s just what I was thinking of! These organisations very subtly suck people into promoting their views, often views that if they thought about it closely enough they’d not want to be supporting.

Yes grannyq - my dsis-i-l is always sharing things on FB which are so obviously Britain First - but she’s seduced by nostalgic posts about the past and how wonderful our armed services are etc. I keep telling her but does she listen? ?

Not one I’ll be signing, it’s always worth looking to see where things originate from - things aren’t always what they seem. I’m sometimes shocked to see some of the “causes” people promote on Facebook clearly without having checked it out first.

I'm another who won't be signing. When I see ads urging us as indivduals to give to charities I always think what if it was my family with my DGS drinking contaminated water or starving to less than half his normal body weight, or living in a war zone or refugee camp with winter coming and no warm clothes. Wouldn't we hope that someone somewhere would help us?

I am very pleased that UK funds will continue to "help the world’s most vulnerable people".

I certainly won’t be signing.

Here’s another that won’t be signing.

I meant to say reverse, reverse advent calendar

It’s like a reverse advent calendar.

Let’s grab it all back

The Government has re-committed its pledge to commit 0.7% (higher than many other countries) to foreign aid, but at the same time to
"work with like-minded countries" to redraw the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s definition of overseas aid in order to ensure that UK funds “help the world’s most vulnerable people”. Ministers believe that the definition could be changed to encompass work that Britain already carries out abroad but which cannot currently count towards the 0.7 target.

which should be enough to please anyone who is doubtful about exactly where foreign aid is going and whether or not it is being squandered.