Quotes by New Economics Foundation

According to figures from the Bank of England, in 2006, money from developing countries deposited in UK banks surged by over $124 billion - around $10 billion more than in 2005 - lifting total deposits to $514 billion. In 2006, nef revealed that in spite of the UK Government's commitment to increasing its aid budget, another barely noticed trend, the rise in money from developing nations deposited in UK banks, cast questions over the nation's financial role in relation to developing countries. Overall, a range of factors will be influential but, generally, the removal of controls over the movement of money around the world, and 'capital flight' are both likely factors.

The UK still relies on health workers from poor countries: As issues of immigration refuse to leave the mainstream political debate, the reality appears to be that many of our vital public services could not function without the arrival of skilled professionals from overseas. In the last five years alone, the UK has imported 289 trained nurses from Malawi, 364 from Botswana and 757 from Zambia. South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho and Zimbabwe also send nurses trained in the health systems of Africa to work in the NHS. The popular myth of the UK being a soft-touch for health tourists, masks a reality in which we are being tended in our sick beds by nurses that many poor countries can ill afford to lose.

China is increasingly blamed for its levels of pollution in general, and its rising greenhouse gas emissions in particular. But it is demand from countries like the UK which leads to smoke from Chinese factories and power plants entering the atmosphere. Because China's energy mix is more fossil-fuel intensive than those of Europe, Japan or the USA, it also means that outsourcing to China creates more greenhouse gas emissions for each product made.
"As China is increasingly attacked because of its rising pollution levels, people overlook two important issues. First, per person, China's greenhouse gas emissions are a fraction of those in Europe and the United States. Second, a closer look at trade flows reveals that a large share of China's rising emissions is due to the dependence of the rest of the world on exports from China - a Chinadependence," adds nef policy director, Andrew Simms.
"There is also the fact that a lot of heavy industry has simply relocated to China from apparently cleaner, richer nations - when our major retailers scour the world for the cheapest production costs, the result is that more greenhouse gases get pumped into the atmosphere for every product we buy."