The Zohan

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-dev...-1bn-aid-india

Decision to maintain aid of £280m a year likely to infuriate some MPs, who believe UK should not give aid to a nation that spends £20bn a year on defence
^^^And doesn't that say it all.

So we the citizens of this country are expected to put up with cuts to our services due to no money available. We are expected to embrace The Big Society and help out volunteer to keep services open and available due to cuts and no money.

Yet we can give 280m a year until 2015 to a country on the up, a country with an emerging economy. A country with a nuclear weapons programme so hardly skint itself.

Do we have to help everybody and put the rest of the world before ourselves? - is 1bn over 4 years pocket change???

India has the capacity and ability be a global player and is emerging as such so why do we need to spend this money???

And do not tell me it is to guarantee future trade because all that means is the money is a thinly disguised BRIBE!

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Couldn't agree more and who cares if it is a drop in the ocean. It's the principle of the matter. As we have all said on here we need a government with a spine and who actually wants to put the UK's inhabitants first!!

Maz

iTrader: (34)

Morning Paul. It is a little strange to give aid to country that itself gives aid and may actually refuse it?! India is on the up and good luck to them but charity must begin at home. We cannot justify this huge amount of tax payers money given away.

kingofturds

iTrader: (1)

The sad fact is that 42% of the worlds malnourished children are from India though.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/i...#ixzz1DtL232ND

Unfortunately there is little inclanation to help these people as they are deemed bottom feeders.

banny sti

iTrader: (68)

Proper **** take, we need all the money we can get to get the country back to a good place financially!

yorvik

iTrader: (4)

That lot may have kept Ark Royal, the Harrier fleet and Nimrod.

JTaylor

There's no we, f1_fan. No collective.

The Zohan

I hate to see this and it is wrong - perhaps 10bn of thee 20bn India currently spends on defence could go towards hospitals, education and more importantly food and looking after the children - perhaps alll of the 20bn,

If India was skint - had no money then it would not be so bad, the right thing to do even, but this is so obviously not the case.

Shame on you Cameron!

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

It would certainly have gone some way to it.

SJ_Skyline

At the risk of being piloried, this aid is already supporting the UK economy and jobs with BAE having signed a £500m deal to supply aircraft (The one big example I could find). $25bn worth of Indian aerospace contracts have been signed over the last couple of years and and a further $41bn of contracts up for grabs in the Indian aerospace sector (according to KPMG).

OK Paul, so it's a bribe if you like but so what if it helps in support the UK economy, create jobs in the UK and provide a return on investment?

source

The Zohan

What we are good at is high quality engineering and technology - you just need to look at our aerospace industry as an example.

Are you saying that without paying 1bn we would not win the contracts on our own merits - in which case the money is just that - A BRIBE to guarantee business.

India exports goods and services to the UK amongst many countries and vies versa and that is trade, not blackmail and bribery and trade is how it should be!

If India has 25-40bn to spend on defence then surely this money would be better spent on the people, on housing, on infrastructure, on education, on healthcare, on feeding kids. Who exactly are they afraid of - Pakistan - OK then spending more and more on defence will just escalate as the other side tries to keep up - it is a vicious circle and one they should be able to resolve instead of the people in India suffering and the services and people back in the UK also suffering with cutbacks - not just libraries, but care of children, of elderly of the vulnerable of the sick.

David Lock

I would rather UK bribed/invested in India to try and keep it on our side in the future. As just said aid can also pay dividends in trade deals.

My personal take it that I would rather see my tax spent on helping out starving people rather than spending billions on things like Trident and pretending that UK is still at the "Top Table" of world politics (which incidentally makes us more of a target for terrorist attacks).

dl

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Well that and fighting America's war for them by helping to illegally invade two countries

tony de wonderful

Yes all those Iraqi terrorists attacking us!

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

That's what you get when you occupy someone else's country!

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Erm, why does TATA not fund this. Oh, sorry, we bailed them out too.

The only good of this is if this allows us to "use" India as some sort of UK owned workhouse to compete with China. China will eventually self-consume itself in about 20 years, by which time, India will be in full swing.

My kitchen worktops came from India...probably chipped out of a rock face by an eight year old. If aid does something to stop this, or is used to prevent al qaeda getting a foothold, then I'll be a little less concerned. However if its wasted on government bureaucracy and military posturing then it is money down the drain.

dpb

Keep em sweet

urban

iTrader: (1)

I despise Cameron, I really think he's a two faced lying b@stard

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Exactly, aircraft carriers and Trident are useless for our modern enemy; the Terrorist.

As for pirates...let the oil companies fund the aircraft carriers to police the waters (they aren't even "our" waters ).

PaulC72

Oh well it could be worse.

We need to do what Egypt have recently done.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

They've haven't done anything yet....For all we know they could vote in a terrorist sympathiser.

JTaylor

Have you been to Egypt? You, and others, have absolutely no idea how fortunate we are in this country. No idea!!

Bonehead

And what makes it even more annoying is the Indians have apparently turned round and said "We dont need it and we wont be upset or hold it against you if you keep the money", and they're still giving away our much needed money

Leslie

We have to be fair to the politicians of course. It is terribly important to them personally to be loved by all the other world leaders, or to appear so at least, they have to ensure they keep their feet under the world conference tables. They love to feel important!

So dishing out someone else's cash to maintain the status quo is the obvious thing to do, under the pretence of it being our duty to support states with a booming economy.

Les

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

He's a Tory politician, it's a pre-requisite for the job

Maz

iTrader: (34)

That is a true. We are much better off than some countries. You cannot possibly draw a parallel between us and the Egyptians.

David Lock

Exactly - can you imagine a group of Trafalgar Square protesters going back the next day to clean the place up because they are proud of their country

dl

Tidgy

its very easy to quantify how much aid, very difficult to quantify how much we get in return in contracts, sales markets etc

think thats the issue, i'd be very suprised if we don't get more back than we give.

Dingdongler

Though this concept of aid to certain countries at times like this seems illogical as mentioned by some others we probably get more back in deals, especially defence contracts

JTaylor

Have you been to Cairo, David?