Month: July 2010
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Steve Cockburn asks: value for money – for who?
Writing for Progressonline, Steve Cockburn (LCID executive member), questions whether the recent calls from the Government to get value for money is truthfully aimed at furthering the interests of British foreign policy, rather than alleviating poverty. Some recent Government decisions back up Steve’s argument: One recent warning sign is the decision to spend what could…
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Questions grow over DfID’s ‘ring-fenced’ budget
Rumours over the security of DfID’s budget have been mounting over the last few weeks. Today in the Guardian, Madeleine Bunting raises questions over the pressure coming from the Right for Cameron’s government to change their approach to the international development budget. The Coalition Government came to power promising to ring-fence international development spending, yet…
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Brown calls for new focus on African growth – and a mass roll out of broadband Internet
First published on Labour List Gordon Brown yesterday used his first major speech since leaving office to discuss the issue that has inspired him since childhood – development in Africa. In a speech to African Union leaders at their summit in Kampala, Gordon Brown called for a new approach to growth and aid on the continent.…
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Thank you for voting in our poll
Thank you to everyone who voted in the LCID poll to decide what we will be asking the Labour Leadership candidates in our video hustings. The results are in and you can view them here. What happens next? We’ll be asking the leadership candidates about their views on the topics you have chosen and what…
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Tony Blair writes about Sierra Leone in The Sun
This week, read Tony Blair piece in The Sun reflecting on Gleneagles five years on and his African Governance Initiative charity’s work in Sierra Leone. As Prime Minister, my first major interaction with Sierra Leone was when it was going through a tragic civil war. Britain stepped in and helped the government there to end…
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Aid is a marathon not a sprint
Douglas Alexander writes in The Guardian today that ‘the coalition has failed to commit fully to international aid, yet it is a policy that remains morally right and in our common interest.’ “Instead of creating straw men to burn ceremoniously in an ill-conceived strategy to placate sceptics on the right of his party, Andrew Mitchell…
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Cameron fails to fight for world’s poor as G8 drops $50bn aid pledge
First posted on Left Foot Forward. When Harriet Harman asked David Cameron last week to give due credit to Gordon Brown for his work on development, he replied: “I’d be delighted to, if he could be bothered to turn up to this House.” Apart from being disrespectful to a former prime minister and Chancellor respected…
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What would you ask the Labour leadership candidates?
LCID wants to know what you would ask the Labour leadership candidates about. Over the next few weeks, we will be filming the candidates answering the questions that you have put to them. But we need to know what you think Labour’s next leader’s priorities should be. We will be premiering our video hustings in…
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Foreign Office “planning a raid on DfID’s cash and on its turf”
The Financial Times website today carries a disturbing story on the future of DfID funding. This comes just weeks after an election when the now-Government pledged to ringfence DfID funding and that principle’s affirmation in the Coalition Document. According to Sue Cameron at the FT, the Foreign Office is “planning a raid on [DfID’s] cash…
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Read Douglas Alexander’s speech to LCID
On Tuesday 29 June, Douglas Alexander spoke at an LCID event about the future of International Development. You can read the full text of his speech here: “Thank you David for that kind introduction – and for the valuable work you and other members of the Labour Campaign for International Development have undertaken in recent…
Labour Campaign for International Development 