Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Overseas Development – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 1 March 1993.
Dennis Skinner
, Bolsover
12:00,
1 March 1993
In view of the overseas aid figures that we have just heard and the reduction in aid to third-world countries, does not the Minister feel a little ashamed when he compares the fact that in 1991 the top four clearing banks set aside £720 million, yet third-world countries had no debts written off? Are not the Government running a strange society when the Chancellor of the exchequer can write off £4,700 and the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food can have £20,000 worth of assets added to his property, whereas little kids in South Africa and elsewhere with matchstick legs get hardly anything from this Government? If debts are going to be written off for banks and others, they should be written off for poor countries in the third world.
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