British say extra foreign aid would be wasted

By Alex Singleton | 4 June 2005

A YouGov poll in today's London Daily Telegraph says that 83% of Brits are not confident that extra foreign aid would be spent wisely. 79 per cent of voters believe that corruption and incompetence were to blame for Africa's problems.

The public's lack of faith in Africa's ability to cure its own ills was also revealed when respondents were asked to identify three factors most to blame for the condition of the continent.

Corrupt and incompetent government was seen as the main problem, with 79 per cent citing it as a factor. More than half of respondents also cited the HIV/Aids epidemic and civil wars.

By contrast only a minority said factors for which the West was responsible - such as colonialism, exploitation by multinationals or protectionist trade policies - were among the principal causes of African poverty.