Dear Editor,
re: our homeless veterans.
In May of this year, figures showed that the UK’s foreign aid budget has risen by 144% in a decade. Britain is now the only Major economy to meet the target 0.70% set out by the United Nations.
Britain spends three times as much as the US on foreign aid. It works out at £188 per head of population which is around 65 million here in the UK. With the US paying £61 per head their population is around 332 million.
I ask, does our government think these figures are a little steep?
Given we have people in our own country living on the streets. Dying on our streets because they have no place to live. Many of these people are ex-servicemen and women. We have people in our country going hungry and having to use food banks on a regular basis because they can’t afford to buy food. Parents unable to feed and clothe their children due to all their money going to household bills.
When our country feels the need to freeze the war pensions of our ex-servicemen and women and that of those service personnel that are now disabled. These figures seem ridiculous and should be reduced accordingly.
Our country should be spending what it can afford not trying to impress the political elite by trying to hit targets regardless of the cost.
Our government has a duty of care for all the people that live in the United Kingdom, especially to those who at one point in their life, wrote a blank cheque payable to the United Kingdom for an amount up to, and including, their lives. So the people here could live free and at peace.
This time of the year, especially the 11 November, we remember all those that paid the ultimate sacrifice and had their blank cheque cashed in so that we can live in peace.
I ask the government to do more for our veterans and our servicemen and women who continue to serve.
WE DESERVE BETTER, THEY DESERVE BETTER.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
Yours,
John Brennan,
(Ballygowan.)
