IN HIS letter of November 22 on foreign aid, Mr Cox is a little hard on this government and previous governments in describing their action as “giving away millions” and failing to understand that “charity begins at home”.

The greater part of what they classify as foreign aid is in fact loans – incurring interest – made to countries in economic difficulties, either directly or via the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund.

I imagine that Mr Cox will be pleased to learn that the all-party UK Parliamentary International Development Committee had recommended that all UK directly-provided aid should in the future be in the form of loans not grants, so that all the so-called aid that we are “giving away” is paid back with interest.

Providing the interest our government charges is less than seven per cent, all such loans can be classified as foreign aid.

Since many recipients of aid are struggling to pay us back interest and capital on loans which their counties took out decades ago, we need to be wary of talking about “giving away millions in foreign aid”. it is better described as a form of overseas payday loan.

Maurice Vassie, Chair York Christian Aid, Deighton, York.