An opportunity for Labour to honour its pledge on worldwide growth | Support

Heather Stewart is true (The spirit of the G8 ‘make poverty historical past’ summit of 2005 appears lengthy gone, 6 July). Twenty years later, we’re in a very totally different world, dealing with overlapping crises and a retreat from world duty.

In simply the primary half of 2025 alone, USAID has been dismantled, and the UK, France, Germany and Canada have all scaled again their growth budgets. Many lower-income international locations are nonetheless reeling from crises that they didn’t trigger, spending extra on debt repayments than on healthcare or schooling.

Though the UK support price range shouldn’t be more likely to improve any time quickly, the federal government nonetheless has an opportunity to honour its manifesto pledge “to rebuild Britain’s fame on worldwide growth”. It should set a daring agenda by championing debt reduction and reforms to the worldwide financial system, together with making the worldwide tax system fairer, to be able to scale up international locations’ public financing. The latest Financing for Improvement summit in Spain was a missed alternative. With a concerted effort to construct public assist, the UK authorities should present that worldwide solidarity is not a factor of the previous.Romilly GreenhillCEO, Bond, the UK community for NGOs

Concerning Simon Tisdall’s article (The UN is our greatest defence in opposition to a 3rd world battle. As Trump wields the axe, who will combat to put it aside? 6 July), the UN might be weaker than it has ever been, however it’s wanted as by no means earlier than, as is internationalism extra usually, expressed in dialogue, cooperation and the solidarity of economic support. That our prime minister has “slashed its support price range by £6bn, to pay for nuclear bombs”, and plans to construct six new arms factories, boasting that the defence trade will change into “an engine for financial development”, reveals how unlikely it’s that the UK will contribute to the expansion of internationalism and strengthening of the UN.

Warfare’s ever-greater barbarity and destruction on the human degree is on the identical time a large assault on nature, inflicting air pollution and carbon emissions on a grand scale. Who will combat to strengthen and reform the UN, construct world cooperation and create a future for the world’s youngsters? We should, all of us, in a world motion of the keen and the caring, earlier than it actually is just too late.Diana FrancisBath

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