You recently carried an advertisement by the Conservatives which states that they will "spend a greater proportion of the government's total budget on international aid than Labour".
Given that when they were last in office they halved Britain's aid budget - between 1979 and 1997 it went down as a proportion of national wealth from 0.51 per cent to 0.26 per cent - can they be trusted? Their advertisement carries no creditability when they plan to cut public spending by £35 million. By setting up the Commission for Africa and pledging to pay of 10 per cent of the money owed by the poorest countries to the World Bank and African Development Bank, earmarking at least £100 million per year, the Labour Government has shown its commitment to the world's poorest people.
The overwhelming response to the tsunami appeals and the support for the "make poverty history" campaign shows that British people care.
I believe they will not be fooled by Tory adverts such as the one in your newspaper recently.
Gloria Jefferson
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