Refugees in the Mediterranean, Image: NBN
Yesterday UKIP announced as part of its manifesto pledge that it would radically reduce aid spending from the 0.7% that it currently is, to just 0.2% of Gross National Income. It’s true that too much aid money is spent on consultants and free market privatisation schemes, but UKIP’s solution – simply to cut it massively – is a recipe for a more unequal world.
Last weekend I raised concerns about Britain’s aid spending in the Daily Mail. The Mail is right to be scandalised that more than £1 billion of the aid budget ends up in British and American private consultancy firms, even more so when you realise that those consultants are often ideologically driven to put private interests ahead of public benefit. That politicians involved in making decisions on aid receive campaign donations from those same consultancies, only adds to the grubbiness.
