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UK foreign aid: UKIP anger as India buys bullet trains whilst receiving British cash | UK | News | Daily Express
BRITAIN’S foreign aid madness descended into further farce today after it emerged that India is set to splash out on state-of-the-art BULLET TRAINS - despite receiving £300 million a year from UK taxpayers.
By NICK GUTTERIDGE
PUBLISHED: 08:42, Mon, Dec 14, 2015 | UPDATED: 09:21, Mon, Dec 14, 2015
GETTY
India is buying new bullet trains despite receiving UK foreign aid cash
The booming Asian powerhouse will blow £10 billion on the 200mph trains, which will leave Britain’s decrepit locomotives trailing in their wake, even though the country is supposedly so poor it still needs aid from the UK Government.
As a result Indians will soon be able to zoom 325 miles across their country in just two hours, whilst commuters back in Britain continue to pay sky high prices for slow and unpredictable services along an ancient rail network in desperate need of modernisation.
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They also farcically mean that India, whose railways were built by the British during the Colonial era, is in line to receive a much-needed network upgrade ahead of the country which invented the locomotive.
GETTY
The state-of-the-art train can go 200mph
GETTY
Britain's railways are overcrowded and decrepit in comparison
Bruce Williamson of passenger campaign group Railfuture raged: “Britain exported the railways to India and the rest of the world. Now we’re lagging behind.
“There’s a certain irony that India could now overtake Britain with modern high speed rail.”
He added: “The two biggest gripes for passengers in this country are the level of fares and overcrowding.
“British passengers are paying sky high fares yet suffering chronic overcrowding. Passenger numbers are growing rapidly but our railways are not keeping pace with demand. We’re constantly playing catch-up.
“Passenger numbers have doubled in the last 20 years. But the number of stations and rail lines has not kept pace. Decisions take too long. Politicians don’t move fast enough.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi confirmed yesterday that his nation will buy the high-speed ’Shinkansen’ trains - known as bullet trains because of the mind-bending speech they can reach - from Japan.
They will run along a new 325-mile railway linking Mumbai on the country’s west coast to Ahmedabad to its north, and will cut journey times from the current eight hours to just two.
In contrast it takes British trains almost five hours to trundle the 400 miles from London to Edinburgh along our own creaking network.
Criticism of Britain’s foreign aid payments to India has been fierce in the face of the country’s rapidly expanding economy, which is growing by more than seven per cent a year.
The booming nation - home to 1.2 billion people - is currently building a fleet of aircraft carriers for its navy and even has its own space programme.
India is also planning to team up with Japan to build new nuclear power plants, prompting questions over why it still needs British cash.
At the same time, British public services are under huge financial pressure as George Osborne’s programme of austerity continues to bite.
GETTY
The revelations will pose awkward questions for David Cameron
GETTY
India has its own space programme but still gets British aid
What priorities does our government really have, as they certainly aren’t those of this country?
UKIP's Nathan Gill
UKIP development spokesman Nathan Gill told the Daily Mail: “Aircraft Carriers, space programme, bullet trains and £300 million per annum in UK aid is not bad really when you think about it.
“Pity our forces are strapped for cash, our trains are packed and creaking, we have pitiful investment in high tech research and huge areas of national life underfunded. What priorities does our government really have, as they certainly aren’t those of this country?”
Roger Ford, technology editor at Modern Railways magazine added: “I don’t know why we are giving aid to India when they are developing a space programme.
“India owns much of UK industry including Jaguar Land Rover and Tata steel.
“Now they are developing high speed bullet trains. Some people may think this odd. Where the money is going to come from for these trains I don’t know.”
Mr Modi announced the deal after talks with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe in Delhi.
India is growing at 7.4 percent a year, the most recent figures show, meaning its economy is outperforming China’s.
But Britain’s aid contributions to the country actually rose last year, growing by £10 million to £279 million meaning it is the second largest recipient of UK aid behind only Ethiopia.
Aid payments are due to stop at the end of this year, although Britain will still plough tens of millions of pounds into private ventures and “technical assistance” programmes helping the country build up its skills in the area of health and education.
A spokesman for the department for International Development said: “No DFID money is being spent on high speed trains in India.
“We are doing exactly what we said we would do back in 2012 — ending financial aid to India by the end of this year. Since 2011, DFID has cut aid to India by almost 40 per cent, saving the British taxpayer more than £300 million.”
BRITAIN’S foreign aid madness descended into further farce today after it emerged that India is set to splash out on state-of-the-art BULLET TRAINS - despite receiving £300 million a year from UK taxpayers.
By NICK GUTTERIDGE
PUBLISHED: 08:42, Mon, Dec 14, 2015 | UPDATED: 09:21, Mon, Dec 14, 2015
India is buying new bullet trains despite receiving UK foreign aid cash
The booming Asian powerhouse will blow £10 billion on the 200mph trains, which will leave Britain’s decrepit locomotives trailing in their wake, even though the country is supposedly so poor it still needs aid from the UK Government.
As a result Indians will soon be able to zoom 325 miles across their country in just two hours, whilst commuters back in Britain continue to pay sky high prices for slow and unpredictable services along an ancient rail network in desperate need of modernisation.
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They also farcically mean that India, whose railways were built by the British during the Colonial era, is in line to receive a much-needed network upgrade ahead of the country which invented the locomotive.
The state-of-the-art train can go 200mph
Britain's railways are overcrowded and decrepit in comparison
Bruce Williamson of passenger campaign group Railfuture raged: “Britain exported the railways to India and the rest of the world. Now we’re lagging behind.
“There’s a certain irony that India could now overtake Britain with modern high speed rail.”
He added: “The two biggest gripes for passengers in this country are the level of fares and overcrowding.
“British passengers are paying sky high fares yet suffering chronic overcrowding. Passenger numbers are growing rapidly but our railways are not keeping pace with demand. We’re constantly playing catch-up.
“Passenger numbers have doubled in the last 20 years. But the number of stations and rail lines has not kept pace. Decisions take too long. Politicians don’t move fast enough.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi confirmed yesterday that his nation will buy the high-speed ’Shinkansen’ trains - known as bullet trains because of the mind-bending speech they can reach - from Japan.
They will run along a new 325-mile railway linking Mumbai on the country’s west coast to Ahmedabad to its north, and will cut journey times from the current eight hours to just two.
In contrast it takes British trains almost five hours to trundle the 400 miles from London to Edinburgh along our own creaking network.
Criticism of Britain’s foreign aid payments to India has been fierce in the face of the country’s rapidly expanding economy, which is growing by more than seven per cent a year.
The booming nation - home to 1.2 billion people - is currently building a fleet of aircraft carriers for its navy and even has its own space programme.
India is also planning to team up with Japan to build new nuclear power plants, prompting questions over why it still needs British cash.
At the same time, British public services are under huge financial pressure as George Osborne’s programme of austerity continues to bite.
The revelations will pose awkward questions for David Cameron
India has its own space programme but still gets British aid
What priorities does our government really have, as they certainly aren’t those of this country?
UKIP's Nathan Gill
UKIP development spokesman Nathan Gill told the Daily Mail: “Aircraft Carriers, space programme, bullet trains and £300 million per annum in UK aid is not bad really when you think about it.
“Pity our forces are strapped for cash, our trains are packed and creaking, we have pitiful investment in high tech research and huge areas of national life underfunded. What priorities does our government really have, as they certainly aren’t those of this country?”
Roger Ford, technology editor at Modern Railways magazine added: “I don’t know why we are giving aid to India when they are developing a space programme.
“India owns much of UK industry including Jaguar Land Rover and Tata steel.
“Now they are developing high speed bullet trains. Some people may think this odd. Where the money is going to come from for these trains I don’t know.”
Mr Modi announced the deal after talks with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe in Delhi.
India is growing at 7.4 percent a year, the most recent figures show, meaning its economy is outperforming China’s.
But Britain’s aid contributions to the country actually rose last year, growing by £10 million to £279 million meaning it is the second largest recipient of UK aid behind only Ethiopia.
Aid payments are due to stop at the end of this year, although Britain will still plough tens of millions of pounds into private ventures and “technical assistance” programmes helping the country build up its skills in the area of health and education.
A spokesman for the department for International Development said: “No DFID money is being spent on high speed trains in India.
“We are doing exactly what we said we would do back in 2012 — ending financial aid to India by the end of this year. Since 2011, DFID has cut aid to India by almost 40 per cent, saving the British taxpayer more than £300 million.”
It is called investment rather than foreign aid from China 
