In the second piece of this week’s series on aid, the International Development Minister describes a new scheme that uses technology to transform lives.
There is emphatic support for the provision of emergency aid, water, sanitation and immunisation – but strong opposition to wider nation-building measures.
“Wir schaffen es” – we can do it – is the refrain we hear from Berlin, but this is falling on deaf ears in the towns facing an influx of migrants.
Sometimes it’s easy, sometimes it’s difficult, but sometimes, it’s simply wrong for the people of one country – or many – to sit by and watch those of another suffer.
The Government and the British people are giving generously – and deploying their aid in a responsible way.
The chaos theatre of Corbyn’s leadership may be making all the headlines now, but this autumn the Government will face fights over cuts.
We are working to help the vast majority of refugees who are still in the countries around Syria, where they want to stay.
The Government must be prepared to stand up for its policies and keep its eyes fixed on what voters really think, not be blown off course by hot air from the media.
“What we’re going to do is make sure that people don’t have to make that terrible journey, using people smugglers, to Europe. So we’ll be resettling people directly from the refugee camps.”
The right policy is to take very few refugees from Syria – and to cut immigration from elsewhere – but to help them with a lot of taxpayers’ money at source.
We need to send in Special Forces, as we did in Iraq in 2006-7.
“The people most responsible for the terrible scenes we see are President Assad, the butchers of ISIL and the people running these criminal gangs.”
The latest example of DfID profligacy demonstrates the inadequacy of measuring Government initiatives by input rather than achievement.
As with aid, too many governments seem to have struck a Faustian pact with the third sector: money for good headlines, with no inconvenient scrutiny.
The third piece in our aid series welcomes the Government’s commitment to Syria, and says that Britain should take five kids per Parliamentary seat.