UK will no longer be a money pit for overseas aid - Yorkshire Post Letters

From: Peter Hyde, Driffield.

THERE is little doubt that (The Yorkshire Post, June 22) the amalgamation of the Foreign Office and the Department for International Development will have an effect on the reputation of the UK.

For far too long, we have been seen as a money pit to go to for cash for foreign projects like the Indian space programme and to help stop Chinese people smoking.

The foreign aid system was designed when we had an empire and were responsible for supporting the less sophisticated colonies come up to speed, as it were. We no longer have that duty, and we need the money ourselves for the support of services here in the UK.

Of course the Whitehall warriors will huff and puff, and protest, at the very idea as it takes the authority to ‘splash the cash’ away from them.

I think there are many departments in Whitehall that are far too free with our money and would benefit from a well deserved review and clear out.

From: Andrew Mercer, Guiseley.

THE issue is not the merger of the Foreign Office and International Development department, it was Boris Johnson’s failure to consult.

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James Mitchinson

Editor