Tag: ConDem
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Steve Cockburn on the human right to water
There’s a very interesting blog by LCID’s Steve Cockburn over on the Progress site about the Tories pulling out of the process to recognise the right to water. In July the UK abstained on a UN resolution tabled by the president of Bolivia recognising access to water and sanitation as a human right, due to
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Congratulations to Ed Miliband
LCID congratulates Ed Miliband MP on becoming the new leader of the Labour Party. We look forward to working with the former Secretary of State for Energy & Climate Change to ensure global poverty stays high on the parties agenda in the coming years. During the Leadership campaign we asked Ed about his views on
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An Obama blockbuster, a Remastered Brown, and a Clegg B-Movie
First published on Left Foot Forward, the UK’s top left wing blog, where LCID is a regular contributor. It is difficult to get excited about a United Nations summit on the Millennium Development Goals. Difficult when we know, before a single delegate set foot off the plane in New York, that the goals are massively
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Could the Government be about to destroy the International Development Act?
By Margaret Dantas Araujo Some of the UK’s biggest charities, Oxfam, CAFOD, and Save the Children, have publically raised concerns about the growing threat of securitisation of the aid budget. The use of aid for political reasons would be in direct contravention of the International Development Act 2002. The act, explicitly states, (1)The Secretary of
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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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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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The coalition in development: a bluer shade of green
First posted on Progress Online as part of Steve’s regular column. The Lib Dems have not fought the corner of international development – they are absent from DfID and big ideas such as the Robin Hood Tax have been dropped When analysing the influence of the coalition partners on their joint programme for international development, we
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Our letter on aid gets mentioned in The Guardian
Today The Guardian notes our letter to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on our concerns the ConDem Government is trying to water down the UK’s aid budget. Read the article here (see the bottom paragraph).
Labour Campaign for International Development 