Ah, the BBC's John Ss campaigning in the Conservative leadership manoeuvrings of the moment. What say you, Fran? And have you sorted out Mr Simpson's recent retweet gaffe? I haven't checked to see whether he's deleted it yet.
Weird and weirder. What next? A tick from Nick Robison?
As for our international aid budget. Even if every advanced economy donated 0.7% GDP it would mean very little in addressing the problems. For instance of Africa heading for a population of 4 billion (! - official UN projection) by the end of the century.
What has been lifting people out of poverty worldwide has been economic growth, related to relocation of manufacturing, tourism, mining and improved agriculture.
To give 4 billion Africans anything approaching a decent standard of living - let's say $10,000 per person, requires $40 trillion GDP. Our current IDB is about £14 billion which would equate to 0.04% of that figure or 1p a day. 1p a day is not going to make any difference whatsoever.
Either Stewart is a fool or he is a purposefully deceptive person if he wants us to believe international aid will "solve" any pressing problem. Most of the 0.7% IDB goes on stuff that benefits us, or benefits corrupt oligarchs in the receiving countries. A lot of aid just destroys local markets.
I am all for direct empowerment of poor people through aid from the UK but there is precious little of that in international aid budgets.
Ah, the BBC's John Ss campaigning in the Conservative leadership manoeuvrings of the moment. What say you, Fran? And have you sorted out Mr Simpson's recent retweet gaffe? I haven't checked to see whether he's deleted it yet.
ReplyDeleteWeird and weirder. What next? A tick from Nick Robison?
ReplyDeleteAs for our international aid budget. Even if every advanced economy donated 0.7% GDP it would mean very little in addressing the problems. For instance of Africa heading for a population of 4 billion (! - official UN projection) by the end of the century.
What has been lifting people out of poverty worldwide has been economic growth, related to relocation of manufacturing, tourism, mining and improved agriculture.
To give 4 billion Africans anything approaching a decent standard of living - let's say $10,000 per person, requires $40 trillion GDP. Our current IDB is about £14 billion which would equate to 0.04% of that figure or 1p a day. 1p a day is not going to make any difference whatsoever.
Either Stewart is a fool or he is a purposefully deceptive person if he wants us to believe international aid will "solve" any pressing problem. Most of the 0.7% IDB goes on stuff that benefits us, or benefits corrupt oligarchs in the receiving countries. A lot of aid just destroys local markets.
I am all for direct empowerment of poor people through aid from the UK but there is precious little of that in international aid budgets.