Categories: uncategorized
Date: 13 July 2005 21:06:38
Being a little naughty here - what's the difference between hope and idealism? I suppose that the question that I'm asking is this: are we (the campaigners) not being a bit naive? The hard-headed politicians have a difficult path to tread - if 250000 people say, in effect, that we're happy to have less services, or to pay more in taxes, so that people in the developing world will be better off - do we really mean it? Or will we just complain as bitterly as ever when taxes go up, or we have to wait longer to get an NHS appointment?
There is an economist (whose name escapes me) who has, I believe, demonstrated that fairly small increases in aid can have a good effect out of all proportion. I suppose that we are asking the politicians to forget for a moment the cost to themselves, and try to make the whole world a better place to live in. You can tell that I'm not used to working this kind of thing out, can't you ...