THERE are so many things wrong in today's Britain, mostly because of a lack of Government money.

I cannot understand why Chancellor Gordon Brown goes to Mozambique and says he is going to give £8 billion of UK taxpayers' money to them and other African countries - surely "charity begins at home". This policy makes no sense when:

The NHS is in financial crisis, closing wards, deferring operations and sacking thousands of skilful medical staff who have been through costly training programmes, all of which must lead to worse patient care.

In his last budget Brown said he would put money into education, but that money was aimed at buildings and equipment. Yes, we need more and better buildings and equipment, but what the UK lacks most is teachers and teachers' assistants.

We have classroom sizes of 25 to 36 often with three or four children with "special needs" and it is virtually impossible for the one teacher in that class to cope with all that is expected of him or her by the national curriculum. Who suffers? Our children. But it is not the teachers' fault - on the whole they do a fantastic job.

What is the answer? Obvious! Our Government should not give our money away in foreign aid, but re-direct that money to paying for more teachers, and teacher assistants and thus smaller and better classes and hence a higher all-round standard of education for our children, who are this country's future.

David Quarrie,

Lyndon Way,

Acomb, York.

Updated: 10:20 Tuesday, April 18, 2006