The paper's bizarre find-cash-quick scheme sinks - then plumbs the depths
Part of the humour to be found in this morning’s Sun scoop is at the expense of the paper.
‘UK taxes blown on lonely fish in Africa… But our military is cut to the bone’
As might not be clear, the paper is arguing the government wastes foreign aid money on silly things while the defence budget is being cut.
If the connection between the two things still seems strange, it’s worth bearing in mind that defence secretary, Michael ‘stab-in-the-back’ Fallon, has suggested the budgets for foreign aid and defence be blurred to reach NATO’s recommended 2 per cent of GDP spending target.
Helpfully, the Sun has launched a campaign – ‘Forces not Farces’ – to call on the government to do, er, what it was already planning to do.
But back to the fish. It seems the foreign office spent £3,400 to help protect and breed a rare tropical fish at risk of extinction. That’s £3,400 out of a total foreign aid budget of £11.7billion.
Another case on the Sun’s charge sheet:
“The department also gave £2,042-worth of free tickets to children for a Hamlet production in the earthquake-ravaged Caribbean nation of Haiti.”
What a heartless newspaper this is! Let Nemo die and no Hamlet for the Haitian kids!
More amusing is the Sun’s ‘evidence’ this money could pay for more worthy things at home – the entire burden of their argument.
It takes one of the most expensive of its cases, £51,564 on UK work experience for people from Serbia, and says this ‘could have bought advanced armour for 50 British troops’. For an army of 90,000 (and that’s just regular forces), this seems hardly worth ditching the Serbs.
And shouldn’t UK troops have the best armour available regardless?
It goes on:
“£30,000 spent ’empowering Indian museum professionals’ – could have paid a nurse on £21,692 for 15 months.”
One nurse! For just over a year! And on a starting salary at that. This is desperate stuff.
They only provide two more examples – £99,800 on shale gas drilling regulations in China ‘could have built five mini-roundabouts’, and £3,104 spent on English training for Uruguayan footballers ‘could have bought two lampposts’.
Some of this foreign aid spending is very odd indeed, and it would be fascinating to know what the FCO was up to. But the amount of money involved is minuscule in terms of the aid budget, let alone government spending generally. And the army should be properly funded regardless.
Meanwhile, the Sun’s attempts to show this money could buy us all sorts of goodies is laughable.
Adam Barnett is a staff writer at Left Foot Forward. Follow MediaWatch on Twitter
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35 Responses to “The Sun thinks killing a tropical fish will fund the armed forces”
Matthew Blott
One of the few ‘progressive’ things Cameron can claim is his (stubborn) commitment to foreign aid. And now he’s seen off the Labour Party and can continue reducing the state and emasculating the BBC you’d think Rupe might lay off this one tiny ray of liberal sunshine. Alas even this is too much and if I were Cameron I’d be a bit nervous about what the Dirty Digger has up his sleeve for the upcoming EU referendum.
Harold
Nothing Liberal about me, any time any where, watch what you say or intelligentsia but even I can see the Mail is spiteful and full of hate, the Sun I think does try very hard to mislead and dumb down rather than inform. Assuming the owners and jurnos have some level of education, “A” level Geography perhaps, it is difficult to understand the agenda. As to working-class idiot, that is a life style choice.
gunnerbear
Where would I want the cash spent – you’re damn right on an English nurse – even one rather than on ‘museum workers’ in a foreign country that maintains a space programme and nuclear weapons. Fish or kit for the forces – kit it is. Lots of little bits of spending soon add up but clearly the author wants UK taxpayers funds spent abroad rather than in the UK. Is the author yet another sneering member of the Left that despises the UK? Not a penny above £2bn for emergency relief should be wasted on international aid.
gunnerbear
The BBC is the dominant media content provider in the UK – and it is inherently left wing. The Left hate the Sun and the Mail because the existence of such newspapers constantly reminds them of their own weakness.
gunnerbear
The Int. Aid policy is despised by the UK public – the overwhelming majority want it stopped… https://yougov.co.uk/news/2013/11/09/British-amongst-least-generous-overseas-aid/ You want to donate cash abroad – use your own cash.