Hitch hiker's view of Rochdale

Just so bloody sad that we live in this poverty on our own doorsteps yet still continue to give billions abroad ?

No, if you travel, you will see that where we give aid, the poverty is unimaginably greater than here. Poverty, in the context of the UK is grossly overused.

johnb wrote:No, if you travel, you will see that where we give aid, the poverty is unimaginably greater than here. Poverty, in the context of the UK is grossly overused.

Sadly, the use of aid money to relieve poverty is often questionable, like:


By Barbara Jones
London Daily Mail

It is a nation racked by poverty, where 13 million people survive on less than £1 a day, and two million have no access to a toilet.

Yet as his people struggle in squalor, South African president Jacob Zuma has sparked outrage by spending £17.5 million to upgrade a rural family home. Lavish works - which include the construction of 31 new houses, an underground bunker accessed by lifts and a helipad - will cost almost as much as the £19 million British taxpayers send to South Africa in annual aid.

There is too much of the 'Danegeld' tradition in foreign aid decisions made by government. Private charities get the money more directly to those who need it.

In contrast to the settled 'large family on benefits', a single man travelling to find work, like Hinch's hitchiker may find it very difficult to access or get by on benefits, or housing if he does find a job somewhere.