England in Recession, £295million to India in ROCKET Aid?

Public services cuts, NHS Cuts, Jobs losses, home losses, poverty in England why?

Why does the British government give English tax payers cash in aid to India?

Is this a joke? It is March the 1^st …..Or is it April 1^st?

This British government is expected to freeze the level of assistance given to India at £295million pounds of English tax payers cash per year, while England suffers with massive cut backs.

Question; But why does a country that spends billions of pounds each year on nuclear power and its own space programme need English tax payers cash in aid, these are the question Sir Michael Black-Feather the English minister wants David Cameron to give him the answers to?  British Prime Minister Mr Cameron didn’t have the answers? As like many things this government doesn’t have answer to said Sir Michael.

After Sir Michael’s question to Cameron in a widely-signalled move, it is anticipated that International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell will announce the amount of aid given to India will be maintained at 2009/10 levels and not stopped nor even reduced, putting funds back into England where it is badly needed said Sir Michael, the mind just boggles what is this government doing.

The decision has also attracted criticism from other British newspapers and politicians who say the English taxpayer does not need to donate to a state that is itself a foreign aid donor, which is classified by the World Bank as a middle income country (MIC) and whose economy is growing at nearly 10% a year.

However, advocates of aid say a third of the planet's population who are below the World Bank's extreme poverty line live in India. They also argue half of all children in the country are malnourished and it does not have the tax base to eliminate poverty though internal wealth redistribution.

Yet this same country can “afford a nuclear power and space programme which cost billions of pounds “But can’t afford to feed its own children so the English tax payers feed them? There has to be something very wrong there Sir Michael said.

Andy Sumner of the Institute of Development Studies says: "If UK (English tax payers) aid was reduced, there is no guarantee that the funding to the poorest states where most of India's chronically poor live would be topped up by the Indian government."

Although the Department for International Development's budget has been unaffected by the government's spending cuts programme, it is expected to stop direct aid to 16 countries, including Russia, China, Vietnam, Serbia and Iraq.

The decision to exclude India from this list has also provoked attacks from those sceptical about whether this increasingly important economic power is really a worthy recipient of development cash.

Indeed, there is little doubt the nation is experiencing a boom. Its economy is expected to grow by 9% in 2012, social spending funds are also set to increase by 17% and in 2009 it was upgraded by the World Bank from "poor" to an MIC.

The Indian military has conducted billion pound nuclear tests, the country operates its own space programme and, according to Forbes magazine, it has more billionaires than the in England.

Moreover, India is itself a foreign aid donor, providing more than £300m to poorer countries in 2008 which has obviously been fund by the English tax payer over the years just how much better off would England have been.

Conservative MP Philip Davies supporting Sir Michael’s statements argues the decision to continue funding the country is indefensible at a time when the English taxpayers are experiencing a spending squeeze of their own.

"India spends £36bn a year on defence and £750m a year on its space programme," he says. "What's more, India is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. It's completely unjustifiable, especially at this time."

However, the half-witted supporters of the continued aid insist this argument ignores India's massive inequalities But that’s not England problems)

The debate is sure to continue. But given that the Indian government has debated whether it wants to continue receiving British/English aid, the final word on the matter may not come from the British Government with India now realising the cats out of the bag on what it spends making bombs and testing them, and a space program and the massive amounts of cash its spend on its armies, when its own people are starving? It’s just really taking the micky out of the English good-will to help others.