Category: Tory Threat
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Conservatives plan foreign office raid on DfID
By Margaret Dantas Araujo Poverty reduction in the world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries is best achieved when DfID is directing the deployment of our aid budget. However, yet another leaked memo has shed light on Tory intentions to bring Dfid cash under the control of the Foreign Office by requesting that UK security be
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Where is the coalition’s leadership, vision and ambition on aid?
by David Taylor, for Left Foot Forward Yesterday The Observer reported that it had received an email confirming that only eight of Labour’s 100 commitments are to be saved. They come as part of the Tories’ drive for ‘value for money’ for UK aid, something we at Left Foot Forward have consistently argued is a
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New Statesman: Mitchell’s “silent withdrawal” of aid budget ringfencing
This from the New Statesman, full story here: In a recent interview with the New Statesman, Mitchell admitted that the promise to ringfence the development budget was “the sort of thing you make in opposition, then rather regret in government.” As the autumn spending review looms, the pressure on departments to find spending cuts is
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Mitchell’s ‘ouput-based’ crusade risks trying DfID in knots
by David Taylor, for Left Foot Forward Earlier today Left Foot Forward published a leaked document from the Department for International Development showing a list of nearly 100 public commitments recommended for the chop. But behind the headlines, International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell’s “focus on outputs and outcomes” raises two key questions. Firstly, if close to 100
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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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Alan Duncan: at it again
Paul Waugh has a lovely Alan Duncan snippet from Bill Gates’ visit to Parliament last week. After being told that his talk to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Overseas Development would be under Chatham House Rules, Duncan recounted his MP’s on ‘rations’ comment that was secretly taped after the expenses scandal. “And that’s why
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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
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The Tories should introduce the Robin Hood Tax if they truly want to help the poor
The emergency budget is to be on June 22 and David Cameron has already begun to try and soften the ground. The pain, he states, will be felt by everyone. This is worrying and could be avoided by the introduction of the Robin Hood Tax, says the ippr. One of the ways of raising much
Labour Campaign for International Development 