Geldof in aid cash challenge to Blair
Live Aid founder Bob Geldof today condemned Tony Blair’s “guff and grandiose schemes” to tackle world poverty.
Geldof questioned the British Prime Minister’s commitment to tackling hunger and disease and demanded he immediately “puts our money where his mouth is”.
Geldof was launching an emergency appeal to the British government for a massive increase in overseas aid in the imminent comprehensive spending review.
He joined MPs, trades unionists and religious leaders in demanding the British government commits at least 0.5% of GDP to overseas aid in its immediate spending plans.
The group wants ministers to commit to spending 0.7% of GDP on aid by 2011.
Chancellor Gordon Brown has drawn up an action plan for the UK presidency of the G8 next year, calling on countries who have yet to commit 0.7% to aid to “move further and faster to higher aid levels and on towards that target”.
But the UK government has yet to reach that level or set a date. It currently spends 0.34%. Its target for 2005/06 is 0.4%.
The UK ranks 11th in the league of generous nations, a position Geldof condemned as “pathetic”.
He said it was obvious that, as the fourth richest country, the UK should be the fourth most generous.
“What Gordon Brown proposes it totally inadequate,” he said.
“Gordon wrestles Jesuitically with this imponderable conundrum of who should get a little bit more. Well, I don’t think we have to argue any more.
“I am sick of sitting with Tony and Gordon and hearing guff about scars on the face of the world. I am sick of the grandiose schemes.
“If you really want to get rid of the scars and you want the Commission for Africa to have credibility, if you want to get to next year without me and the activists and the churches screaming at you about this lot, then the minimum you do is you take the fourth richest country in the world and you measure it against its pathetic ranking as the 11th most generous.
“All this appears incredibly simple and it is as simple as that.”
Backbench Labour MP Julia Drown is to hold talks with Mr Blair to press the case. She told a press conference at the House of Commons today the move would “save millions of lives”.
The Rev Kenneth Stevenson, the Anglican Bishop of Portsmouth, said he was embarrassed by the UK’s poor ranking.
“We should move to being nearer where we should be because we can afford it,” he said.
Frances O’Grady, of the TUC, said the trade union movement was behind the campaign.
“We hope Labour will put its money where its mouth is,” she said.
