ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST

ACCORDING TO INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT SECRETARY, Andrew Mitchell, our country has become a ‘development superpower’ after the Coalition’s decision to increase the oversees aid budget by 34 per cent to £12 billion.

            Please tell me Mr Mitchell is not a Conservative, as I have never heard of him or wish to continue doing so after his Alice in Wonderland boasting about the ‘virtues’ of foreign aid.

            When I first read his pronouncements, I thought it was a put up job to cause heart failure among Mr Cameron’s bitterest critics. Mr Mitchell is either a political scapegoat whose modus-operandi  is causing the maximum outrage among the voters, in order to be slapped down by a ‘tough’ and ‘hard hitting’ prime minister, who will not countenance such political naivety – or, Mr Mitchell is just plain bonkers.

            He comes up with such gems as, ‘Be as proud of our £12 billion foreign aid bill as  you are of the Army’. Only to add the Queen to the list.

            Looking at Mr Mitchell’s photograph in the press as he arrives in Downing Street on his bike, one begins to form a portrait of this contemporary Tory. He has been put where he is, not because he believes in traditional Conservative values (for who does nowadays), or any kind of tradition at all; but because he does not represent what was once described by a Tory as ‘the Nasty Party’,  after the Thatcher and Major years. He represents the ‘Cuddly Party’ of David Cameron.

            Apparently, according to Mr Mitchell, we are admired throughout the world for our largesse. He does not qualify such admiration by naming names of those who esteem us so greatly. Are they world leaders who, like David Cameron, have the ability to dip into their exchequers purse? If so, then their high regard and good opinion, is worthless unless they are prepared to wage a foreign aid race with us, by sanctioning increases in their own aid budgets.

            My guess is, is that the esteem in which we are held, emanates not from other world leaders, but from the numerous NGOs who are the main benefactors; or the  celebrities who promote themselves by organising concerts on behalf of the blighted poor of the world - celebrities like the tax exile Bono.

            The kind of world Mr Mitchell is living in  requires enormous resources of gullibility to comprehend. It now seems he actually believes in what he is saying on the subject of oversees aid and I have misplaced a shrewd politician for a fool.

OVERSEES AID has been ring-fenced and allowed to increase by the Coalition. It has been done at the expense of our armed forces (which Mr Mitchell professes to be proud of).

            The prime minister was, in part, influenced by his youthful experiences with the Live Aid Concert in the 1980s, when he decided not to intrude upon the oversees aid budget - except only to increase it; even in such difficult economic times for the country.

            It is my belief, as it would have been the belief of any truly Conservative government in the past, that the security, health and education of our own citizens must be put before all else. This outlook still exists today, but not within the modern British Conservative Party. It still flourishes in all Western countries including Democrat America. For it is not immoral to put one’s own family before others.

            What is immoral, is that you ignore the suffering of others when times are good for your family and you have the surplus to give away in the form of increased amounts of taxation on aid.

            Oversees aid has been, and still is being,  much abused. It has found its way into numerous Swiss bank accounts and diverted from its intended purpose. It has been so arranged by corrupt leaders who slice off  the cream. This fraudulent behaviour has been prevalent on the African continent for decades. African leaders, who should have the welfare of their people at heart have grown rich on the backs of the Western taxpayer, by stealing from both their own people as well as ours.

            The British government speaks of rigorously ensuring that the aid given is being used in accordance with what they perceive as being in the interest of the British people.

            But we know, do we not, that there have been hundreds of millions of pounds donated to countries that are on the verge of becoming the next generation of world leaders? India and China have enjoyed over a billion pounds in British taxpayer aid in just one year, despite their world ascendency.

            We, on the other hand, have had to (because of a purely political decision) reduce our armed services (particularly our navy)  to a level that shocks even our ancient enemy – France.

            Our navy has seen its carrier force rendered none existent for the next decade. We have taken the decision to scrap our two aircraft carriers as well as our Harrier jet squadrons that manned them. We also sought to abandon our Tornado squadrons; until Libya changed Mr Cameron’s mind.

            In their place, we will share French carriers until our latest carrier comes on stream. I say carrier because two are to be built, but only one will see service.

            We are a seafaring nation that has been caught out on more than one occasion by an enemy we thought incapable of attacking us. But our navy has always provided the wherewithal to meet any challenge. Friends can soon become enemies if they feel that they can defeat you militarily.

ANDREW MITCHELL is a product of the liberal sensibilities that have gripped this nation’s establishment since the 1960s. The International Development Secretary has voiced his views on aid and has done so soberly.

            He genuinely believes that, ‘[His] ambition is that over the next four years people will come to think across our country – in all parts of it – of Britain’s fantastic development work around the poorest parts of the world with the same pride and satisfaction that they see in some of our great institutions like the Armed Forces and the monarchy’. 

            In believing such nonsense, he opens up this country to an impossible escalation in British tax-payer funded aid to the rest of the world. This man, through his professed pronouncements, seeks to make oversees spending, at least more important than this countries defence. If not why is his department being saved from the cuts while the MoD has to face, like all other departments, a 20% cut in their budgets?

            The  aid budget has to take its share of the current cost cutting. If it falls short, as it seems likely to, then the other departments of state must call for a stop to such munificence.

            Politicians from all parties and in all democratic countries seem to think that the money they are spending appears from a chancellors wish list instead of through the taxation of their citizens. Politicians treat taxes as if they were the rewards of their rhetoric rather than the sacrifices of  their citizens labour.

            I say this to Mr Mitchell. Ask any father or mother in this country whether, in such difficult times, that their family should be considered secondary to the people of the Third World. It is human nature to look to one’s own before transgressing and sacrificing on behalf of total strangers.

            We in this country have suffered many of the tortures and indignities that now proliferate among the developing world. In Britain during the period of our climb from darkness to light had to pay the price.

            Our people suffered during our Industrial Revolution on a scale measurable and comparable with the slavery that was the hall-mark of early America. But our Industrial Revolution laid the foundations of prosperity that today we take for granted.

           

I BELIEVE IN OVERSEES AID. But I do not elevate it above all else when having to make cut-backs within our national criteria.

            If we live in troubled economic times then priorities must be made. But such precedence’s must be arranged according to the country’s national interest. In the modern case of preserving and adding to the oversees aid budget, I do not believe that such a national interest is well served, especially if much of our country’s defence has had to be made redundant so spuriously by the current Coalition. But then, what are they? They are, may I suggest, a Cabinet collective that cares little for the people they represent.
            By advancing the oversees aid budget the Conservative Party hopes to relinquish the ‘Nasty Party’ image that Cameron has decided to, whatever the cost, rid his party of.

            International Aid is the icing on the cake for successful nations who wish to pour much of their post-tax surpluses into helping the unfortunate of the world. It is a worthy ambition to rid the world of its poor; and we must continue to fulfil the ambition.

            But when we are told that we must, in the still affluent UK, continue to support and increase oversees aid, while our nation’s defences are depleted at the same time to meet the cost of such advancement; then our politicians had better be sure of their ground before giving their support to such an overture.