Ukip has the right to make points on aid

THE recent plenary session between AMs and ministers in the Senydd on Wednesday was one of the most heated and interesting for some time, and outlined the inconsistences of some of our politicians’ thought processes.

The assembly session ended with Labour, Plaid and the Tories attacking Ukip policy on the foreign aid budget of £8bn.

Neil Hamilton, Caroline Jones and other Ukip Assembly members outlined the issues surrounding this fund, and said that rightly the use of these monies should be more strictly controlled and scrutinised, and with the present monetary restraints GB is facing, that reductions in this aid should at least be considered.

Further to this it is a known fact that in some African countries there has been blatant misuse of this money, and other countries have space travel programmes and projects that the British taxpayer would have difficulty funding.

The indignation of the AMs from the other parties at these comments was pure theatre and made without much examination of the facts. The Labour, Tory and Plaid representatives were firm Remainers in the recent referendum.

The EU has high tariffs to restrict import of goods into Europe from developing countries, stunting the growth of their economies and causing hardship and lack of economic growth benefiting their citizens.

Therefore foreign aid has then been required to alleviate hunger and destitution in these parts of the world.

It was also stated in the plenary session that foreign aid was required to train doctors and nurses in the

poorer parts of the world.

Carwyn Jones and his cohorts are forever extolling the benefits of immigrant doctors and nurses.

Therefore we send aid to developing countries to train medical staff and then encourage them to leave to live and work in Wales.

I am not an economist, but when we in Wales, one of the most deprived areas of Europe, are being asked to partake in savage cuts to our funding, surely Ukip politicians have a right to make valid points about sending billions of pounds to areas of the world where we have no control over the way these amounts are distributed without being subjected to abuse from fellow AMs? Ian Hampton Garth, Maesteg