Nice to know our money is being well-spent

I hope you are as delighted as me at the fact that our financial commitment to overseas aid will increase by more than 30 percent over the next few years. I suspect they’re all leaping up and down with delight in Middlesbrough, Liverpool, Stoke, Cardiff and so on, too, as the dole queues grow longer.

I know we don’t have hypothecated taxes, but I like to think that the money I pay will go straight towards the Indian space programme. I’m very interested in space exploration and, as we can’t afford a space programme of our own, it cheers me up to know that we’re helping to fund someone else’s. Last year we gave £300m to India.