Get right down to it and there are two reasons for thinking that cuts to Britain’s aid budget to pay for defence are a seriously bad idea. The first is that people will die as a result. There will be less money to respond to humanitarian crises and less money for vaccination programmes and hospitals. Realpolitik is being blamed for the decision, but realpolitik doesn’t make it right.
But there are also economic arguments for rich countries providing financial support to less well-off nations, which were summed up succinctly in last year’s Labour party manifesto. This document could not have been clearer. International assistance, it said, helps make “the world a safer, more prosperous place”.
