Silly money ?

[swaledale]

Hey up Swale, how is your teams pre-season going then.

You mention Q.P.Rangers, have they been fined at all yet for their blatant indiscretion against the FFP at the end of 2013-14 ?
(FFP means the so called financial fair play rules of course, but who really sticks by that these days eh)

Well we haven't lost a game and last saturdays game was the first time that anything that might resemble the team picked for the first match of the season has played so at the moment I am satisfied.

The moaner of course are at it already, as if anything can be judged from pre season friendlies FFS!

I believe there are more players to come in but those deals may take a little longer and I think all players that are in the squad at the start of the season should be given the benefit of the doubt until they prove otherwise.

[ramAnag]

£10 billion to the EU and £13 billion in foreign aid is where I'd start

Tricky...Tricky...Tricky.
We're the fifth or sixth richest nation on the planet...agreed?
If we can't afford to help those less fortunate than ourselves via foreign aid, what hope is there?
I know you have a health issue at the moment...I don't (I hope) but I still give money to that particular charity.
Surely when times become a bit harder, as they have for all except the rich in recent years, that doesn't mean we cancel all our contributions to charity does it?
Maybe some of the foreign aid does need to be targeted more carefully, no argument with that, but we give a tiny percentage of our wealth to those in poor or war torn countries. What can possibly be wrong with that, other than the fact that we arguably don't give enough?

[ramAnag]

Well we haven't lost a game and last saturdays game was the first time that anything that might resemble the team picked for the first match of the season has played so at the moment I am satisfied.

The moaner of course are at it already, as if anything can be judged from pre season friendlies FFS!

I believe there are more players to come in but those deals may take a little longer and I think all players that are in the squad at the start of the season should be given the benefit of the doubt until they prove otherwise.

Agreed...like.

[Acido]

Well we haven't lost a game and last saturdays game was the first time that anything that might resemble the team picked for the first match of the season has played so at the moment I am satisfied.
The moaner of course are at it already, as if anything can be judged from pre season friendlies FFS!
I believe there are more players to come in but those deals may take a little longer and I think all players that are in the squad at the start of the season should be given the benefit of the doubt until they prove otherwise.

We're signing a squad full of kids these days who havent played before in this division, so my/our expectaions are even lower now for the season ahead.
Tom Ince played against us on Satdy for Hudds, is it right that your lot got £11 mill for him ?

[roger_ramjet]

Tricky...Tricky...Tricky.
We're the fifth or sixth richest nation on the planet...agreed?
If we can't afford to help those less fortunate than ourselves via foreign aid, what hope is there?
I know you have a health issue at the moment...I don't (I hope) but I still give money to that particular charity.
Surely when times become a bit harder, as they have for all except the rich in recent years, that doesn't mean we cancel all our contributions to charity does it?
Maybe some of the foreign aid does need to be targeted more carefully, no argument with that, but we give a tiny percentage of our wealth to those in poor or war torn countries. What can possibly be wrong with that, other than the fact that we arguably don't give enough?

Not having that rA - charity begins at home and we have enough lost causes of our own to support before looking after other countries' problems. Now if you had tried to justify it on economic grounds of getting the money back through trade deals, and thus stimulating our export industry I would give the argument more credibility.

But do I give a toss about basket cases overseas? Sorry, no. there are too many heartstring plucking causes out there to try to fund, so Id prefer we did none and tried to sort out our own problems. Overseas aid for its own sake is another one of those counter Malthusian economic issues: we have too many carbon based units infesting the planet already, without helping to increase the global overpopulation in this way.

[Andy_Faber]

Not having that rA - charity begins at home and we have enough lost causes of our own to support before looking after other countries' problems. Now if you had tried to justify it on economic grounds of getting the money back through trade deals, and thus stimulating our export industry I would give the argument more credibility.

But do I give a toss about basket cases overseas? Sorry, no. there are too many heartstring plucking causes out there to try to fund, so Id prefer we did none and tried to sort out our own problems. Overseas aid for its own sake is another one of those counter Malthusian economic issues: we have too many carbon based units infesting the planet already, without helping to increase the global overpopulation in this way.

You have an ally here RR. And there was an admission on the news last week that the checks and balances on foreign aid have been relaxed and money is being shovelled out to all quarters, just to ensure that .7% is spent this year, an admission I can sort of back up because the intern in 'government' that was helping fill my company's domestic begging bowl has been moved to international Development to help do the shovelling

[ramAnag]

Not having that rA - charity begins at home and we have enough lost causes of our own to support before looking after other countries' problems. Now if you had tried to justify it on economic grounds of getting the money back through trade deals, and thus stimulating our export industry I would give the argument more credibility.

But do I give a toss about basket cases overseas? Sorry, no. there are too many heartstring plucking causes out there to try to fund, so Id prefer we did none and tried to sort out our own problems. Overseas aid for its own sake is another one of those counter Malthusian economic issues: we have too many carbon based units infesting the planet already, without helping to increase the global overpopulation in this way.

The fact that we have people in this country who deserve 'aid' does not in any way detract from the fact that we have a moral responsibility, as one of the richest nations on earth, to help poor nations in other parts of the world imo.
I'm not in any way trying to justify 'overseas aid for its own sake' as I made clear in my original post and neither am I suggesting we support 'basket cases overseas'.
'Charity begins at home' is all too often - not always - a mantra of selfishness imo, and personally I have little doubt that well targeted support for desperately struggling communities in other countries is a prerequisite of any civilised society.

[roger_ramjet]

The fact that we have people in this country who deserve 'aid' does not in any way detract from the fact that we have a moral responsibility, as one of the richest nations on earth, to help poor nations in other parts of the world imo.
I'm not in any way trying to justify 'overseas aid for its own sake' as I made clear in my original post and neither am I suggesting we support 'basket cases overseas'.
'Charity begins at home' is all too often - not always - a mantra of selfishness imo, and personally I have little doubt that well targeted support for desperately struggling communities in other countries is a prerequisite of any civilised society.

Maybe I am amoral and uncivilised then, but I would sooner see that money spent on the NHS, social care or the education system, not filling the pockets of semi benign dictators in various African countries. Just my opinion though, and I perhaps wish I shared your charitable mindset rA. But I do not.

[ramAnag]

Maybe I am amoral and uncivilised then, but I would sooner see that money spent on the NHS, social care or the education system, not filling the pockets of semi benign dictators in various African countries. Just my opinion though, and I perhaps wish I shared your charitable mindset rA. But I do not.

I doubt that you are either 'amoral' or 'uncivilised' RR but you certainly have a tendency to deliberately misinterpret in order to justify your position. I have consistently suggested that foreign aid should be properly targeted so your comments about 'filling the pockets' of any 'dictators' are misdirected and irrelevant in this instance.
We dedicate just 0.7% of our GNI to foreign aid which even my maths allows me to equate to just 70p out of every £100. Is that really too much? Of course it would be nice to be able to spend that money on the NHS, social care or education though perhaps if we did a better job of tackling all the tax avoidance and evasion that is going on then there might be enough money to go round and provide better services and support for those in need both at home and abroad.

[roger_ramjet]

Actually its about double that, in terms of total government spending: 8.5bn out of 588.8bn = 1.44%

http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/ye...301000#ukgs302

This was a deficit budget which means the government revenue was maybe 548.8bn, making foreign aid over 1.5%. But viewed another way, we are borrowing money to give it to another country.

Personalising that a minute, would you go to the bank to borrow money to give it to charity?


NB Not sure where Tricky's numbers are but probably as usual bent out of shape a bit by the daily express.