Unicef director - Overseas aid cut puts children’s lives at risk: Yorkshire Post Letters

IN response to your Editorial ‘Overseas aid: why less could be more in Spending Review’ (The Yorkshire Post, November 27), I couldn’t agree more that the decision to cut aid is perhaps one of the most controversial this Chancellor has made to date.

It is important to note though, that at the heart of this controversy are millions of lives, many of them children who depend on UK aid for their survival as they face the biggest global crisis since the Second World War. As the nation fixates on a percentage, we must remember that this cut comes with a huge human cost.

While the Government should indeed be proud of our commitment to the Covid vaccine, the buck doesn’t stop there. Funding Covax then cutting aid is like driving a car without wheels; how can we expect these vaccines to be rolled out without the UK aid-funded health workers who administer them?

It has been estimated that these cuts could leave 5.6 million children a year missing vital vaccines; almost 100,000 fewer children without education; and 105,000 people could die as a result.

While there is no doubt that the Chancellor is under immense pressure to review the Government’s spending, with children’s lives at stake, it should never have to be a trade-off. Every child matters regardless of where they’re born.

From: Lester May, Camden Town, London.

THE Archbishop of Canterbury was quick to tweet that the temporary cut in the overseas aid budget to 0.5 per cent of GDP is “shameful and wrong”. That’s a cut from about £15bn to £10bn, less as GDP reduces.

His church has assets of over £8bn but only 0.75m people attend Church of England Sunday services. When Justin Welby takes a sabbatical next year, he should take time to reflect how some of that money can be used to help the world’s poor, not just his dwindling organisation.

HM Government has already spent huge sums funding vaccine research and the results will benefit many worldwide – that’s foreign aid to my mind, too. Charity, though, begins at home. The UK should help itself while helping those overseas.

One way is to gift British-made products to British charities to give to worthwhile projects overseas. Such products would boost companies in our islands, provide employment and help the poor overseas, resulting in higher tax take for the Treasury and fewer benefit payments – a multiple win-win.

From: Coun Ann Forsaith, Green Party, Leeds City Council.

IN response to Coun Andrew Carter’s letter ‘Welcome move’ (The Yorkshire Post, November 25), I would like to point out that spending more on defence than on tackling the climate emergency is not only unwelcome, but irresponsible and deeply concerning.

I would ask Coun Carter to reflect on what the current threats are to the people of Leeds, our nation and the world. When Coun Carter’s career in politics started, we were in the Cold War era and there was a major threat of nuclear catastrophe. Although that threat has not receded, it has been joined by terrorism, cybercrime, pandemics and climate change.

This year has shown how ill-prepared this country under a Conservative government was for the pandemic, a known threat which should have been planned for. And now this Government is choosing not to make an adequate response to the existential threat of climate change.

It is green jobs we need not jobs producing weapons that are designed to kill people in other countries. It is real security we need – not just against external threat, but the security that each citizen will have a roof over their head, food on their table, access to support through childcare centres, youth clubs, healthcare and social wellbeing facilities.

Through this pandemic we have come to reconsider what is truly important, really valuing the NHS, key workers, our supportive communities and green spaces, while not continuing the policies that have failed to provide a secure world for us all in the past.

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