2012-02-04

This is what the Government want to spend tax money on...

...aid to a country that doesn't want it:

...the foreign minister, Nirumpama Rao, proposed "not to avail [of] any further DFID [British] assistance with effect from 1st April 2011," because of the "negative publicity of Indian poverty promoted by DFID".
But officials at DFID, Britain’s Department for International Development, told the Indians that cancelling the programme would cause "grave political embarrassment" to Britain, according to sources in Delhi.

So, and let's be sure this is clear, civil servants at DFID were pushing to give UK taxpayers' money to India, despite India actively trying to refuse it, in order to prevent embarrassment of their bosses.

I have a modest proposal: save the £250mm/year aid (returning it to taxpayers in the form of higher personal tax allowances), making the Indians happy; fire the DFID officials and their boss and then there's no danger of them being embarrassed by their position. Everyone wins!

No comments:

Post a Comment

All comments are subject to retrospective moderation. I will only reject spam, gratuitous abuse, and wilful stupidity.