My family comes from "bongo bongo land".

They come from Pakistan, for which I make no apology. We have been told by Godfrey Bloom, the Ukip MEP, that Pakistan gets its fighter air squadrons funded by the UK taxpayer.

Mr Bloom made the comments to a meeting of Ukip supporters in Wordsley in the West Midlands where he was secretly filmed.

The Department for International Development (DFID) spent £203m on international development in Pakistan last year (not the £52bn cited by Mr Bloom) and it was spent on essential resources education education for primary school children and better ante- and post- natal care for mothers. Maternity care is still a big problem in Pakistan and many mothers die needlessly in and after childbirth.

Ukip hates the European Union, as we all know. Its members are happy to collect their salaries and expenses, which can amount to a quite considerable sum - at least £100,000 and often more. Perhaps Ukip members should donate their earnings to international aid?

According to Mr Bloom, DFID's donations allegedly go to "bongo bongo land ... to buy Ray-Ban sunglasses, apartments in Paris, Ferraris and all the rest of it that goes with most of the foreign aid".

What? Ray-Bans and Ferraris? Is Mr Bloom on the same planet? Where children die of easily treatable diseases and where clean water isn't instantly available for all, as it is here?

The arithmetic is haywire for a start. DFID, generous donor though it is, gives about £2743m a year from its budget to international development. France gave more than £7740m in 2010, roughly three times the UK figure.

Of course, this argument isn't just about the cash; it's about where it goes and the reasons for the allocation. According to Mr Bloom it goes on buying fighter aircraft that British squadrons ought to get. Not true. Most goes on neglected children, education and maternity care.

Mr. Bloom asserts that the UK spends "a billion a month" on international aid. The world's biggest international donor is the European Union and it comes in at 114bn euros (£9814m).

But Mr Bloom goes further. He says of Muslim extremists: "We can't hang them because the EU doesn't allow us. I'd hang the bastards myself ... I do hope they would ask me to throw the rope over the beam because I'd be delighted to do so. None of this we can do. We do not control our own destiny any more."

Thank God for that. Can you imagine a reconfigured world where we hang people for being guilty of connecting to a different religion? We could be talking about ordinary Muslims being in the line of fire. The idea of being controlled by Mr Bloom's view of politics is too horrific to contemplate.

Mr Bloom has a bit of a record. He is one of those people who claims to be a voice of reason yet doesn't believe in the reality of climate change, shouts Nazi slogans at German politicians, is ejected from events where he causes a problem or is carried out by his friends when he is a bit over the top.

So his credibility isn't exactly sound. but let's just use the opportunity he has thrown up to think a bit more carefully about what actually is happening in the international aid framework.

International aid is administered by people who care about other people who are less fortunate; these are folk whose commitment and drive towards rebalancing a lop-sided global economy is absolutely genuine.

Let us not insult them by trying to make out they are some sort of gun merchants and racketeers.