I think this is the biggest issue. Haven’t India actually said they don’t want it? Both countries mentioned have their own space programmes but abject amount of poverty. Priorities not high on their agendas

For context:

All the so-called "Conservatives" losing their s*** about dropping our foreign aid budget by £4b.

We just quetly handed the EU 25% of that amount for the crime of beating our economic growth records last year. Were it not for the utter spinelessness of our government, Boris should have presented them a choice:

Hand over that money to the EU and cut the budget. By that amount twice to recover the cost.

Keep the budget, tell the EU to f*** off and use it for rebuilding OUR country, instead of the EU's wannabe superstate.

Point being: we hand money over to the likes of India, to the tune of £1b, in the hope they will favour us when it comes to big procurements. Bribery essentially. The Indians then snub us for France, as per (among other examples) Dassault Rafale vs. BAE Systems.

Waste of money - we have plenty of corrupt causes in the UK we can funnel this cash into (anyone remember "Kids Company"?). Who knows, some, just *some* of it might even trickle through to benefit the UK taxpayer.

They are legion and cause celebres that are corrupt as hell but mostly untouched due to ideology.

I recall Erin Pizzey talking about how lies were used to overly increase funding and are used to maintain funding into women's groups....which she thinks is now an income industry instead of a legitimate reaction to domestic abuse.

The same is true for the diversity industry and so on.

Edited by Stirlingsays (26 Nov 2020 10.15am)

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

Sir Humphrey said that the government gives aid money so the taxpayers can feel good about themselves. A cynical statement but probably has a grain of truth.

The foreign aid budget is beloved of the virtue signallers who are no doubt out in force today (cue Gary unless the BBC has muzzled him).

As I said previously it doesn't work, if it did I would be happy to support it.

One more point

Here we go, lets use the term virtue signalling instead of what it represents, ie an attempt to show that you are a good person.

Someone who has compassion perhaps.

I fully appreciate that this is due to the insular, mean and xenophobic territory which we now inhabit. It is ironic that it also may increase immigration as well.

Again, we have no money, (still one of the richest countries in the world) but lets not make too much of a song and dance about it, lets spend it on MP's mates to waste on non existent/useless PPE contracts, funny how so many are so blind to this.

Not at all happy to see MPs and others in the dock if they have broken the law.

We have spent billions and still people are in poverty. They're others ways of helping people such a trade deal, providing expertise and training etc. And definitely practical help for disasters.

One more point