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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2014/feb/11/uk-floods-why-aid-budget-easy-target

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UK floods: why is aid such an easy target? UK floods: why is aid such an easy target?
(about 4 hours later)
The Daily Mail has launched a petition calling for money to be diverted from the foreign aid budget to help people in the UK affected by recent flooding, caused by more than a month of heavy rain. The petition follows calls from the Ukip leader, Nigel Farage, who demanded that the government divert money after a trip to flood-stricken Somerset in south-west England.Why is the aid budget being singled out? On Twitter, @AndrewSimms_uk urged the UK government to cut fossil fuels subsidies instead. Others suggest money is diverted from nuclear weapons research. Is the aid budget – which is poised to reach 0.7% of GNI this year – an easy target? Add your thoughts in the comment thread below. As always, if you have any problems posting a comment, or would prefer to comment anonymously, email us at development@theguardian.com and we’ll add your views to the thread.The Daily Mail has launched a petition calling for money to be diverted from the foreign aid budget to help people in the UK affected by recent flooding, caused by more than a month of heavy rain. The petition follows calls from the Ukip leader, Nigel Farage, who demanded that the government divert money after a trip to flood-stricken Somerset in south-west England.Why is the aid budget being singled out? On Twitter, @AndrewSimms_uk urged the UK government to cut fossil fuels subsidies instead. Others suggest money is diverted from nuclear weapons research. Is the aid budget – which is poised to reach 0.7% of GNI this year – an easy target? Add your thoughts in the comment thread below. As always, if you have any problems posting a comment, or would prefer to comment anonymously, email us at development@theguardian.com and we’ll add your views to the thread.
What you said:
Why has it been singled out? Because not enough information is provided about how affordable 0.7% UK aid is against other costs and not enough is done to inform people how we are helping the 1.3Bn people who live in extreme poverty and why its their aspiration and hard work that is allowing these people lift themselves out of poverty as we had to in the UK just a few generations ago. Enlightened self interest and care for people who do not have what all of us in the UK have is not a priority for the politicians or press in this country. But when you tell people they are interested and do care, but they need information they an trust! http://www.gapminder.org/ http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/mdgoverview.html http://www.ted.com/talks/bono_the_good_news_on_poverty_yes_there_s_good_news.html Having had a sister die in the developing world, I know we can ensure everyone has access to clean water, a hospital and a school and it doent need us to fund it, they do not want hand-outs they want a hand-up and help to fix their problems their way not our way. Their future generations of leaders will do a better job than the past ones, just like this country!
Cutting international spending will mean greater impact on our climate which will result in even greater floods.
International development includes projects that reduce CO2 globally, such as SolarAid. Cutting the funding for this means more CO2 and more flooding at home.
Equally, if you cut international aid, you are likely to increase the numbers of refugees due to increase in conflict. This puts even greater pressure on resources at home.
Charity may start at home, but you have to think globally to really help at home. We have a global climate and can't get away from that.
I think it is because often the public don't understand or quickly forget about what the aid budget is being used for.
Three months ago the British public - and the Daily Mail - were performing heroics in raising money for the victims of the Philippines Typhoon
Three months later they are calling for the aid budget to be slashed.
The UK can be proud of its history of giving aid to people overseas in despair. It suggests there is a fundamental willingness to do this. And perhaps we need to remind people of this a bit more every time there is a "aid is crap" story.
The Daily Mail, UKIP and now Facebook - the intellectual titans are really weighing in aren't they?
I know that it is easy to sneer - but the people starting up groups of this nature (and the people who are following these groups) are typically regular people.
I know that often on these pages people are quite happy to look down their noses at those who don't share the same "enlightened" views as their own but that doesn't mean we should disregard these views.
On one hand I CAN agree with the belief that the first duty of a Government should be towards its own people, I am not sure that the amount we pay in foreign aid should be used as an emergency fund to be spent as required by the Government of the day.
There are discussions to be had about where foreign aid should be spent and when it should stop (e.g. India having a space program and yet still getting aid from the UK) but that is a different issue for a different day.
Anti foreign aid propaganda, such as the dangerous nonsense spewed out by the Daily Mail, makes me despair. I work for an NGO is Sierra Leone where one in five children die before their 5th birthday, 75% of women are illiterate, over 95% of women undergo FGM and less that 5% of the population have access to clean water or power. UK Aid does so much fantastic work here on water and sanitation, good governance, women's education and empowerment to name but a few - they save countless lives and I am extremely proud that some of my tax goes on helping people who have been dealt a very poor hand in life.