Foreign aid budget could be used for social care - EXPRESS COMMENT
THE first duty of any government is to look after its own people.
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So what are we to make of the news that half the cash we are currently wasting on foreign aid could save 120,000 lives, especially among the elderly, a year?
Indeed, is there any worse indictment on government policy than that we are throwing away money on facile projects and countries that do not need it when we could be taking care of our own?
Foreign aid, let it not be forgotten, has been spent on projects such as stopping Chinese workers from smoking, getting people in India to cut back on fizzy drinks and chanelling millions into an Ethiopian version of the Spice Girls.
The problem of social care is going to get worse, not better, as time goes on. Already there is a crisis in care for older people, with not enough care homes and in some cases, institutions that are not fit for purpose.
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We need better qualified staff, too. And the population is ageing: more elderly people are going to need help in the future, either in the form of care workers visiting them or moving full time into a home.
At the moment no one knows how this is to be funded. The solution is staring us in the face.
The Conservative party threw away a commanding lead in the polls before the last election when they suggested family homes would have to be sold in order to provide for care in old age.
This is their chance to repair the damage. The amount we spend on foreign aid is hugely unpopular with the voters, as witnessed by the coupons sent into this office and the online petition: slash the budget and use it to provide better care for the elderly.
It is the moral duty of the Government and it makes good electoral sense, too.
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Tory rebels are a liability
In threatening to rebel over Brexit the 15 Conservative MPs are indulging in appalling behaviour that is a direct betrayal of the desires of the electorate and risks bringing down the Government to boot.
For a start, a majority of people in this country voted to leave the EU and that is what we must and will do. Secondly, some of these MPs represent Leave constituencies and all bar one voted to invoke Article 50.
To try to subvert the process now smacks of hypocrisy and game playing and it will not be forgotten by the voters. They must enshrine the date of Brexit in law now.
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THE POSTIES
Signed, sealed, delivered
What a nice gesture from Kelly Williams, the postmistress auctioning a date with herself to raise money for charity.
We’ll give her our stamp of approval.
