Bribery and corruption

I frequently criticise the foreign aid budget ass I'm a great believer of charity beginning at home, don't get me wrong, I assume some good does come of the various projects undertaken, however it's the cash paid to countries like India (a nuclear power and has its own space program) Pakistan (a nuclear power) and the various kleptocratic states of Africa that really gets my ire, we have enough problems here without lining the pockets of various countries who really ought to be doing something for their own people and not getting handouts from us. If the cause is deserving enough, we'll dig into our pockets to help, as it is though, times are hard. However this one was a new one on me, apparently the foreign bribe aid program keeps us safe.
Telegraph.

Spending on projects such as getting more girls into school in Somalia “contributes directly to our security” and should be a source of national pride like the Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee, he said in an interview while on a visit to Nepal.
Even as most Government departments’ budgets are being cut, aid spending is rising by more than a third to almost £11billion in 2014-15 as the Coalition aims for a United Nations target of 0.7 per cent of GDP. The aid pledge is controversial among some Conservatives, who say the money would be better spent at home.
Mr Mitchell accepted that a smaller aid budget might have meant fewer cuts elsewhere, but insisted that development projects also helped protect Britain.
“Our security is not just provided by soldiers and tanks and fighter jets, it is also provided by training the police in Afghanistan, by building up governance structures in the Middle East and by getting girls into school in the Horn of Africa,” he said. “Those things are all part of what makes us safer.”
Mr Mitchell conceded that the “difficult” outlook made the aid budget harder to sell to voters, but said Britons should take pride in helping those people living in poverty.

Yes, he really does appear to think that Danegeld works, that rather than simply say banning Somali's and Afghans from entering the UK and sending the navy to blow the Somali pirates out of the water that helping them train their police (some of whom have killed our soldiers) and teaching Somali schoolgirls (wonder what Rhea Page thinks about trained Somali schoolgirls) actually stops them from coming over here as asylum seekers and causing no end of bother.
This man though a Tory MP, is clearly another Chris Huhne, utterly bereft of common sense as it's applied to the real world. What the leaders of those countries respect, is strength and what they respond too is fear as far as they are concerned training their police and running their schools just gives them more cash for Mercedes and gold plated AK 47's Or in the case of India, helping running their space program.
Bribes don't keep us safe, the fear of a devastating response if they step out of line will, it's time we stopped lining the pockets of 3rd world dictators, we could simply spend the money arming their rivals and playing them off against each other.
Charity begins at home, we have too many problems here without giving away taxpayers cash to foreign tinpot states and countries who simply do not need it.