Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

i can see from the blanks that the blatherer is blathering

for all that, fred, i don't think that you can honestly deny that an awful lot of so-called aid is spent in the wrong way, in the wrong places and totally without oversight

i know that as in so many political trades, it is exceedingly difficult if not impossible to monitor or prevent misappropriation, and of course that even applies when food/medical convoys are sent to stricken places ..... nevertheless, there certainly seems to be a considerable amount of unaccountability both on the uk side (as donor) and assuredly of the recipient

Manuel.

I sure that a lot of AID money ends up in the wrong people's pockets.

Similarly, in this country, a lot of government contracts, deals, expenses and other payments end up being paid to those not rightly "entitled" to that money.

It would be sensible to "investigate" those who are deliberately "robbing" the country as a whole and expose, prosecute and punish.

The problem is the lack of will to do so by all previous and present governments.

(But, when you see a minister being reappointed after being fired claiming for a boy- friend to escort him abroad on holiday I doubt that this government would have the courage to do so.)

lack of will to prosecute might be better aimed at HMRC who set an appalling example

HMRC will relentlessly pursue the (relatively) minor offenders who will not have the funds to defend themselves, whereas the big fish - no need to mention names! - are rarely pursued or some comparatively innocuous out-of-court settlement will be reached

herr juncker emerges with an interesting odour too!

Another point is, that while I do not agree with ignoring "false" claims or Masonic type handshake deals the difficulties, the costs of investigating may sometimes be as much as the corrupt or crooked dealings themselves.

that is indeed true
however, the perception of non-pursuit is that the obese cats on their various yachts can get away with whatever they like ....... of F1 owners similar may be said

Only a politician could think that giving away a fixed % of GDP every year is a good idea. It leads to hand outs at financial year end to complete the tally. No private company would set a budget in that way. I sometimes wonder whether our clowns are any better than those in the EU when it comes to dealing with other peoples money. Disgrace. Give where truly needed and forget targets. Same with defence. Spend what is needed. The % of GDP should be guidelines only.

No private company would set a budget in that way ....... not so!
i can think of several large (overseas) corporations who run a "use it or lose it" policy

The difference is in the "lose it" bit C.

The NHS is a big believer in spending whatever is in the pot, and not what
should happen, ie if any money is left over at year end then it should be put
back into the pot.

I worked for the NHS several years ago in distribution, the unit i worked at
had some money left over from their allocation and if they didn't use the money
they would lose it, so instead of the left over money going back into the general
NHS funds, it encouraged each unit to waste that money, in the units case where
i was they spent it on a dinky van toy with NHS on the side and a glass tankered
also etched with the NHS logo, of course there was several dozen of each.

I refused mine and expressed my disgust at the wastage..

to elucidate .... lose it means that any underspend gets cut from the following year's budget as well

Where exactly does Britain's £12.2bn foreign aid go?

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.theweek.co.uk/amp/63394/where-exactly-does-britains-122bn-foreign-aid-go

a good number of those countries being given aid are also among the world's most corrupt

there are also some stupendously misdirected, smaller aid sums that are regularly brought to light by investigative journalists

''the majority of Britons support overseas development spending''

Where is the proof, has anyone on this thread been asked whether they are for or against the above?
2517

2517GEORGE, there isn't any proof that Britons support overseas foreign
aid spending, and just like 99.99% of people i spoke to before the referendum
who were going to vote LEAVE, most people i speak to about overseas aid agree
that it should be stopped or severely curtailed...

Do you mean the UK or Maybe's government propping up Syria and Saudi government by selling them arms?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/27/weapons-flowing-eastern-europe-middle-east-revealed-arms-trade-syria

https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=Sales+of+weapons+to+saudi


Can you blame them for using them or even turning them on their gifters?

fred - for how long has uk supported both saudi and syria with armaments?
stop being a naughty boy :-)

Cynic they don't lose it if they don't spend it but it makes justifying asking for more the following year even harder.

Council's are worse at this than the NHS imo.

An interesting article in The Independent, initially being about Trump under investigation for his actual charitable giving compared to what he said he had given. It then diversfies:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/donald-trump-foundation-charity-investigation-president-elect-money-philanthropy-millions-true-false-a7502556.html

I only read about half the article and "gave up".

It reminded me of the "Mafia Enquiries" and Al Capone.

From Wiki.

"Capone apparently reveled in attention, such as the cheers from spectators when he appeared at ball games. He made donations to various charities and was viewed by many to be a "modern-day Robin Hood". However, the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre of gang rivals, resulting in the killing of seven men in broad daylight, damaged Chicago's image—as well as Capone's—leading influential citizens to demand governmental action and newspapers to dub him "Public Enemy No. 1""


-=-=-=-==

Are the mobsters and mob are back in control?

Happy days yet to come.