Charities - again!

I was appalled to hear on the breakfast news that councils are beginning to cut local charity contributions as part of our new austerity drive.

Apparently, council contributions to local charities such as community transport schemes account for as much as a third of their income.

And yet we continue to ring fence the foreign aid budget - putting people who live in other countries before our own citizens.

In a perfect world we could do all of this. But we do not live in a perfect world. We are in the shite...and, as they keep telling us, we are all in it together. Unless, of course, you live in a different country.

Some idiot the other day said we could cancel a couple of aircraft carriers and educate 4 million African primary school children for a year on the proceeds. But when we examine the statistics, we already apparently educate more overseas children in this group than our own.

Here's an idea for you, Cleggy. How about we redefine the aid budget which you insist on ring fencing to include funding for projects in this country as well - only let's put our own citizens at the top of the list.

After all, "charity begins at home"