Today's vote on the aid cut cannot undo the damage a hastily implemented cut has wrought on the UK aid programme. Programmes abandoned midway through. Contracts broken. People laid off. Morale hit. Reputation damaged.
if the government really wants to move to a lower aid spend through this Parliament, as is now clear from its motion, it should have had the honesty to legislate in advance to amend the act setting out the 0.7% target
and then it should have implemented the cut in a sensible value for money way -- rather than slamming on the brakes, pretending this was a short-term move - but now admitting it isn't.
and if MPs vote for the motion today, the govt will have to legislate. This motion can't override the legal commitments in the act as far as I can see.
the move was always pretty dubious legally - now it is explicitly setting out its intention to breach the act. so we have bad VFM, bad faith, a bad start to Global Britain, a shadow over the newly created FCDO and reduced our moral authority at the COP.
development was one of the areas where other govts acknowledged we were world beating.. even if Parliament votes to restore the 0.7% (and am personally not a fan of input targets), the govt's short-termist actions will cast a long shadow.
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