Britain has squandered its hard-earned reputation as a “development superpower”, a minister has admitted as he said it was his task to make the current cutbacks work better to ensure the best is preserved for better days.
Andrew Mitchell said under previous prime ministers the UK had been held in high esteem internationally due to its dedication to overseas projects. But he said nations around the world now “bemoan” the Conservative government’s recent decisions.
He suggested the widespread perception was a far cry from the widely-held view of the UK during the years of Tony Blair and then David Cameron in No 10 Downing Street.
Speaking to the international development committee in the UK Parliament on Tuesday, the newly appointed development minister elaborated on his recent criticism of the government’s decision to merge two departments. Mr Mitchell said there was “difficulty in the structure” of the new system, which is made up of the Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which previously operated separately.
He said some aspects of the merger to form the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) were "sub-optimal”.
“You will appreciate ... that I have said very publicly what I think about the merger of the two departments,” he said.
“But collective responsibility is not retrospective and the merger is a fact, it’s a settled policy of the government. The question is 'can we make it work better' and I will give the committee just this one set of statistics.
“When Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were in government, we spent 0.51 per cent [of national income] on international development and we were without question a development superpower," Mr Mitchell told MPs.
“I would argue that in 2012 when David Cameron was our prime minister, we were also spending 0.51 per cent and in my view, we were without question a development superpower.
“Today, we are actually spending 0.55 per cent and, you know, let’s not beat about the bush, we are not a development superpower at the moment and that is something that is bemoaned around the world by our many friends and people who look to Britain for leadership on international development.”
In his autumn budget announced last month, Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said the UK would not return to spending 0.7 per cent of GDP until the economic conditions allowed, and pegged it at 0.5 per cent.
But Britain is tipped to smash its spending cap this year due to so much of the budget being eaten up by support packages for asylum seekers.
The amount was slashed under Boris Johnson from 0.7 per cent to 0.5 per cent during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mr Mitchell said work needed to be done to rebuild the UK’s reputation as a development superpower.
“If you’re going to recruit, motivate and retain [staff] and build back this great British expertise and leadership … then we have to, in my opinion, make some structural changes in the FCDO, which allow within that structure there to be a hub of excellence that deals with these global public goods,” he said. “And if Britain is seen to do that, other countries will engage with us in a way they don’t at the moment but did in the past and that will start the restoration.”
Myles Wickstead, a professor in international relations at King’s College London who previously served as ambassador to Ethiopia, Djibouti and the African Union, last month told The National that the UK’s soft power was being eroded due to a foreign aid lower budget.
“There are still 30 or so very poor countries in the world which require aid,” he said. “In all those places, the UK’s reputation is high, it is seen in a leadership role. I think that reputation has suffered significantly.
“The UK is going to have to move quickly to repair it.”
Most sought after workplace benefits in the UAE
- Flexible work arrangements
- Pension support
- Mental well-being assistance
- Insurance coverage for optical, dental, alternative medicine, cancer screening
- Financial well-being incentives
Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S E Performance: the specs
Engine: 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 plus rear-mounted electric motor
Power: 843hp at N/A rpm
Torque: 1470Nm N/A rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 8.6L/100km
On sale: October to December
Price: From Dh875,000 (estimate)
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
What is the FNC?
The Federal National Council is one of five federal authorities established by the UAE constitution. It held its first session on December 2, 1972, a year to the day after Federation.
It has 40 members, eight of whom are women. The members represent the UAE population through each of the emirates. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have eight members each, Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah six, and Ajman, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain have four.
They bring Emirati issues to the council for debate and put those concerns to ministers summoned for questioning.
The FNC’s main functions include passing, amending or rejecting federal draft laws, discussing international treaties and agreements, and offering recommendations on general subjects raised during sessions.
Federal draft laws must first pass through the FNC for recommendations when members can amend the laws to suit the needs of citizens. The draft laws are then forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration and approval.
Since 2006, half of the members have been elected by UAE citizens to serve four-year terms and the other half are appointed by the Ruler’s Courts of the seven emirates.
In the 2015 elections, 78 of the 252 candidates were women. Women also represented 48 per cent of all voters and 67 per cent of the voters were under the age of 40.
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Uefa Nations League
League A:
Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Spain, France, England, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, Iceland, Croatia, Netherlands
League B:
Austria, Wales, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Ukraine, Republic of Ireland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Northern Ireland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Turkey
League C:
Hungary, Romania, Scotland, Slovenia, Greece, Serbia, Albania, Norway, Montenegro, Israel, Bulgaria, Finland, Cyprus, Estonia, Lithuania
League D:
Azerbaijan, Macedonia, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Latvia, Faroe Islands, Luxembourg, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Liechtenstein, Malta, Andorra, Kosovo, San Marino, Gibraltar
The Africa Institute 101
Housed on the same site as the original Africa Hall, which first hosted an Arab-African Symposium in 1976, the newly renovated building will be home to a think tank and postgraduate studies hub (it will offer master’s and PhD programmes). The centre will focus on both the historical and contemporary links between Africa and the Gulf, and will serve as a meeting place for conferences, symposia, lectures, film screenings, plays, musical performances and more. In fact, today it is hosting a symposium – 5-plus-1: Rethinking Abstraction that will look at the six decades of Frank Bowling’s career, as well as those of his contemporaries that invested social, cultural and personal meaning into abstraction.
Four-day collections of TOH
Day Indian Rs (Dh)
Thursday 500.75 million (25.23m)
Friday 280.25m (14.12m)
Saturday 220.75m (11.21m)
Sunday 170.25m (8.58m)
Total 1.19bn (59.15m)
(Figures in millions, approximate)
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
BMW%20M4%20Competition
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Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
Closing the loophole on sugary drinks
As The National reported last year, non-fizzy sugared drinks were not covered when the original tax was introduced in 2017. Sports drinks sold in supermarkets were found to contain, on average, 20 grams of sugar per 500ml bottle.
The non-fizzy drink AriZona Iced Tea contains 65 grams of sugar – about 16 teaspoons – per 680ml can. The average can costs about Dh6, which would rise to Dh9.
Drinks such as Starbucks Bottled Mocha Frappuccino contain 31g of sugar in 270ml, while Nescafe Mocha in a can contains 15.6g of sugar in a 240ml can.
Flavoured water, long-life fruit juice concentrates, pre-packaged sweetened coffee drinks fall under the ‘sweetened drink’ category
Not taxed:
Freshly squeezed fruit juices, ground coffee beans, tea leaves and pre-prepared flavoured milkshakes do not come under the ‘sweetened drink’ band.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
HIJRA
Starring: Lamar Faden, Khairiah Nathmy, Nawaf Al-Dhufairy
Director: Shahad Ameen
Rating: 3/5
Shooting Ghosts: A U.S. Marine, a Combat Photographer, and Their Journey Back from War by Thomas J. Brennan and Finbarr O’Reilly
