I WOULD like to take issue with John Glen’s response with regard to the suggestion of appropriating the aid budget, suggested by Paul McNulty.

He states it is our moral obligation to continue to pay 0.7% of our GDP in foreign aid. We’ve had nearly a decade of austerity since the Labour Party left us virtually bankrupt, and yet politicians can find £13+bn every year (this figure will increase as the economy grows) to fund other countries’ infrastructure but are quite happy to let our own infrastructure deteriorate.

The historical fact is that developed countries committed themselves to meet this target but out of the larger economies in recent times we, the UK, have met this target whilst larger economies like the USA, France and Germany have not! The Conservative Party also enshrined this obligation into UK law in 2015, it can’t even be overturned by the courts, but it seems that moral obligation is not truly international.

We have had to endure savage cuts in council funding and services, particularly in Wiltshire, something he must be aware of. Our roads in particular must be the worst in the country yet apparently we have no money to properly maintain them. I would suggest £13+bn would go a long way to remedy this! I think the public are getting fed up with the government austerity mantra.

Can UK politicians really justify this expenditure and commitment? I believe we should help poorer counties if we can but not at the expense of our own suffering. This government should revisit this pledge now and its own moral obligations to its own taxpayers, not just foreign countries.

David Gill

Amesbury