The foreign Aid Budget will be ‘Ringfenced’ should the Tories come to power. Whilst I have every sympathy with people of less fortunate lands I cannot see how the present largess on behalf of the British taxpayer can be maintained.

Now don’t get this wrong, some of the £825million given to India over the last 3 years may have found its way into alleviation of poverty but India spent £6.5billion in 2006 £14billion in 2007 and £9billion in 2008 a total of almost £30billions on buying weapons from Russia. In addition India recently signed a deal to buy a $2.3billion Kiev Class Aircraft carrier (Admiral Gorshkov) together with $1.5billion worth of Mig29 planes to fly off it.

It is time we recognised that Indians care little about their underclass, (The caste system still persists).

Whilst we cannot ignore that the handout still provides a tenuous grip upon Indian sympathies the price to keep their friendship is too high.

We should, at the very least, convert the gift to Import Credits spendable upon relief-type goods from the UK.

Pakistan is a very different situation. We gave them just over £63million earlier this year. Certainly Government in that country is always very precarious and the security situation is un-enviable. If Western Nations don’t prop Pakistan up then it will become yet another bellicose Islamic fundamentalist state (with a Nuclear arsenal and a grudge against the West to boot).

There is no reason why the bulk of our largess cannot be converted to import credits to enable UK exporters to benefit from aid they have helped to fund.

Oil-rich Nigeria, the corruption capital of Africa (if not the world) waves its poverty statistics at the West and received £120million from Britain alone last year. A government report on outcomes has been shelved for 8 months and will not now be available until after the election –now there’s a surprise.

Charity may not begin at home but there has to be a dramatic re-think about the form in which it is given.