Stop Propping Up Dictators with Our Aid

I was at a medical conference in London last year and met a doctor from Yemen who told me about the devastation caused by the ongoing civil war. He described how hospitals were being bombed and medical supplies were scarce, and it struck me that our government was still providing aid to some of the countries involved in the conflict. It's madness that we're giving money to regimes that are actively working against the interests of their own people.

I think about the patients I see in my surgery every day, people who are struggling to get by on limited incomes, and it angers me that our government is willing to send millions of pounds overseas to prop up dictators and authoritarian regimes. We need to take a long hard look at our foreign aid policy and start making some tough decisions about who we're supporting and why. It's not just about the money, it's about the message we're sending to the world.