SPEND FOREIGN AID AT HOME
JAS WE sit post-Christmas glumly contemplating our liverish and impoverished state, the NHS seems to be feeling the same way. Liverish because of the annual winter flu crisis; impoverished because the NHS – well – always is.
Now Boris Johnson has said that if the Tories aren’t to be annihilated by Jeremy Corbyn at the next general election, they simply must be prepared to give the NHS an extra £100million a week. He means after Brexit. The extra £5.2billion a year he wants to spend on the health service would otherwise have gone to Brussels. It’s hard not to argue that the NHS needs more money. But Brexit is still a far-off mirage. I have another idea. Why don’t we divert foreign aid to the NHS?
This week, the International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said of our foreign aid: “We will continue to prioritise… saving lives, tackling under-nutrition and getting kids a quality education.”
But, as we’re told all the time, we’re struggling with those problems right here in the UK. There are headlines every day about poverty, homelessness, education and health. Increasingly I feel politicians who boast about us being an “international superpower” are wilfully ignoring a growing mood of discontent here.
All politicians enjoy feeling like Lady Bountiful but it’s our money they’re handing out, often to spurious projects in corrupt countries. We could do with spending a bit more of it here.