Tag: Tory Threat
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Tax Havens, Conservatives and the Developing World
After the recent investigation by Channel 4 Dispatches programme that Conservative Ministers, Andrew Mitchell the International Development Secretary amongst them, store their wealth in off-shore bank accounts, the question of the harm done by these locations and their practices are now being asked. The figure quoted in the Dispatches investigation is that for every £1
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Mitchell in bother
The Guardian has an article on its website about Andrew Mitchell stepping in to help have a trading ban lifted in Ghana, despite it being outside his remit. The firm had been banned from trading for allegedly smuggling cocoa. This would appear to be evidence that the International Development Secretary has overstepped the mark. It
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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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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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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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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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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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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).
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Cuts to development education may increase public scepticism
First posted on Left Foot Forward. Monday saw the first cuts at DfID were announced by the new Conservative administration, as new international development secretary Andrew Mitchell announced that projects designed to raise awareness of development issues amongst the UK public are to be scrapped. He said: “I’m surprised that Labour ministers thought these projects
Labour Campaign for International Development 