Dr. Fox and the Overseas Aid budget

In a leaked letter to the Prime Minister, Dr Fox said he could not accept plans to increase the development budget to 0.7 per cent of gross domestic product.

His comment has drawn condemnation from a Downing Street spokesman who reiterated that increasing the UK's Aid budget was Coalition Government policy and would be passed into Law.

Can these people understand that the ordinary man and woman in the street agrees with Dr. Fox and does not want hard earned taxpayers money given to the harbourers of terrorists in Pakistan or the new economic powerhouse of India. We want the money retained in the UK because Charity should begin at home. We want to keep the money to help hard pressesd Government departments balance their books and keep more people employed here, look after our old and infirm better and maintain the armed forces at current levels of effectness or better. Why scrap an aircraft carrier and squadrons of Harrier jets so that we can give money away-money that most likely will finish up in a dictator's private Swiss bank account. Are the recipients grateful. I doubt it. They just assume it's a legacy from Britain's colonial past and they deserve it. Nobody is really clear if the UK benefits at all from this largesse. If Cameron wants to give the money away, let it come from his and Harriet Harman's own pockets.

There is a lot at stake in how the Government performs. Sometimes I believe that Cameron has got it completely wrong and needs a good shaking. Overseas aid is one, his continuing reluctance to have a referendum on europe is another and don't get me started on the delay in ordering an inquest into the death of Dr David Kelly.