Britain and Overseas Development Aid

In the last year, Britain became one of the few countries that met the United Nation’s target of ring fencing 0.7% of gross national income (GNI) for overseas development aid to help poor nations

In cash terms that was £11.8 billion or 7p in every £10 of taxpayers’ money and the sum does not include charitable giving by individuals and private organisations.

They contribute between 15% to 20% and the Government provides the other 80% to 85%.

Private giving is essentially short term humanitarian responses to specific crisis situations and is additional to the 0.7%..

Overseas Aid is a politically divisive issue, but how does Britain spend its overseas aid budget?

The Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Plaid Cymru parties back the 0.7% target.

The Green Party want it increased to at least 1%, whilst UKIP advocated a reduction to 0.2% and they argued that the Government’s austerity programme had left a significant number of Britons with fuel poverty and dependent on food banks, so two thirds of the aid budget should be reallocated domestically.

They also claimed that overseas aid is often wasted, is sometimes corruptly misappropriated, and creates dependency in recipient countries.

Worldwide, approximately 1.4 billion people still live in extreme poverty without sufficient income to meet the basic requirements for life over an extended period.

That includes food, safe drinking water, sanitation, health services, elementary education, and shelter. 

Poverty is caused by war, the concentration of wealth in the hands of corrupt politicians and officials, tribal conflicts, colonial exploitation by rich western countries, climate change, and droughts or flooding that destroy crops.

The Bible gives us two basic principles for Christians supporting overseas aid.

First, we are all created in God’s image; however poorly we reflect that or even deny it. 

If all people are made in God’s image, it is inhumane to be indifferent to a significant number of our fellow humans living in wretched conditions whilst we can afford to indulge in expensive recreational pursuits.

The second biblical value is the importance of relationships. 

Jesus identified a priority to love one’s neighbour and meant this not in a literal geographical sense, but his parable of the Good Samaritan applied it to anyone in need, regardless of national or cultural identity.

These two principles are expressed in the Old Testament teaching about caring for widows, orphans and foreigners in Israel because they had no economic stake in Israelite society and were vulnerable as a result.

Proverbs 25:21 stretches the scope of this further. ‘If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat, if he is thirsty give him water to drink.’

The prophet Isaiah made the same point when questioning what kind of fasting God expects of us. ‘Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter?’ 

He continued later, ‘if you spend yourself on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness’.

Jesus underlined this principle when he said whatever we did for the least of his brothers, we did him and conversely, anyone who didn't, did not do it for him.

St Paul’s collection in Corinth for the victims of famine in Israel illustrates the universal application of this principle.

Three surprises at the Conservative Party Conference 2015

The primary purpose of party conferences, even more important than catching newspaper headlines, is to motivate rank and file members to continue working for the party in their constituencies.

That usually means celebrating any successes and restating party values and propaganda.

For non-members and neutrals, conferences can be less than scintillating, and it is the exceptions that stick in the memory

There were three exceptions at this year's Conservative Party conference.

The first concerned a significant transfer of powers from Whitehall to Town Halls. George Osborne announced in his speech that he will abolish the Uniform Business Tax local authorities collect and pay to the Treasury.

Instead Councils will levy their own business tax and keep the yield instead of receiving an annual grant from central government.

Greg Clark, the Communities and Local Government Secretary, followed up this announcement in his speech and was joined on stage by Councillors from a number of authorities who are planning to have directly elected Mayors and engage positively with these powers.

Their income will all be raised locally from this business tax and the Council tax. If this arouses more interest in local government and triggers a revival of more participatory democracy that would be welcome.

The second surprise came from Justice Secretary Michael Gove who only made a short speech but it was preceded by contributions from outsiders.

The first was an ex-convict who described how he quit crime, studied for a degree in prison and got a job working with a charity to keep youngsters out of crime.

He was followed by James Timpson, Chief Executive of Timpsons, the shoe repairers, 10% of whose employees are ex-convicts.

Timpsons runs a training course in Liverpool prison preparing suitable candidates for jobs in their shops and some are now managers, their example has now been copied by two other shop chains.

Gove concluded crime must be punished, but re-offending rates are too high and these initiatives are good for the individuals involved and for the taxpayer as it costs more than £60,000 a year to keep someone in prison.

David Cameron delivered the third surprise.

Much of his speech was predictable – national security and defence, Europe, the economy and home ownership.

Towards the end of the speech he turned to the social reforms he wanted to achieve before he quits in 2020.

He talked about one young black girl who had to change her name to Elizabeth before she got any calls for job interviews.

‘That, in 21st century Britain, is disgraceful. We can talk all we want about opportunity, but it’s meaningless unless people are really judged equally’.

He went on to reject ‘passive toleration’ and plans to prosecute people who organise forced marriages, arrest parents who take their children for Female Genital Mutilation (FMG), and shut down institutions that teach children intolerance.

Cynics will dismiss these measures as a calculated move to occupy the political centre ground, but Christians might welcome them as expressions of humane values that reflect the belief that we are all equally made in the image of God and policies that help people to reflect that are worthwhile.

As Michael Gove said, ‘every life is precious and we should never define individuals by their worst moments’

Does a leader’s past really matter?

Recently the Daily Mail serialised Lord Ashcroft’s new book ‘Call Me Dave’ which they said would expose salacious details about the life of David Cameron, the Prime Minister. 

The unofficial biography, allegedly contains untrue allegations of drugs and debauchery though the truth of such claims has yet to be established and the book will be released on Monday 5^th October 2015.

Even murkier are the motives of the prime author.

He had been a key financial supporter of the Conservative Party - giving millions. 

In return he had been elevated to the House of Lords, despite disputes over his status as a ‘non dom’ (non-domiciled) tax payer or as a resident of the UK.

The breaking point between the political allies seems to have been the kind of role on offer in the previous Conservative Government.

Certainly, no one doubts now the genuine loving care the Camerons showed for their son Ivan, who tragically died suffering from a host of disabilities.

David Cameron has managed to win two elections and been Prime Minister since 2010.

He has represented the nation on the world stage and led us through economic and political turmoil, ranging from Scottish Independence to the Syrian war and the current refugee crisis.

But does a leader’s past really matter?, let’s take a look at some Old Testament leaders:

·         Abraham had a child by his wife’s maid rather than waiting for God to keep His promise of an heir.

·         Noah got drunk and exposed himself to his children.

·         Jacob tricked his brother and his father, stealing his brother’s blessing and birthright by offering hot stew to a hungry Esau and disguising his appearance with goat skins to fool his father Isaac.

·         Moses was a killer, and not even in self-defence, taking the life of an Egyptian slave master who was beating a Hebrew slave.

·         And finally, David arranged the death of a leading soldier to gain another wife for himself.

Many of the Old Testament leaders were hardly paragons of virtue, their past and history revealed all too human accounts of sex, alcohol, lies, cheating, violence and murder.

Most of that is in just the first two books of the Bible and when it comes to the book of Hebrews, all of these less than perfect men are affirmed as men of faith, genuine leaders and examples for us all.

We are, of course, shaped by our past, our genetics and what happens to us in life.

This is no determinism or excuse for how we now live.

Freedom means that we can choose to be and to become the women and men we ought to be, we can rise above our past and allow our mistakes and indiscretions to make us better human beings.

What matters is not so much what happens to us, but how we respond to it.

All of us including leaders, are not defined by our past and are certainly not the sum total of the choices we made in our youth, what matters is our goals and how we get there.

Lay aside every weight and the sin that clings to us.

Run with endurance the race set before us and look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.

He promises that no matter our past, with Him, the future shall be glorious.