SIR – As one who has stood around outside supermarkets with a tin and stickers, collecting for a variety of causes, I know the British public never fails to rise to the occasion. It does not seem fair that the Government should bestow large chunks of taxpayers’ money (Leading article, September 30) on the rulers of far-off countries who do not care for their own people.
If Westminster wants to give taxpayers’ money to help people in desperate circumstances, the best course would be to get a mandate from the taxpayer and send funds to the charity organisations out in the field, who can direct the help to where it is needed most.
Giving should be voluntary. Otherwise it is extortion.
C V Le Poidevin
St Martin, Guernsey
SIR – Thank you for your report (September 30) on abuses of foreign aid through the EU and our Department for International Development (DFID). The problems seem to stem from a loss of accountability at the local level, as well as at the top.
Has no one thought of using Rotary International (RI), one of the biggest non-governmental organisation. Rotary International has more than a million members in over 30,000 clubs worldwide, many in third-world countries, and it even has a permanent member at the UN.
The organisation has a wealth of experience. More importantly, aid does not go astray, when, for example, microchipping allows items to be tracked.
Rod Boggia
Sidmouth, Devon
SIR – The misapplication of funds is not the only problem with aid. Another is that it engenders welfare dependency at the international level.
Just as the Government is trying to wean people off welfare dependency at home, so too should it be trying to help poor countries become self-supporting. DFID should be supporting genuine development by making it easier for those countries to sell their products and services in world markets.
Trade, not aid, will do more for those countries than quasi-welfare benefits.
Frank Tomlin
Billericay, Essex
SIR – I agree with the charity directors and executives who argue that Britain is right to support aid spending (Letters, September 31), but it makes one wonder why there are so many charities all trying to achieve the same goal.
It would make more sense if there were only one body to oversee the aid. Several directors, all taking a substantial wage, plus supporting staff and office accommodation, reduce the amount raised.
D E Manderfield
Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire
SIR – Little credit has been given to the valuable work done by the numerous charities engaged in overseas development.
For example, Practical Action designs simple things like a trailer for bicycles, enabling more goods to be carried to market, and helps people to construct aerial ropeways to transport their produce across hills and valleys.
It has helped villagers to install turbines powered by mountain streams, bringing free electricity to their villages, and has shown others how to build better mud ovens. Such projects cost a fraction of the sums spent by DFID or the EU.
Then there is the invaluable work of the Mission Aviation Fellowship, whose small aircraft take food and medical aid to isolated communities in Africa and South America. Using tiny airstrips hacked from jungles and mountaintops, it flies doctors, teachers and supplies in and out of places that would take weeks to reach by land. Its workers bring help to some of the remotest regions of the world.
Richard Shaw
Dunstable, Bedfordshire
SIR – I hope that the long-overdue scrutiny of the foreign aid industry will not result in the baby being thrown out with the bathwater.
From my extensive experience as a government scientist, once involved in aid missions abroad, I know that much has been gained by overseas recipients of aid in the form of our guidance and education.
At the same time our own expertise is much enhanced by experience gained abroad, for later application to problems back at home.
Bruce Denness
Whitwell, Isle of Wight
Forces rationing
SIR – Eight thousand army servicemen and their families are to be fast-tracked into redundancy and the dole in the days following Christmas.
That is 8,000 highly trained and valuable personnel needlessly thrown on to the scrap heap of unemployment, despite their loyalty, courage and very high value to this country.
It is scandalous that the futures of loyal and courageous young people are being sacrificed by politicians.
Peter Ferguson
Hertford
SIR – The argument put forward to justify the cuts is that the Armed Forces are still the size they were at the time of the Boer War. This ignores the fact that, back then we had a navy that ruled the waves, there was no threat to the homeland and local forces, often led by British officers, existed in many parts of the British Empire.
I hope we do not rue the day these cuts were made.
Major David Riddick (ret)
Cranbrook, Kent
Democratic strikes
SIR – It is time that the Government supported the Conservative MPs who propose tougher anti-strike laws (“Union seeks to hobble strike law”, report, September 30). This would permit industrial action only when more than half of eligible union members turn out and vote in favour.
As a manager of a steel mill, I challenged the decision of a shop steward to “call out” the mill after an off-site meeting of 41 members of his union branch voted 21 for and 20 against a strike. I arranged a mill stoppage and asked the shop steward to address about 400 of his membership. There was no strike. The 400 members better represented the mill’s compliment of 700 members.
The decision saved the earnings of the majority of the workforce and continued to provide a service to customers.
Peter Binder
Alderley Edge, Cheshire
Flood protection
SIR – Regarding the cost of flood defences in vulnerable areas like Morpeth (report, September 30), an insurance company could benefit from building them.
If an insurance company gave up its advertising budget and made it known that it would pay for efficient defences to be built, the publicity would be more valuable than any advertising. If the people of Morpeth were offered a lower premium as a result of the barrier preventing the need for insurance, everyone would be a winner.
Richard Lucy
Aylton, Herefordshire
High culture rail
SIR – Recently I went to Stratford-upon-Avon by train. It took nearly three and a half hours to get there and over four and a half coming back, although it was a distance of less than 130 miles by road.
Perhaps the money designated for HS2 could be used to make one of our leading tourist destinations more accessible.
Heather J Williams
Prestatyn, Denbighshire
Weekend calls
SIR – Last Sunday afternoon a man came to read my electricity and gas meters. When I asked whether he should have come on a Sunday, the Scottish Power employee informed me that this is acceptable under Scottish law, and hence his employers also read meters for other companies.
Presumably my energy charges incorporate the cost of relevant overtime rates. That’s bad enough, but I was not amused to have my Sunday siesta interrupted.
Doona Turner
Horsham, West Sussex
Wind instrument wizard
SIR – Your correspondents suggest further famous Belgians (Letters, September 30). Nobody has mentioned Adolphe Sax, who was born in 1814 in Dinant.
He later moved to Paris, where he invented the saxophone and saxhorn families of instruments.
Norman Blow
Rochester, Kent
