Britain Should Not Give Foreign Aid

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Recommended: Charity begins at home do you agree or disagree

Charity begins at home. Does this expression apply to the principles of the British government? As billions of pounds are relentlessly channelled into foreign countries, over thirteen million people at home in the UK are living below the low income threshold of under than £110 per week. This includes nearly four million children suffering from a disadvantaged childhood. This is due to the lack of financial assistance for poor families from the Government. By cutting the foreign aid budget the Government could increase investment in the impoverished children of their own country.

The way in which foreign aid is distributed is highly ineffective and fails to achieve its sole purpose. Corruption ravages the developing world; greedy diplomats and fraudulent officials are often known to embezzle vast amounts of the aid money given to help those most in need. As Lord P. T. Bauer of London School for Economics famously said, foreign aid is “an excellent method for transferring money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.” The money does not reach those who need it but is instead pocketed by dishonest members of government in foreign countries. Over the past years more than half a billion pounds have been invested in Africa yet there is little visual improvement in extreme poverty, deprivation and the child mortality rate. Evidently, Britain’s aid scheme is uselessly trying to combat poverty against a brick wall of bureaucracy. Without doubt this money would be better invested within the UK improving health and education and lowering the deficit.

As Britain flaunts its ‘wealth’ to the globe, many have come to see the country as a place of new and better opportunities; the UK has long been a hot spot for m...

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...profile/liberia http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13729504 https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/67317/SID-2012.pdf https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/261138/Table1a.csv/preview http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9545584/Poverty-barons-who-make-a-fortune-from-taxpayer-funded-aid-budget.html http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/david-camerons-cuts-leading-nhs-2332522 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2343683/Britains-foreign-aid-madness-Cuts-home-STILL-hand-G8-country.html http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/explore-by-career/doctors/pay-for-doctors/ http://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/continuing-failure-foreign-aid http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/give-a-man-a-fish.html http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/21/flood-defence-cuts-3bn-damages-uk-climate-change

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