It’s time to end the foreign aid fiasco – with question mark hanging over £6bn in taxpayers’ cash

SO it’s official. No one knows whether colossal sums of taxpayers’ money given away as foreign aid ever improve lives.

Our fears over Britain’s legally binding generosity are justified, according to the Whitehall spending watchdog.

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The International Aid department’s CDC Group measures only the “prospective rather than actual impact” of its handouts. So . . . they ought to work — but whether they do is anyone’s guess.

The NAO watchdog says: “It remains a significant challenge for CDC to demonstrate its ultimate objective of making a lasting difference to people’s lives.”

In other words it is taking a huge punt with public money — all of it borrowed and left for future generations to repay.

And terrifyingly the CDC, currently doling out up to £1.5billion, is in line to oversee an incredible £6billion.

The Act forcing Britain to give away a set percentage of our wealth each year is an open sore for this Government.

They must heal it . . . and repeal it.

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Shun Castro

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BRITAIN should not send a soul to ­dignify Fidel Castro’s funeral.

The Government is making a mistake flying a minister out. Why should we mourn a murderous dictator who denied his people democracy and kept them in poverty for two generations?

We should just send a message of hope that Cuba enjoys more liberty and prosperity in the next 60 years than the last.

Labour’s overgrown teenagers, still romanticising their hero’s human rights atrocities as “flaws”, are sending someone to weep for him. Jeremy Corbyn must be gutted not to be there himself.

But then Corbyn, for all his flaws, is also an idiot.

Now play fare

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TRAIN firms ought at least to steer us towards the cheapest of their rip-off fares.

Ticket machines don’t even do that.

And the options are so bewildering it’s more by luck than judgement if you find the best rate. So we salute Transport Secretary Chris Grayling’s plans to force rail companies to highlight the best deals. It's a good start.

Now, what about the more fundamental problems making fares so crazily dear?

Reds in peril

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NO wonder Labour MPs are quaking at new Ukip boss Paul Nuttall.

A working-class northerner could rob them of more votes than Nigel Farage.

Twenty prominent Labour MPs could be ousted by Ukip alone. Labour is obsessed with issues irrelevant outside Islington and split asunder on Brexit.

No seat will be safe in Leave areas.

Some ask what purpose Ukip serves now Britain has voted out of the EU.

Its point seems to be wiping Labour out.