Last week the Government handed out £63.3 million in foreign aid to Somalia, Pakistan and Afghanistan — while both Tory and Labour parties have promised to make “far-reaching” domestic spending cuts in Britain.
The latest example of how British people are always put last has come through a series of press releases on the Department for International Development’s (DFID) website. These statements are always blacked out by the controlled media for fear of adverse public reaction, but can be viewed by clicking here.
On 10 March, the DFID announced that it was giving £7.5 million to Somalia to provide food, clean water and medicine.
At the same time, the DFID announced a further £5.8 million for a new programme “to help promote peace and stability in the region by supporting reconciliation and local peace building initiatives between clans and communities.”
The DFID’s 2009–2010 aid programme in Somalia currently totals some £30.5 million.
On 9 March, International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander launched a “new growth programme for Helmand to provide jobs and help for farmers and local businesses.”
The Helmand Growth Programme (HGP) will see around “800,000 people benefit from the project in which the Department for International Development is investing £28 million over three years” and will put “in place the foundations for continued growth and job creation.”
This grant will, the DFID said, reinforce “the commitment made by the Development Secretary in 2009 to invest £32 million in major infrastructure projects in Helmand, including a 50 km road linking the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah to the economic hub of Gereshk.”
On 8 March, the DFID announced that it would give £20 million to “help millions of people affected by conflict in Pakistan.”
By 2011, Pakistan will be the UK’s second largest development programme worldwide, the DFID has proudly announced — despite Pakistan having a massive army which has nuclear weapons.
The huge cash grants are put into perspective by the Government’s failure to address the problem of eight million “economically inactive” people in Britain, and the paltry £12 million given for “deprived white working class areas” in October last year.
Even that £12 million was divided up into 100 identified regions, which means that each area will get £120,000 — not even enough to buy a single new house.
Only the British National Party will put the interests and rights of the British people first and says that these billions should be invested in fighting poverty and deprivation in Britain.
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