As the government mugs pensioners and sets out to take money away from the disabled, it finds plenty of foreign governments to give it to.
There is the large sum for Mauritius to go alongside the shameful gifting of the Chagos islands.
There is the promise of an expensive intervention in Ukraine and new money and weapons for them
There are the large sums paid to France to stop the gangs, only to see the French escort more across the Channel
There are the huge sums on hotels for illegals after promises to close down all those contracts.
There is money for Sudan.
Many voters have had enough of foreign governments first.
April 20, 2025
Don’t forget that much of this largesse with taxpayers’ money was going on under the last Conservative government and, of course, the Labour government before that, all of them as bad as the current bunch of incompetents, it’s now getting worse by the day. Politicians of all parties are more than happy to squander our money on any cause as long as it’s not Britain or the British people. The most insulting aspect of all is that they tell us that there is no money for, say, pensioners’ winter fuel allowance then commit yet another massive amount to Ukraine or net stupid or, as Lammy did only last week, to the Sudan. The money so obviously is there and it should be spent at home. How dare any politician waste OUR money then tell us that there is none left to help our most vulnerable? We didn’t vote for such misdirected profligacy.
April 20, 2025
It’s not just our money. It’s our sovereignty and our nationality.
April 20, 2025
‘ Why does the government give so much money away to foreign governments?’
A former government minister should be better placed to answer this question than the rest of us.
Most replies will suggest such money is better spent at home.
Maybe there are still friendship ties to former colonies?
Maybe some of the money is spent on our own domestic output, so it is a form of pump priming?
Maybe large scale natural disasters still provoke a desire to help?
Maybe some members of the elite like playing Lady Bountiful – especially if it is with other people’s money?
April 20, 2025
Politicians live strutting around the world dishing out our money, they think it makes them important. In the 70s I worked in Africa and there was a clean water project. 50 years on and we’re still giving money to it.
We have to get rid of these chancers just like we did the conservatives
Reform is our only hope
Next we’ll be giving away our fish and agreeing to support the Euro fiasco.
April 20, 2025
+1
April 20, 2025
Then there is all the money given to woke quangos, charities and institutions that hate our western democracy and way of life. And the money given to lawyers who act to enable mass migration and to close our industries for a dubious climate theory. Or the money for the NHS which is spent by managers on themselves and their DEI cults.
April 20, 2025
Overseas Aid should be confined to impoverished countries fo assist in recovery from natural disasters. It should not be in the form of money, but in goods and rescue services. All too often it is used to buy influence, ie it is payola, or very dubious virtue signaling.
The sums given to illegal immigrants and France only goes to support criminality. It should be spent on deterence, a POW camp to follow reception at Manston. Such a message would soon get back to the waiting camps in France, were detention and return to country of origen the result of illegal arrival.
In aiding Ukraine we are in effect fighting a proxy war, so you are wrong to lump it with the payola of Overseas Aid.
By the default of not electorally supporting the last useless UK government we have given ourselves a government whose speciality is unqualified uselessness. Message them in May.
April 20, 2025
Re the criminal migrants: The Government could very easily create some deterrents, instead everything they do incentivises the invaders. I suggest that they haven’t done it because they have a secret deal with the EU/France that “we’ll take our fair share.”
April 20, 2025
Donna, That is certainly how it appears
April 20, 2025
400 British people have been jailed for criticising Islamic migrants on social media, Starmer proudly announced.
April 21, 2025
Where did you see that?
April 20, 2025
POW camps with a diet of porridge and bacon sandwiches.
April 20, 2025
‘ diet of porridge and bacon sandwiches.’
My breakfast plus an occasional treat (with brown sauce).
April 20, 2025
“By the default of not electorally supporting the last useless UK government we have given ourselves a government whose speciality is unqualified uselessness”
It’s Catch 22 AG.
Without a good kicking, the “Tories” (eg mostly psudo Lib Dems) would have continued their merry way with the same nonsense net zero/immigration polices and constant internal bickering that resulted in their ejection. We had a group of Political Pygmies running the country. However in failing to vote for these chancers, we allowed a minority of Marxist nutcases to take over, who actually beleive their own guff, rather than just paying political lip service to it..
Last time around, you were crazy not to vote Conservative. However, you damn well knew that if you did vote for them, you certainly wouldn’t get what you wanted but that if you didn’t vote for them, you’d get something far worse. And so it was and here we are….
April 20, 2025
All you can do is sack the incumbent. The replacement will be useless but they hate being sacked.
April 20, 2025
Today is Easter Sunday, a major Christian occasion. In the immortal words of the late, great Irish comedian Dave Allen, may your god go with you.
April 20, 2025
I see you’ve worked out what day it is 🙂
Dave Allen should be compulsory viewing in all of our religious establishments. Perhaps those who struggle with the concept of free speech and “may YOUR god go with you” might start to understand the concept that neither they, nor their faith, nor their prophet/s deserve “a special dispensation” from criticism or parody.
April 20, 2025
Don’t forget it’s Passover too.
April 20, 2025
For whatever reason, the war criminal Putin has apparently declared a unilateral, unconditional, 30 hour easter truce in his war on Ukrainian civilians. The estimable President Zelenskyy has apparently reciprocated and confirmed that he would be ready to extend it beyond 20 April.
Last night there were reports on the blogs that Russian artillery could still be heard and that Russian drones were active over the front lines. But this morning, the mainstream media are not reporting that active hostilities are ongoing – yet. Neither has the reliable ISW website (which suffered a hacking attack yesterday)
Putin, ex KGB, has led us down this path before. However, yesterday there was a large scale prisoner exchange involving several hundred captives on both sides. Perhaps there is a glimmer of hope.
April 20, 2025
@SG. Putin is not purposefully waging war on Ukranian civilians. If that was his central purpose, Kiev would look like Gaza now, or Dresden in WW2. He has the weaponry, but does not use it that way.
It’s fine to criticise, but the criticism rings more true when one has a sense of proportion and wide perspective. As for “war criminal”: we’ve had a fair share of those in the West, too.
April 21, 2025
Whilst I don’t think it’s particularly useful to “compare Monsters,” in my opinion Putin has more justification for his (controlled) war in Ukraine than Blair did in Iraq.
April 20, 2025
When is Zelenskyyy going to put himself forward for re-election as President? Why has he banned opposition parties if he believes in democracy? That man is a dictator who has been leading the Ukrainians to their doom. The four Oblasts in the South East are now part of Russia as is Crimea. As an Englishman I have no legitimate interest in this one way or another and I strongly resent my money being used to prop up the Zelenskyyyyy regime.
April 20, 2025
Don’t forget all the £billions they donate to unelected, unaccountable Globalist Organisations, which are doing everything they possibly can to control (and dismantle) our nation … the UN, IMF, WTO, WHO etc.
Every time a British PM leaves this country (the Tories were just as bad) they go clutching the National Cheque Book and spray our (borrowed) money around in a modern-day version of Lady Bountiful.
We desperately need a Government which will put the interests of this Nation and its people first. We won’t find one of them in the Uni-Party.
April 20, 2025
@ Donna
I agree! It’s interesting whenever I read an article that lists donations to international organisations, Britain is invariably near the top of the list!
April 20, 2025
Correct, but even were Reform to win a decent majority would they actually deliver or even be able to deliver against the blob, civil servants, the BBC and all the other set against them forces?
April 20, 2025
Remains to be seen. But at least they’ll try.
April 20, 2025
They will not try.
April 20, 2025
LL :
Also the lawyers and judges. It will require the administration to organise referendums to give them the mandate to make the necessary changes even with a majority in Parliament. Expect BTW to see a merger or coalition between COn/Lab/Lib/Green parties as they all agree with the Net Zero and high immigration policies.
April 20, 2025
Why does the government give so much money away to foreign governments?
Because it’s not there money
April 20, 2025
Hahaha, in the Bible, specifically Matthew 7:13-14, it says the path to Heaven is narrow and requires an approach often involving challenges and sacrifices. Ministers obviously think the challenges are for them and the sacrifices are for those they control.
April 20, 2025
I should be disappointed in the extreme to arrive in Heaven and find it populated by Ministers.
April 20, 2025
I don’t think you need have any fear in that respect.
April 20, 2025
Indeed. Plus they have vested interests or even corrupt interests to service.
Our constitution may be unwritten, but at least it’s working
Meanwhile across the Atlantic, the decisions of the judicial branch of government are flouted with total impunity
Janet Daley today is wrong as she often is. We have been appallingly run for all my life. Blair/Brown constitutional reforms, his legal reforms plus devolution were all a complete disaster.
April 20, 2025
+99
April 20, 2025
Janet is seldom on the money.
April 20, 2025
LL :
The Blair/Brown Human Rights legislation was designed to crush democracy by giving more rights to minorities than the majority.
April 20, 2025
Mick
+1
April 20, 2025
This government pretends to be friendly to the citizens it is supposed to represent, but acts like an ememy, causing hardship and harm to those whom it is meant to protect.
It behaves rather like a bogus unwanted ‘Carer’ with a grudge to settle, who has seized control of our mobility, income and eating:
Spends our money on its own crazy habits, pleasures and shady accomplices, then wastes the rest out of spite; entangles our medical requirements with muddle and dangerous chemicals; mixes sewage in our drinking water; seals the windows to cut off our access to fresh air; and forges our signature to claim that all we ever had in life is payable to them in grateful appreciation.
Old Labour. Old Danger!
April 20, 2025
Reminds me of George Best who was asked why he had wasted his fortune. ‘Not so he said, I spent 90 percent on wine women and song – the rest was wasted’. Seems like a token of our government who see foreign waste as virtuous and the little they spend here as wasted.
April 20, 2025
“Many voters have had enough of foreign governments first.”
Never a truer sentence written. I’m one of the many. All the time there are potholes on the roads, waiting times to see a doctor, and any taxes to pay, we clearly need our money here.
Those who want to give their money to foreign governments are usually at liberty to do so. It’s legal for @Sakara Gold to send his money to western Ukraine. Probably not legal to send money to the Russian speaking parts, though.
April 20, 2025
Why? who knows! Perhaps it’s all a plot to punish the White/British. Or perhaps Starmer is a half-wit who should be nowhere near government.
April 20, 2025
I’ll tell you why, Sir John.
This government dont give a toss about the taxpayer, who is expected to fund this largesse, as long as it makes them look good. Starmer and his ilk, are going round the World, promising the earth, because it makes them look good, and caring. I cringe every time I read about it.
I am 85 years old. Along with many others I lost my Winter Fuel Allowance, even though I have to pay full Income Tax. I have never been asked if I want to ‘save the World’. The money is just taken from me. I didnt vote for this Government, and I bitterly resent being mugged to pay for this.
April 20, 2025
C G
Unfortunately The Conservatives were like it as well.
As I have said many times before, When Our Prime Minister goes abroad or when we host foreign guests here, it costs us (the taxpayer dear).
April 20, 2025
And every meeting is to conspire against us.
We need to stop all this nonsence
April 20, 2025
I have always agreed with your point regarding aid to other Countries;why are we giving money when some of those countries are already wealthy and successful; we can’t afford to continue doing this when our own projects are under funded and we are asking for foreign investment, and more importantly we get nothing in return for the money we give.
We give billions of pounds to defend Ukraine against Russia which long term must disadvantage the UK where Russia is concerned, and yet we get nothing back.
We should review our policy on foreign aid as a priority and more in line with Trump’s policy; if you give then you must get something in return.
Why not start with tariffs so where those countries charge the UK tariffs on goods imported from the UK there is either aid or tariffs, but they can’t have both.
In the case of illegal immigration, rather than house them in expensive hotel accommodation, barges and letting them freely come into the UK, agreements should be put in place with those countries who benefit from UK foreign aid to send all illegal immigrants to those countries otherwise their foreign aid will cease.
The UK needs to toughen up and start to put the UK first.
We cannot afford to keep on giving when our own country needs every penny we can get and the burden of paying off the nations ever spiralling debt continues to fall on the UK taxpayer.
April 20, 2025
@Paul Woodbridge. +1. In a world where everyone is out to grab whatever they can get, we must put the British people’s interest first. It is truly a disgrace that successive governments haven’t done this.
April 20, 2025
You would have thought the the first duty of any government is to look after its own people.
The current government seems to think it should look after people from other countries. I do not know of any other country that does this.
How weird.
April 20, 2025
I do not agree with some other comments that helping Ukraine to defend itself against Russian aggression is wasteful. It is part of our own defence. I presume the barmy Chagos project will involve committing £9 billion from our defence budget to rent back what we already own. However foreign aid, other than on specific disaster relief is wasted, as is money splurged around charities and quangos here and abroad.
The elephant in the room is Net Zero, where quite insane and very damaging decisions are made affecting the vitality of the economy and our standard of living by virtue-signalling to the rest of the world when no one is listening. Recently the BBC were bigging up alleged scientists at Plymouth trying to suck CO2 out of seawater on a government grant. Scale up this project with a bit of geoengineering and we will all die, because CO2 is the basis of all life on earth. A slight increase in its currently low levels is leading to a greening of the earth and increased food crops.
There is madness and waste everywhere in Government.
April 20, 2025
@Michael Staples. I agree with your point about CO2. I am concerned that some of the barmy plans to remove CO2, or shade the earth from sunshine, may cause us all real harm.
April 20, 2025
I agree about the Co2 and have long dreaded them doing something like this. Next they will suck it out of the atmosphere and then they really will kill the planet. No more greenery, anywhere. Fanatics.
April 20, 2025
Do you remember when Chairman Mao made the Chinese tear up all the grass because grass was bourgeois?
April 20, 2025
Our line of defence is on the Channel, Michael, not on the River Dniepr. We are not being invaded by Russians coming across in small boats.
We have spent billions on helping Ukraine, among other things to provide it with missiles targeting and killing civilians in Russia. I’m not aware of any civilian homes in Britain being hit by Russian missiles.
Starmer’s obstinate persistence in supporting this war is disgraceful and dangerous to our national interest. Enough is enough.
April 20, 2025
+999
Well said.
Without this interference the war would have fizzled out by now – We really do not need warmongers of this low moral fibre.
April 20, 2025
So right Clough, we are funding the press ganging of Ukrainians on the streets, their horrific screaming is haunting my soul. We are funding that. All wars stop when one side has no bullets. Then there is a settlement and the majority live.
April 20, 2025
Current C02 levels .034% – at .02 everything dies.
April 20, 2025
Yes, and not just abroad, which is all about wealth transfer – what about the money given to various ngo’s, special interest groups and charities.
Imagine how much better off we would be if we hadn’t wasted so much money – and there is no end in sight to the waste.
If, we the public, didn’t know better we’d think it was a deliberate action by HMG to impoverish the country!
April 20, 2025
Simple- it is not a UK Government working with and for the UK and its People. It is a WEF Socialist/Marxist government that has subjugate a Nation and its People to be slaves of Foreign often hostile indoctrination.
This Century has seen the UK turned into a one party Socialist/Marxist State, that its rulers will fight the people and destroy the country for the sake of personal self-esteem and a chance to personally ingratiating themselves with individuals elsewhere that don’t give a ‘monkeys’ about them or the UK.
April 20, 2025
The answer to the question is simple. This lot of lefty London-centric lawyers hate their country.
April 20, 2025
What was the Tories’ excuse?
April 20, 2025
A lot of lefty London-centric lawyers who hate their country.
April 20, 2025
High, wasteful spending is deliberate to justify high taxation. Socialism depends upon making and keeping people poor.
Omitted is the high wasteful spending on Net Zero. The latest money wasting wheeze is to remove CO2 from seawater using charred coconut husks. The BBC report is not dated April 1st but it is becoming very difficult to distinguish between April fools’ jokes and Net Zero schemes:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cr788kljlklo
April 20, 2025
PS:
The BBC breathlessly scream that we have a climate emergency/crisis/breakdown. But the IPCC Science (Working Group1) in their latest AR6 report, Table 12 in Chapter 12, shows there to be no signals for climate change (precipitation, droughts, storms) other than some mild warming. 0.14 degrees C/decade according to UAH satellite data. Homo Sapiens emerged 300,000 years ago and were thought to arrive in the British Isles 44,000 years ago. They suffered real climate change, an Ice Age 23,000-19000 years ago when average global temperature was 6 degrees C lower than today and permanent summer ice covered 8% of the Earth’s surface and 25% of the land area. The planet warmed to emerge from the Ice Age 11,000 years and there was a Holocene maximum temperature several degrees C higher than today 9000-5000 years ago before dropping, after several warm periods (Monoan, Roman, Medieval etc) into the Little Ice Age from which we are now recovering. There is no CO2 explanation for this climate history let alone one caused by anthropogenic emissions of CO2.
April 20, 2025
+1
April 20, 2025
Madness and daylight robbery in smart suits and dresses with no morals and zero integrity, untouchable until May elections….
April 20, 2025
Sadly, this Government is economically and fiscally incompetent, even more so than the previous one.
When, the UK Government has sorted out everything in the UK then, and only then, should it think about giving away our money to foreign Governments.
Happy Easter.
April 20, 2025
Dear Mr. Redwood,
At least I am a little encouraged that ordinary people are beginning to see how out of touch and detached from the British people Labour and Conservatives have become. With 14 years of awful Conservativism and the drearily predictable 5 years of Labour fresh in their minds, I hope a lot of people will finally choose an alternative when it comes to the next general election and I don’t mean the Liberals or the Greens.
Just another 4 years of Starmer’s Labour to go. What a truly depressing thought. Oh well, Happy Easter!
April 20, 2025
The real “truly depressing thought” is that the British people will then quite contentedly choose a new government materially indistinguishable from Starmer’s and then wonder why more of much the same is foisted upon them.
April 20, 2025
You mean Farage? We have no idea who his candidates are – he chooses them and then withdraws the whip more often than any other party.
April 20, 2025
I strongly object to taxpayers money being squandered overseas by foolish pGovernment Ministers. Our Overseas Aid budget should be restricted to helping nations with poverty and natural disasters. Chagos is an appalling waste as indeed is pouring money into Ukraine. This avoidable war is yet another failed US Proxy war. Ukraine has been hung out to dry by America and its UK and EU vassals. Starmer’s agreement to provide financial and military support for 100 years is insane and should be repealed immediately there’s a change of government. Starmer’s obsession with EU realignment is hugely worrying, it’s time he concentrated on the needs of the British people. Happy Easter Sir John.
April 20, 2025
24 criminals arrived in the UK yesterday; from the safe country of France …contravening the Illegal Immigration Act 2023 …not one arrested !!!
April 20, 2025
GC – ( Official figures ) Last 8 days 12-19 Apr incl. Total 1968
Total 34 boats
Presumably 34 individuals steering those boats. If so and if identified ( unlikely I know ) how many of those 34 have been arrested under the UKG’s latest diktat.
April 21, 2025
Under the Act, they’re ALL criminals …..and should be arrested upon landing
April 20, 2025
GC :
Unfortunately our Civil Service believes that we should have open borders and that all cultures are benign and equal. Any anyway don’t we need more doctors and engineers?
April 20, 2025
All this profligacy is a disgrace and wrecks what little reputation we had left.
The most worrying is the continuing commitment to Ukraine. Starmer, Macron, and Merz, plus the Danes, and the jumped up EU civil servant who fancies herself as a new Catherine the Great, have decided to embark on a belated hot war against the number one nuclear power on its borders. It is not clear whether this is TDS which it certainly looks like, or an even more extreme form of madness. The war has been lost: Biden gave just enough help to keep it going but not to win it. The EU did the same. America is under new management now and not in the mood for world war. Ukraine is outnumbered 5:1. Trump’s idea was to get as good a peace for the defeated Ukraine as could be got but this is being sabotaged. The slaughter is horrible, yet our media never mention it. Gossip about a state visit for Macron leap frogging Trump’s is a further worrying sign that these crazy little jingoists are augmenting their folly – at our expense and without our having any say. It is like sitting in the back of a car which is being driven over a cliff by a drunkard..
April 22, 2025
You should read Jake Broe on utube
He is ex US military
If Putin isn’t stopped he won’t stop with Ukraine
Ukraine are actually doing better than most people think and of course Russia are being worn down
April 20, 2025
Sir John, I do think that aid for Sudan is sorely needed, and probably justifiable because of our past colonial influence in this highly strategic country. The only issue is that, sadly, we can no longer afford to fulfill our legitimate role.
To quote from the internet: “The conflict in Sudan has caused widespread destruction and displacement, forcing 14 million people from their homes since April 2023 and further intensifying the already critical hunger crisis. Hundreds of thousands of people in Sudan are facing life-threatening food shortages.(10 Apr 2025)”
All these middle eastern countries are at the geopolitical crossroads of the world, and will feature prominently in future conflicts. Russia and China are probably already involved, as is the USA, bearing in mind the country also has a Red Sea port.
PS I missed commenting on your Good Friday post. The cynics did not understand how accurately they were fulfilling Biblical prophecy concerning the last days apostasy in the Church. Also, the prophesied return of the Jews to their land, and the imminent conflict described in Ezekiel 38 (in which Sudan also features, under the name of Ethiopia and Cush.) It is indeed a tragedy that our great heritage, in which the Bible formerly played such a central part from the time of the Puritans onwards, is now so widely spurned (as seen in many of the recent comments.)
One quote from this morning’s Resurrection Sunday: ‘Our Good Shepherd became the Lamb of God, to take away the sin of the world’ – that is, of all who by faith entrust themselves to him. He said ‘ I will build my Church, and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it!’ I beg you to think again, you naysayers!
April 20, 2025
It used to be called the socialist International. Nowadays it incudes technocracy and is called globalism. The nation state is an obsolete concept. As the foundation of democracy, it is the main obstacle to the global march of progress and it should be destroyed. This is the creed of Starmer’s Gang which shares this objective with its allies in political Islam.
April 20, 2025
The first commitment of any government is to safeguard and care for the people of that country. This and other governments previously have failed to carry out their first and most important goal so where do we find others who are true to this country and the people? I will vote for them if they will come out and be honest with me.
April 20, 2025
Sadly, there isn’t a list of government commitments/priorities/functions apart from those qouted on party manifesto ….maybe there should be
April 22, 2025
statista.com 31/03/2025 ‘Budgeted public sector expenditure in the United Kingdom for 2025/26, by function’.
April 20, 2025
By saying ‘to foreign governments’ you mean to foreign politicians and the reason is to corrupt. When you have foreign politico’s on a short leash then it is much easier to lubricate the wheels when needed. The UK government understands this very well and is facilitating corruption on a large scale and it always has even since the days before empire.