We can afford it

The government is giving away £8.1 BILLION with plans to increase the amount to £11.4 BILLION in 2014. Meanwhile, the country is broke, it's heavily in debt thanks to Gordon Brown's reckless spending, vital public services are being closed down by political opportunists as an alternative to cutting waste and Dave the Leader has got us into an unscheduled and unaffordable war in Libya.

The UN is making us do it

Dave the Leader always quotes a UN target of giving away 0.7% of Gross National Product. But that figure is 40 years out of date, the UN itself says 0.44 is a more reasonable number, the only country in Europe with any money, Germany, gives away a mere 0.38% of GNP, and development economists, who have adjusted the original calculation for today's conditions say an aid goal of just 0.01% of rich countries’ GNP is needed.

Aid turns poor countries into rich ones

In fact, aid travels from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries. Africa has received over £500 BILLION over the last 30 years but most of the recipients have a negative annual growth rate thanks to greedy dictators and their corrupt officials.

If it hasn't worked up to now, it will in the future

The buzz words are "smart aid" but there is no evidence that the people handing out OUR money are smart enough to spot a villain, even when he's right under their nose.

We will get 100 pence of value for every £1 spent

A more realistic assessment, in the case of British aid, is 40p well spent and 60p stolen. In places like Afghanistan, however, it's likely to be down to 4p. And what the government won't explain is how funding a space programme in India benefits the British taxpayer.

Britain will not tolerate mis-spending of aid money

Well, the president of Uganda has already bought his £30 MILLLION private jet and half a dozen Russian jets at double the going price (including bungs), and the President of Afghanistan has acquired a £90 MILLION property empire, so starting when, Dave?

Aid makes the world a better place

Take a look at Africa, especially places like Ethiopia, Yeman and Rwanda, to see how silly that notion is.

The statistics prove that aid works

The government thinks that welfare dependency in Britain is a bad thing but David Cameron is happy to encourage it abroad. While British taxpayers keep corrupt regimes in power, there is no incentive for self-improvement in their countries.

Giving aid money reduces migration from poor countries

In fact, the reverse is true. Increasing people's expectations makes them want more, and Britain, with its non-existent border controls and human rights for even the worst criminals, is a particularly soft touch.

Developing nations need to be saved by the West

Politicians use giving away other people's money as a means of generating favourable publicity for themselves, and they need to picture African and Asian countries as basket cases to keep the process going. Meanwhile, the inhabitants of African and Asian nations are left gnashing their teeth at being portrayed as terminally useless and good for nothing but living on British aid.