Our new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt needs to cut spending and he MUST start with foreign aid
NEW Chancellor Jeremy Hunt hadn’t even unpacked his bags at No 11 before warning that “very difficult decisions” lay ahead and “efficiencies” were going to be necessary.
That is minister speak for higher taxes and spending cuts.
But before he starts wielding the blade Liz Truss thrust so deftly into his predecessor’s back, he needs to take a long, hard look at the UK foreign aid budget.
Despite recent cuts, this country still spends 0.5 per cent of its gross national income — billions of pounds— on “overseas development”, making us one of the most generous donors in the G7 group of nations.
And yet, while British families resort to food banks to survive, and British patients wait years for desperately needed operations, much of the money we send abroad is squandered on vanity projects, businesses doomed to fail, and imposing Western PC values on reluctant local populations.
Only last year, Hunt voted against a Government move to temporarily reduce the aid budget. So it’s likely he’ll be reluctant to cut it further.
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But if this turns into an argument, it’s one that Liz Truss, no fan of extravagant handouts abroad, must win.
A look at some of the wasted aid money over the years reveals there’s plenty of fat to trim. My personal example is Yegna — the all-female pop group, aka Ethiopia’s Spice Girls.
They received £5.2million of our taxpayers’ cash, on top of the £4million they collected in 2013 via Girl Hub, a UK-funded project.
Even Rory Stewart, a former International Development Secretary, said earlier this year that since he left office he’d come to the conclusion a large chunk of UK overseas aid he’d handed out was a “waste of time”.
“Traditionally what’s happened is we have turned up and decided what’s best for that community,” he said.
“At huge expense we’ve flown wheat across from the US or Europe, we’ve bought people goats or bicycles . . . a lot of what we did was quite wasteful and paternalistic, in retrospect.”
British taxes in the foreign aid budget have propped up shopping malls in Nigeria, funded a Brazilian fitness business and bankrolled restaurant chains in Vietnam and Peru.
Then there’s our International Climate Finance Portfolio, which spent part of its £11.6billion budget on ensuring a “complete revision of the concepts of gender” among Mexican farm workers.
Two countries that have benefited from British aid over the years are India and Pakistan, whose leaders could have spent some of the billions they pour into nuclear weapons on sorting out their own problems.
Grim choice
Those states also give the lie to the argument that whacking billions of pounds into bailing out questionable regimes buys us much-needed influence abroad.
Where were their leaders when we needed their support on Ukraine? Cosying up to Vladimir Putin.
It is now crystal clear we desperately need to get our own house in order.
At the moment we have got £2.1trillion of debt.
Well-paid people can’t afford their mortgages, our small businesses are struggling and we are facing a winter in which more people than ever before will face the grim “heat or eat” choice.
So for Hunt to do anything other than spend every pound he can scrape together on addressing this brutal cost of living crisis looks insane.
And beyond that, just look at the funding issues he’s inherited: A crumbling NHS still reeling from the pandemic, schools that can’t afford books and a social care system on its knees.
The bottom line is that in this turbulent post-Covid world we now inhabit, we need to follow the received airline safety wisdom — fit your own oxygen mask first before worrying about someone else’s.
Time to act on oil mob
I HAVE been thoroughly fed up with the utter chaos caused by the Just Stop Oil mob in London this week.
They have prevented ambulances getting to hospitals, fire engines getting to emergencies, kids getting to school, and other hard-working people getting to work.
The morning commute is something they presumably don’t have to worry about themselves as they are seemingly free all day, every day, to protest. But what has incensed me even more is the police inertia.
Aside from a couple of arrests, they seem more intent on making the protesters cups of tea.
I saw how effective the police can be at dealing with a disruptive mob on Thursday.
It was at the London Stadium, when rowdy Anderlecht fans started ripping up seats and lobbing them at our West Ham fans, along with bottles, fireworks, and all sorts.
The police arrived, waded in and within minutes had sorted them out, brought calm and restored peace.
We know they can intervene and act quickly to stamp out bad behaviour.
So can I ask them to use the same tactics on the Just Stop Oil mob?
A baby gloom
MANY predicted that lockdowns would lead to a baby boom.
But it has been revealed that nine months after the first 2020 lockdown, birth rates fell across Europe.
It seems to defy logic, seeing as many were furloughed from their jobs, stuck at home with their partners with seemingly endless free time on their hands.
But it turned out that in England and Wales there were 13 per cent fewer live births than expected in January 2021, and 14 per cent fewer in Scotland.
But I’m hardly surprised.
Aside from the obvious fears over giving birth in a pandemic, being cooped up with your pyjama-clad partner for weeks on end is hardly conducive to romance.
Boy, will £1million George be worth the jungle fee
IS everyone as excited as I am to see Boy George go into the jungle?
The Culture Club singer has signed up to be part of the new series of I’m A Celebrity next month.
I can’t quite imagine him flinging himself into pools filled with nasties and chowing down on live bugs.
But perhaps the reported £1 million pay day has something to do with it!
If that figure is true, it will be the biggest appearance fee in I’m A Celebrity history.
But I’m pretty certain watching him is going to be top notch entertainment – and he will deserve every penny.
Footie taboo shame
IT was expected to be a watershed moment for football.
“I hope you respect me: I’m gay,” read the tweet from former Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas.
It was immediately seen as seismic news given so few footballers have made such brave declarations.
When Blackpool forward Jake Daniels announced he was gay earlier this year, he was Britain’s first male professional footballer to do so since Justin Fashanu – which was more than 30 years ago.
A couple of Premier League footballers have also spoken publicly about their sexuality, but only after retiring from the game.
Why? Well, it’s hard not to come to the conclusion that men’s professional football is not a welcoming environment for gay people.
Which is a great shame.
So, the tweet from Casillas felt significant.
At least it was – until he deleted it two hours later and replaced it with a new tweet, claiming he had been hacked but that everything was now “in order”.
What a shame. It seemed to hammer home two damaging messages.
Either that trolls make it so hard for footballers to come out that someone professing to be gay is instantly full of regret.
Or else being a gay footballer is so taboo, and such a joke, that someone claiming to come out is interpreted as some sort of bizarre prank done for laughs.
Either way, the culture of football needs to change to make gay footballers – and by the law of averages there must be quite a few – feel OK about being themselves.
After all, it matters what you do on the pitch, not what you do off it.
Christine shows Paddy what he’s missing
WHEN running into an ex, most of us would like to look drop-dead gorgeous.
But sometimes life isn’t fair and serves up such moments when you’re taking the bins out in your trackies.
We want to look our best, not because we want them back but because we want them to know we have moved on and are doing very well, thank you.
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Christine McGuinness, was said to be anxious about seeing her ex Paddy at the National Television Awards this week.
But seeing pictures of her looking jaw-droppingly magnificent, I bet it was him who came out in anxious sweats, not her.