Debate report: Britain must cut its overseas aid budget now

Last night, as we mentioned yesterday and the day before, was The Spectator’s debate on whether Britain should cut its overseas aid budget. Here, for CoffeeHousers who couldn’t attend the event, is Lloyd Evans’ review of it:
 
Chair: Rod Liddle
Proposing: Ian Birrell, Richard Dowden, Stephen Glover
Opposing: Prof Paul Collier, Alan Duncan MP, Richard Miller
 
Ian Birrell, former speechwriter for David Cameron, proposed the motion by likening aid programmes to helping child beggars in the third world. The gift, though well-intentioned, keeps children out of school, encourages more kids to start begging and condemns entire families to penury. If aid worked, Birrell would happily treble it. But it distorts economies and humiliates the recipients. ‘Aid workers are the new colonials, driving around in 4x4s and earning many times more than locals.’ Waste is inevitable. Barely 40p in every pound, he said, reaches the intended beneficiaries. And aid promotes corruption.