British aid money was used by an African dictator to buy a £30million jet,

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail....ator-buy-30m-jet.html

Instead of the heart wrenching pictures from Africa, that show starving children, and women walking miles every day to get water etc, perhaps they should also show us what appeal money and overseas aid really buys?

http://i.dailymail.co...000578-48_468x286.jpg

Now doesn't that make you feel better?

[I.Don No]

I have never felt very easy about overseas aid. I am sure that some of the government personnel of the poorest countries don't live in hovels alongside their people.

Of course I am pro helping these poor people but the aid should not be in financial terms, rather in goods eg malaria nets.

[anotheoldgit]

Agree entirely.

[sandyRoe]

Or the money could be channeled through NGO's to make sure it reaches the people it was intended for

[I.Don No]

as I previously said...to use money as aid is just playing into the hands of corrupt officials.

[venator]

Quite a lot of funded projects feed money back to the donor countries in various ways, too!

[emmie]

arms to kill their own people with. Palaces bigger than Buck House, all the while the poor get poorer and more die. I only give to UK charities such as MacMillan Cancer and The RNLI. Perhaps seems hard hearted, but i just can't see that after billions pumped into many of these countries, very little seems to have changed.

[jno]

The Mail provides no evidence (surprise surprise) that what they claim in their headline is true.

[JonnyBoy12]

What is the price of a small Learjet? I have heard you can get one for less than £4,000,000! Would they be cheaper second hand?

[anotheoldgit]

jno

I think the following is all the proof that is wanted.

/// Last night Lord Ashcroft, the Tory peer who uncovered the use of public money to buy the jet, ///

/// Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni bought the top-of-the-range Gulfstream G550 private plane in the same year ministers gave his poverty- ravaged country £70million.///

/// In 2005, health charities suspended some grants to Uganda, citing alleged financial mismanagement and last year the EU cut budget support to Uganda amid serious fears the regime was pocketing funds.///

[anotheoldgit]

JonnyBoy12

Second hand, second hand?

These EU and British funded despots don't do second hand.

Only the best is good enough for them, seeing that it is not their money.

[Gromit]

I am sure Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni is a thoroughly nasty man, and he undoubtedly stole the £30million from somewhere, but there is no evidence it was from the aid money.

Uganda is rich in Copper, minerals, crude oil and natural gas. It's GDP is $42 billion, so £30million for a jet pocket money. Just because we have given the country aid money, then the President has bought a jet is not evidence in itself that he bought it with the aid money.

[anotheoldgit]

Couldn't agree more Doc.

[Gromit]

Lord ashcroft knows all about Luxury Private jets

http://www.guardian.c...v/03/uk.conservatives

No one would suggest that the Consrvative Party get £millions in aid from the British tax payer, then its top fund raiser buys a private jet. Both facts are true, but there is no connection. As I think is the case with the aid mney.

[anotheoldgit]

Usual diversionary methods from Gromit

Much better to attack a Tory than an African dictator.

[askyourgran]

What would a Ugandan dictator want with a Gulfstream jet when the rest of his country is starving, and receiving handouts from other countries. This is typical of these ignorant arrogant people. I object to aid being given to any countries, I reiterate it is like filling a bottomless pit, we are fools to go on handing out money when there are people desparately in need of it here. If Uganda is rich in natural resources, why do we still patronise them.Their perfidy and greed will only continue unless we change our method of handing it out. At least.we should oversee and control the use of the aid for the purposes it is intended for.

[Gromit]

AOG

You will find I did attack the Ugandan leader...
// I am sure Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni is a thoroughly nasty man, and he undoubtedly stole the £30million from somewhere //

[Gromit]

And where did I Attack a Tory?

[jno]

"the same year" is not proof there's any connection at all. Nor is the word of the noble and worthy Lord Ashcroft (a notorious tax dodger himself). Perhaps if he were to pay taxes, Britain would have more money?

[JonnyBoy12]

I know that they do not do second hand, but just wondered if I could afford one, but do not think that my JSA will stretch to that. Running the car is a strain enough for me.