Eight green bottles
Posted on
May 05, 2013 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The world's most-read Scottish politics website
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When I worked at DFID (apparently as a life saving Scot) his Doogieness became Minister/Secretary of State. Outside the East Kilbride office front-door were several flagpoles – the Union Jack was on one, the Saltire on another. The day after Alexander was appointed, the Saltire disappeared…
Also disingenuous to suggest whole DFID programme is ‘delivered’ by officials in East Kilbride – DFID’s large Whitehall office has almost all the senior officials and ALL the Ministers’ offices – and these days almost everything has to signed off in London before a penny can be spent.
I bet the poor in India and South Africa will be happy we’re all in this together.
Another trough for the elite to fill there boots.
“The Department for International Development (DFID) paid almost £500million last year to consultants, mostly British, many of whom earn six, even seven-figure incomes, courtesy of the taxpayer. ”
Good article from radical independence org about “foreign aid” from January this year.
Now presumably an independent Scotland could spend more on aid than we do right now as a proportion of the UK’s spending, thus independence would mean more money on international aid being donated from these isles. Lets take a look:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_governments_by_development_aid
1. Sweeden – 1.45%
2. Norway – 1.06%
3. Luxembourg – 1.04%
4. Denmark – 0.88%
5. Netherlands – 0.82%
<SNIP..>
10. UK – 0.52%
So, if you support higher levels of Brittish spending on international aid, vote yes and collectively we will be donating more than we do now. Of course we could also stipulate that the aid money we provide be spent on well… “aid” as opposed to earmarking some of the aid budget for UK military endeavors abroad:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21528464
Another reason to vote Yes.
Lastly, perhaps things like this wont happen anymore with our aid money:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pergau_Dam
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_v_Secretary_of_State_for_Foreign_Affairs_Ex_p_The_World_Development_Movement
I sem to recall that AS stated that an Independent Scotland would commit to 0.75% to Aid? Will need to check. But Scotland can easily afford it if that’s what a future Scottish government decided.
EDIT: From Scotsman article
Mr Yousaf said that the SNP would also seek to exceed UN targets for nations to dedicate 0.7 per cent of their gross national income to overseas development.
He said: “We’ve already passed a resolution at our last parliamentary conference to say that, not only will we ensure that we meet the 0.7 per cent [UN spending target)] but we’ll look to go to 1 per cent.
We should be committing to 1% like our Norwegian friends, and pushing hard to make sure people realise that this and so many other areas will be better if we start to move towards the Reid Foundation style Common Weal; the REAL way to head off unionist charges that nothing will be different if we keep the £, Queen, NATO etc, is to commit to some REALLY socially and politically progressive policies which aim to construct that kind of society!
Europe by any chance ?
I thought it might be informative to make a brief comparative study of the rhetoric of those who defended slavery in the US and BitterTogether’s attempts to defend UKplc.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
The Southern (BitterTogether) Argument for Slavery* (Scots in UK):
A comparitive study
Defenders of slavery (Scots in UK) argued that freeing slaves (Scots) would lead to
i) A profound and killing economic impact (Economic Uncertainty Myth)
ii) Widespread unemployment and chaos (Economic Uncertainty and Fear)
Defenders of slavery (Scots in UK) also argued that the status quo was truly better since owners (Westmonster) would protect and assist slaves (Scots) when they were sick and aged (Pensions Scare).
*Source: http://www.ushistory.org/us/27f.asp
Please post more “Amadeus minkovski”. You are not posting enough. More posts.
Aye like naebed said or we will take your highlighter away.
Well they certainly don’t give a frig about the poverty in their own back yard which has flourished for decades under their watch.
This is an extract from the (already out of date?) Judith Hart memorial speech given by Douglas Alexander on Friday, as reproduced on Labourhame.
“Over recent years, Britain’s Department for International Development has rightly come to be seen as a global leader on aid effectiveness and I am proud that this year the UK will achieve the target set and worked for by Labour to meet the UN goal of committing 0.7% of our GNI on international development. The road we have travelled is nowhere better exemplified than in our Tory Prime Minister, forced by public opinion, to meet and match Labour’s aid commitment.”
There was an article in the Guardian last week about the fact that the MoD were after aid money to fund their “humanitarian” projects.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/apr/30/ministry-defence-overseas-aid-patrols
The mixing up of military occupation and humanitarian aid makes Afghanistan a very dangerous place to work for humanitarian aid workers.
There was a report out recently about the toxic legacy of depleted uranium munitions in Iraq. These were munitions that were fired by UK and US in Iraq and there is increasing evidence that they are causing birth defects and illness in children. http://www.ikvpaxchristi.nl/media/files/in-a-state-of-uncertainty.pdf When I was reading Douglas Alexander’s Judith Hart “neighbourly – good samaritan” speech on Labourhame I couldnt help but think of the people of Iraq, do they think we have been a good neighbour?
Another aspect of UK foreign aid is the fact that DFID only give money to other organisations to do the work, unlike some other european countries DFID have no direct implementation humanitarian aid unit. In some circumstances direct implementation is a far more efficient way to deliver aid. I think that a humanitarian aid unit should be in the plan for an independent Scotland.
The BBC is one green bottle that needs complete recycling when they use our TV tax and hide it offshore! c13mins.55s in.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-04/taxodus-playing-global-tax-avoidance-game
Saw a Bitter Together leaflet the other day. It said “FACT Independence is forever”. Personally I don’t see how they can claim this to be a fact. Surely nobody expects our current model of humans living in separate nation states to carry on for the remainder of human existence?
OT: Another great video from the folks behind the infamous ‘Top 10 Unionist Myths Debunked’ and ‘Precious Few Heroes’,
@David
It is a very weak argument by the British nationalists. Let me give you an example of clear thinking on how one generation cannot impose its will on generations that come after it. This is from Immanuel Kant, a German of Scots descent:
“One age cannot bind itself, and thus conspire, to place a succeeding one in a condition whereby it would be impossible for the later age to expand its knowledge (particularly where it is so very important), to rid itself of errors, and generally to increase its enlightenment. That would be a crime against human nature, whose essential destiny lies precisely in such progress; subsequent generations are thus completely justified in dismissing such agreements as unauthorised and criminal. The criterion of everything that can be agreed upon as a law by a people lies in this question: Can a people impose such a law on itself?”
I would suggest that this generation is trying to ” rid itself of errors” of a previous generation
@David
If independence is forever, than the treaty of union can’t have happened. Brilliant!
We shouldn’t give any other foreign government, institution, charity or person a single penny from public money. Most of it is spent on dignatories, executives, marketing & cocktail parties anyway. And what does get spent is usually countered by civil war, tribalism, murder, theft, cronyism & embezzlement.
If your heart bleeds though, feel free to send your own money to poor folks in Botswana or Senegal if the act of giving makes you feel good.
I strongly object to liberal types spending my tax receipts on pointless humanitarian programs when they wont send their own money cos apparently they need the money for a new telly.