WHILE we are tightening our belts, enduring high inflation and cuts, the Government is staunchly defending its foreign aid budget.

We languish in depression but the Ugandan president has spent £30m of the UK’s £70m to buy himself a six-seater jet.

The more frugal former president of Tanzania has spent only £30m on a new jet, but then we only gave £40m of our taxes to him.

And proving that irony is not dead, the EU is also paying for Belgians to teach Africans in Burkina Faso how to dance.

Can somebody remind me, while we are closing care homes, and hospital waiting lists are on the rise again, where charity begins?

Chris Greenwell, Darlington.