Foreign aid: the Establishment’s cognitive dissonance on display

“As per usual, no common sense measure can ever go lightly in our political arena without ‘fury’ or ‘sparking a backlash’.”

Last week, the Government announced a very sensible move in which they revealed our foreign aid legal target, would be cut to 0.5% of GDP in the wake of the economic catastrophe to follow from the coronavirus measures. Common sense move right? As per usual, no common sense measure can ever go lightly in our political arena without ‘fury’ or ‘sparking a backlash’. One Minister of the Foreign Office, Baroness Sugg, announced her resignation at the plans. 

When politics consists of debates as boring and uncontroversial to the rest of us as this, it makes sense that the political scene is dominated by a coalition of careerists and ideologues. Only these could make mountains out of such political molehills. 

As I said in my commentary for Bournbrook Live, the debate is a heated one for opponents of the cuts because it is the proxy to attack what they really desire to attack. They really want to attack a worldview that is anathema to theirs, under the disguise of support for such policies. 

To those supposedly furious at the move, there is no way one should ever even consider concerns of the national over the international. Such a mentality belongs to the backward, the not politically correct, or even worse the ‘oik’, the ‘little person’ or ‘Little Englander’ so desperately in need of enlightenment. Or, if enlightenment is not an option, they just ignore you. Ignoring them is how the Establishment have worked for decades with much success, so why not just do that here, too?

Like most issues in politics these days, the Establishment’s pretence that it is more virtuous than the rest of us does not make it so. In fact we know it does not. One poll unsurprisingly showed that 66% of people asked were in favour of cuts to foreign aid spending. It appears common sense, despite being rarer these days, still prevails here at least.

I think on this issue, like many others, the country would be grateful if these people could just be honest about the source of their disdain and fury. The bigger surprise would be if anyone were surprised by that truth.

Of course, the whole saga stinks of another virtue signal. Something that they can get worked up about to ease their consciences about the damage to every other sphere of British politics over the course of decades. To see Messrs Cameron, Blair and others get worked up about this measure is no surprise. When all the other establishment methods don’t work there is only one left: cognitive dissonance. To trust these gentlemen with foreign policy is like seeking the advice of a philandering adulterer on staying faithful to a spouse. 

For those who feel so strongly against these measures there is a practical step the Government can take to relieve them. Let them set up a voluntary fund for those who feel so strongly about the cuts. The government can create and advertise a voluntary fund by which people who lament the cuts can privately donate to make up what is lost.  Will it receive massive donations from our multi-millionaire former prime ministers and career virtue-signallers in Parliament and beyond? I wouldn’t hold your breath…