- Date: 17/06/20
- Ross Clark, Daily Mail
Boris Johnson’s historic decision to abolish the standalone Department for International Development (Dfid) and roll its functions into the Foreign Office is long overdue.
Ever since David Cameron expanded Britain’s aid budget to 0.7 per cent of GDP, scandal after scandal has emerged about millions of pounds of hard-pressed UK taxpayers’ money being shovelled into dubious projects to meet this arbitrary target.
The budget for this bloated department has reached an astonishing £14.6billion this year. Incredibly, Dfid now has 3,700 employees, and cost £326m to operate last year alone.
For that, you’d expect money to be spent on vital projects truly improving the lives of desperate people in the world’s poorest countries. Sadly not.
Here are a few examples of how taxpayers’ money was frittered away by this unlamented department:
£99m to boost China’s ‘economic growth’
Started: 2018
China is the world’s secondlargest economy, now funding – on a commercial basis Hinkley C nuclear power plant plus other infrastructure projects here. Yet Dfid has spent hundreds of millions on 57 aid projects in China.
As much as £99m was allocated to promoting ‘inclusive growth’. There is £95,000 (enough for three NHS nurses) being spent on helping China come up with ‘climate risk assessment’ – in a country building coal-fired power stations.
We are also spending an undisclosed sum tackling salt consumption among Chinese children and their families, plus almost £60,000 on offshore wind turbines to support China’s ‘transition to a low-carbon economy’.
£300m in free money for people in Pakistan
Started: 2012
Seemingly having run out of ideas for grand aid projects to fund, the UK Government doled out money directly to hundreds of thousands of Pakistani families.
Three years ago, photos emerged of people in Peshawar queuing at a cashpoint to withdraw money on cards loaded with funds from UK taxpayers.
Costs ballooned from £53m in 2005 to £219m between 2011-2015. One MP said it was akin to ‘exporting the dole.’
Palm oil plantations in the Congo
2013 – ongoing
Palm oil plantations have been widely condemned for their terrible environmental damage, but it hasn’t stopped Dfid sending millions to subsidise Congolese agribusiness Feronia, which runs a palm oil farming and processing business in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Dfid hasn’t disclosed exactly how much it has spent but the subsidy takes up a share of the £63m of UK taxpayer money that was sent to the DRC this year.
£25m for ‘rainmakers’ who watch ants
2009 – 2014
UK taxpayers shelled out an astonishing £25m on a project that included persuading Kenya’s meteorologists to work with Nganyi ‘rainmakers’ — who claim to be able to forecast rain by watching ants and listening to the call of certain birds and the croaks of toads, but were said to be ‘flummoxed by climate change’.
The plan was to come up with a ‘consensus’ weather forecast.
‘At the beginning of the project, the interactions between the meteorologists and rainmakers was characterised by mutual scepticism,’ Dfid admitted, perhaps not surprisingly about the project, two years after it began in 2009.
‘The two groups . . . successfully made joint seasonal weather forecasts.’ Thank goodness for that.
One, just One name, of a politician that has an IQ above ,2
Donald Trump?
I’ve read that Biden scores 3 but is on his way down.
Well that proves they know nothing. If they had claimed they can tell what weather will be like in 2100 AD , they would have been showered with billions.
They key to successful predictions is to ensure that you aim far enough ahead that you will be dead or at least retired before anyone gets realise you are full of s**t.
No wonder Kenya is still a 3rd world country.
SMC
Is there a ‘Cunning’ scale?
I suspect Donald may well Trump that one. 🙂
Poor shot at a pun……………
yep
orge, this will astound you but I have it on good authority, that here in the UK we do have politicians with an IQ above 2. Our very own David Lammy he of Mastermind fame, who answered Henry the Seventh, to the question who succeeded Henry the Eighth to the English throne. He is a lawyer by training, apparently. Well, I am informed, though can’t confirm this, he agreed to be tested and reached the heady level of 75 on the Binet scale. Imagine that, he was just 10 points below the clinically untrainable level, as defined by the US Army. Just as well he went into politics I say. Everyone deserves their place in this world.
Much of this sounds like what we would expect from our federal liberal party government in canada, it’s just all so stupid.
We supposedly committed to net zero by 2050 while increasing immigration and growing the economy (three mutually exclusive and contradictory goals) AND donate billions to the Chinese propaganda bank that is building hundreds of coal fired plants in the 3rd world.
Did I mention that it’s all so stupid?
Hank Johnson, (D) Georgia, thinks islands float.
Obama thinks there are 58 states in the United States.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16Tu3kR77NE
Should I keep going?
Reminds me of Mrs. Jellyby and Mrs. Chadband from Dickens’ novel “Bleak House,” who ignore the suffering in her own houses and neighborhoods, ruining their own children by neglect, while earnestly trying to “save” the Africans of Boriabulagar by creating coffee plantations for them.
Isn’t it strange how Dickens so perceptively described an archetype which can be found abundantly in North London today.
The funding has not been cut at all (it is mandated by law) and they have promised no compulsory redundancies. Without a cabinet level minister directly responsible for spending authorisations the same people will no doubt be able to pursue even more mad hat schemes, with climate emergency being the best cover to hide behind.
New law by the lawmakers themselves
Re employment – don’t hire replacements for those who leave or retire. Done all the time.
And I believe the Civil Servants working in DFiD got very handsome bonuses for ensuring the money was spent before the year end; hence Yegna (Spice Girls)!!
The amount of money will be cut because the UK economy will drop worse than any other as not only do we have a complete moron in charge, surrounded by like-minded ministers, but we will be dropping out of our main market by the end of the year – if not sooner according to said moron.
You really think that EU trade will suddenly stop? And you call the government morons?
I’d be happy to take a job watching ants-explected salary £40k+car (SUV of course, in case I have to visit any anthills in rough terrain)!!!
I wonder how many of those 3700 employees are social workers, those miracle workers that can handle any situation and repair any sort of conflict.
£25 million, partly on funding Kenyan meteorologists to incorporate the weather skills of a tribe …
“..able to forecast rain by watching ants and listening to the call of certain birds and the croaks of toads, …The plan was to come up with a ‘consensus’ weather forecast.”
A perfect example of why sceptics are against consensus science. I wanted Steven Mosher to see this comment but he won’t show for this disgrace from his climate buddies. You can be sure that the UK gov consulted the Met Office on this. FOI request anyone?
Does the Met Office work better? Or cheaper?
In the short term, yes. Over one month, no. Over 50 years, are you joking?
https://go.gale.com/ps/anonymous?id=GALE%7CA231341392&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=12057398&p=AONE&sw=w
The Nganyi forecasters draw on an ancient, indigenous body of knowledge. Our team found that the mysticism that surrounds these rainmakers is a secondary layer that exists largely for social reasons. At heart, these elders are fellow scientists, and some of their myths and taboos serve to protect endangered species the community depends on for medicines, rituals and other uses.
The Nganyi forecast the weather by observing plants and animals, as well as the stars. They notice when particular insects, birds or reptiles migrate in certain formations. They observe the direction of the wind rolling across a lake, or on which side of a hill the clouds are clustering. When a particular tree sheds its leaves early or late in the season, this means more to them than to modern-day meteorologists.
The Nganyi gather information by keeping a close eye on various natural “shrines.” At these sacred sites where it is forbidden to cut trees, they monitor the patterns of climate-sensitive plants and animals. They have identified particular species that are highly sensitive to changes in humidity. They know what it means when a certain reptile suddenly moves to a new habitat.
So, in other words, complete BS. Thanks for verifying that. (If you were trying to make some other point, you failed miserably)
Give me strength ….
Ghalfrunt wrote:
“The Nganyi forecast the weather by observing plants and animals, as well as the stars. They notice when particular insects, birds or reptiles migrate in certain formations.”
Thanks for the added info. When I boil it all down, it looks like they are attempting to forecast the change in seasons. Perhaps they can make an accurate prediction a few weeks or a month in advance.
They live in an arid climate which has two seasons, the “rainy season” and the “dry season”. The dry season can be quite stressful for man and beast alike, so predicting the coming rains accurately can be very impressive.
Of course, these days we just look at the calendar on the wall. Works fine.
Tony
Very good comment.
Looking at sky mainly clouds can also give a good estimate of the arrival of the wet season.
While working in Karumba QLD, a saw the first morning glory in November. The morning glory cloud formation is a good ( not guaranteed) indicator of the start of wet season which will close all roads for months. Over the next week fishermen pack up their boats and head south.
The likely overall weather conditions, food supply, water supply, and dangers associated with a general time of the year would certainly be a major consideration, as would propagating and advancing that knowledge.
Many Australian Aboriginal nations consider there are up to 7 seasons in their particular areas, each with different challenges and opportunities.
In the absence of easily transportable, durable methods of marking the days, observation of lunar cycles and the locations of constellations seem a reasonable method of telling the time of year. Archaeologists hypothesise that civilisations on both the northern and southern sides of the Mediterranean used such approaches. Similarly, the standing stone circles so prevalent in the UK are also hypothesised to have served this role.
In addition to time of year, there will be inter-annual variations in the timing of weather patterns, so it is also necessary to recognise the indicators of particular changes.
Being able to spot early indicators of cold naps, thunderstorms, dust storms, etc, are also rather important aids to survival.
Some of the knowledge will be irrelevant, some will be wrong, but by and large enough of it will be right to be able to keep on keeping on.
Extensive data collection and collation capabilities plus the dreaded computer models allow earlier predictions of weather phenomena over much wider areas, but apparently there are still gaps at the smaller scale of a few kilometers.
Some of this local knowledge will e able to fill in forecast gaps on these scales, so the local forecasters (I’ll bet “rain maker” is an externally applied label) may well be able to help the scientists fill in some gaps.
More importantly, if the local forecasters can be provided with access to some of the tools available to the government scientists, it will be of great benefit to their local community.
There are many drugs that found light of day from herbal (“natural”) renmedies.
quinine
penicillin from 1884
digoxin
pacilitxel
aspirin
etoposide
opium
epidrin
and more
should ancient wisdom be ignored?
or should we learn from 100,000 years of humanity?
When you see rivers of cash flowing around like this, it is for one reason: corrupt bureaucrats get out their nets and scoop large sums out of the river. Remember, I offered a Latin America country free uranium oxide for the life of their three reactor and they turned me down. Reason? No rivers of cash involved, just free fuel for electricity generation.
All foreign aid programmes of the Western countries are fronts for Socialist thieves. Barely getting less than 1 percent of the money to the stated goal, they have all leftists as bosses who steal and rob as if there’s no tomorrow.
‘The two groups . . . successfully made joint seasonal weather forecasts.’
Well as long as they say it will be either hotter and drier or colder and wetter in some regions, they will be on a par with the best the West can offer with the latest super computer modelling.
Sounds like 25 million is pretty good saving over what we pay the Met. Office each year.
Wasn’t that about the salary Slingo was getting?
How many reward air miles were earned by these global travelers during this time and where did they get to go on all their side trips?
274 million? Pfft.
Nigerian scammers have absconded with about 1 billion dollars from Washington State’s Unemployment system since the Covid crap began. And, the director of the Employment Security Department still has her job, because she’s a huge backer of Democrats.
Jeff,
My daughter lives in The Capitol area now known as CHAZ or CHOP. She was on unemployment because her restaurant was shut down. They cut her off while doing an identity check and have now asked for the return of monies paid. She’s plucky and with a little assistance from Pops and odd jobs she’s okay. Learning that government is not always the answer. BTW the head of ESD in Washington lost substantial money to Bernie Madoff.
“There is £95,000 (enough for three NHS nurses)”
Wow, they don’t get paid much.
This is the UK remember, where you are rewarded inversely to your contribution to the national wealth or well being .
In the NE England recently a health trust, whilst paying £32k to nurses tackling the Wuhan flu advertised for a team member to join a “climate change sustainability team ” at a rate of at least £44k (to do what, to help whom , no one knows and that is not even the team leader so goodness knows how much of the health trust’s budget is being wasted on such garbage).
Meanwhile 100year old pensioners stagger around their gardens to raise money for the NHS in its present crisis.
The object of the British Civil Service is to ensure that the economy is so pemanently disabled that it will be impossible to detach ourselves from the EU , the IMF ,etc . In this they have been spectacularly successful, partly through fortunate events (for them ) such as the Wuhan Flu , but mainly through the sheer stupidity of the men and women in successive Govts .
+1
It’s why you find NHS nurses leave the UK for better pay and conditions overseas. I don’t blame them. I think they should be paid more than politicians. Nurses in Aus saved my life once and not one politician has had any positive affect on my life.
“Woke” fatuousness…
Twenty years ago an accountant friend involved with checking that aid contributions were properly used was telling me about the ongoing fraud. I am convinced that the great the amount the greater the fraud and the less the oversight. As an African lady who wrote about the subjected pleaded, “trade not aid.”
Is Justin Trudeau involved in British politics????
This stuff just make you sad, frustrated, and eventually angry. Then determined to break it up. This whole thing is the biggest scam we have ever seen. Defund The Green.
These should not be faceless crimes. Start the prosecutions.
Relocate the department to Yemen instead of merging it into other agencies. It might infect other useful work groups.
Relax everyone. They haven’t closed DfiD down, they have just renamed the head office. Now it reverts back to being under the Foreign and Commonwealth office, the budget is still ring fenced at 0.7% of UK GDP.
3700, pen pushers on inflated salaries and term and conditions need somewhere to call home, well, home when they are not on a jolly, sorry I mean out in the field, somewhere far far away from the grey cold long winter days of the UK.
A pal of mine works for the DFID. His job is (was?) reporting on the foreign aid expenditure.
He’s close to retirement so perhaps it’s not a big deal for him.
Maybe I’ll give him a call.
Hmmm.
As a Brit, I am furious at the impunious waste of tax payers money. It is am obscenity. I can only wish the 1775 revolution had made it’s way across the Atlantic!
DfiD does spend money with no visible UK employees or infrastructure developed. If any department would suffer from fraud it is this one.
But as it is a separate department it does have oversight from the Parliamentary Scrutiny Committee.
The reason to abolish the department is to abolish the Parliamentary Scrutiny Committee.
This change is an embezzler’s charter.
You are witnessing a scandal in the making.
I always find it hilarious how leftist call oil money easy money that corrupts countries.
But to collect oil money you have to have an industry, infrastructure and jobs to produce and ship the oil.
None of this is necessary for “aid”, the ultimate corruption of easy money.
And yet no leftist has ever been able to explain to me how aid “easy money” is not a corrupting influence.
CTM – the article is about DfiD being rolled into the Foreign Office.
You put a photo of Priti Patel at the head of the post. While she is undoubtedly more photogenic than Dominic Raab (who is the actual Foreign Secretary), she is currently the Home Secretary.
She also appears to be very capable of doing her job. She has been well regarded by those of us who are appalled by the politicization of the Guardian-reading UK civil service, ever since she lost her cool and shouted at her staff “Why are you people all so f***ing useless?” (apparently, they were deliberately obstructing the move to give Brits the old-style blue passports to replace their red EU passports, probably in the hope that Brexit will still fail).
Here’s hoping she gets to run the whole show sooner rather than later.
Someone mentioned Dickens?
(Little Dorrit)
Sun and Shadow
Thirty years ago, Marseilles lay burning in the sun, one day.
A blazing sun upon a fierce August day was no greater rarity in southern France then, than at any other time, before or since. Everything in Marseilles, and about Marseilles, had stared at the fervid sky, and been stared at in return, until a staring habit had become universal there. Strangers were stared out of countenance by staring white houses, staring white walls, staring white streets, staring tracts of arid road, staring hills from which verdure was burnt away. The only things to be seen not fixedly staring and glaring were the vines drooping under their load of grapes. These did occasionally wink a little, as the hot air barely moved their faint leaves.
There was no wind to make a ripple on the foul water within the harbour, or on the beautiful sea without. The line of demarcation between the two colours, black and blue, showed the point which the pure sea would not pass; but it lay as quiet as the abominable pool, with which it never mixed. Boats without awnings were too hot to touch; ships blistered at their moorings; the stones of the quays had not cooled, night or day, for months. Hindoos, Russians, Chinese, Spaniards, Portuguese, Englishmen, Frenchmen, Genoese, Neapolitans, Venetians, Greeks, Turks, descendants from all the builders of Babel, come to trade at Marseilles, sought the shade alike–taking refuge in any hiding-place from a sea too intensely blue to be looked at, and a sky of purple, set with one great flaming jewel of fire.
The universal stare made the eyes ache. Towards the distant line of Italian coast, indeed, it was a little relieved by light clouds of mist, slowly rising from the evaporation of the sea, but it softened nowhere else. Far away the staring roads, deep in dust, stared from the hill-side, stared from the hollow, stared from the interminable plain. Far away the dusty vines overhanging wayside cottages, and the monotonous wayside avenues of parched trees without shade, drooped beneath the stare of earth and sky. So did the horses with drowsy bells, in long files of carts, creeping slowly towards the interior; so did their recumbent drivers, when they were awake, which rarely happened; so did the exhausted labourers in the fields. Everything that lived or grew, was oppressed by the glare; except the lizard, passing swiftly over rough stone walls, and the cicala, chirping his dry hot chirp, like a rattle. The very dust was scorched brown, and something quivered in the atmosphere as if the air itself were panting.
Blinds, shutters, curtains, awnings, were all closed and drawn to keep out the stare. Grant it but a chink or keyhole, and it shot in like a white-hot arrow. The churches were the freest from it. To come out of the twilight of pillars and arches–dreamily dotted with winking lamps, dreamily peopled with ugly old shadows piously dozing, spitting, and begging–was to plunge into a fiery river, and swim for life to the nearest strip of shade. So, with people lounging and lying wherever shade was, with but little hum of tongues or barking of dogs, with occasional jangling of discordant church bells and rattling of vicious drums, Marseilles, a fact to be strongly smelt and tasted, lay broiling in the sun one day.
Sooner or later the unreliables fans can’t ignore the bleeding obvious-
https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/markets/power-granted-to-switch-off-household-solar-in-sa-to-prevent-statewide-blackout/ar-BB15H2jV
Although you would have thought with the political rollout of the unicorn Telsa Big Battery for one wind farm the MSM would have had the nous to call out the 9 diesel generators but it’s probably a case of dumber and dumber with the products of our universities nowadays.