Cover picture from Tearfund’s campaign against the cuts in aid.
Imagine the boss at work telling you there’ll be a 10% cut in pay. Hard times, have to accept the reality of life, don’t like doing this but ‘it is what it is’. Then the boss gets sacked; he’s been blamed for the poor state of the company. The new boss assembles you all and assures you that he aims as soon as possible to restore your wages. Things are tough out there but if we all work hard and pull together, it’ll be alright. People are full of hope. This guy seems to know what he’s doing.
Back home, it’s been a difficult Christmas. You made presents for the kids rather than buying them. Chicken rather than turkey. Cordial rather than wine. That was bearable. But what really gutted you was not being able to pay Johnnie’s football subs. He’s missing out this term.
One day, a gas explosion destroys the bridge used to carry goods over the river between the factory buildings. You’re all summoned to a meeting. In order to pay for the repairs, you’ve got to take another 10% cut. It hits you as if in the pit of the stomach.
You walk off site at the end of your day and look at the Audis, Mercs and BMW’s sitting in the directors’ car parking spaces. They aren’t suffering. And that posh new extension to the office block, begun after the first 10% cut to our pay, will cost a million…
-o-O-o-
Some parts of this allegorical tale reflect what’s happened today, others do so less accurately. I was almost in tears as I heard the news that our Labour government has reduced our international aid budget. They’ve lopped 0.2% off it to finance our increasing defence costs rather than increasing it by this amount as pledged in their 2024 Manifesto!
Anneliese Dodds, the Minister for International Development, only found out after the decision had been made. Today she has resigned. Tearfund sent me a letter to adapt for my MP. Will you please join me, by clicking Email your MP – Tearfund ? Thank you so much!
Here’s what I wrote:
Dear Joshua Fenton-Glynn,
I very much appreciated your positive response to my letter about the CAN Bill debate on 24th January, which was postponed. However, with a heavy heart, I find myself needing to write again. I am deeply concerned by the Prime Minister’s recent decision to cut the UK’s international development budget down to 0.3% of Gross National Income (GNI) – a cut of around £5.5 billion. This is a letter that I would have expected to write following a decision by a Reform UK Prime Minister, not a Labour one. I feel betrayed, as – obviously – does Anneliese Dodds, who wasn’t consulted.
The aid budget is invaluable in combatting food insecurity, insufficient healthcare and climate change. This appalling decision will directly affect people living in poverty around the world. Families will go hungry. Children won’t be able to go to school. Conflict will continue to ruin lives. Rachel Reeves tells us that ‘the World has Changed’. It’s certainly going to change for millions of people around the world who will no longer be receiving UK Goverrnment aid. In your 2024 manifesto, you pledged to restore our aid budget to 0.7% of GNI, not to cannibalise it to 0.3%. So much for ‘regaining Britain’s Global Leadership’!
At a time of unprecedented humanitarian suffering, drastically cutting overseas aid is indefensible and short-sighted. It undermines hard won gains and signals a retreat from tackling extreme poverty, climate change, and global insecurity. The increase in defence spending should be sourced by other means. For example, the amount could be raised in full with a 0.5% levy on individuals who own assets worth more than £10 million (only 0.04% of the UK population). In these days when personal wealth is ballooning, no-one could complain it’s unfair.
As my MP I therefore request that you call on the Government to reverse cuts to the development budget, in order to uphold the UK’s development leadership and to reflect the compassion of the British people.
Yours sincerely,
John Hearson
johnhearsonwrites.com 