THE terrible scenes from Nepal, where thousands of people have died as a result of Saturday's earthquake, have touched people all over the world.

It's hard for us, in this relatively safe and secure part of the world, to relate to the shocking images or the challenges the survivors must now face.

We can help of course.

This country's skills, technical and logistical resources, and money are all needed.

Alongside other countries we are already making a contribution; from sophisticated search and rescue operations, to blankets.

At moments like this our compassion comes to the fore.

But we can't allow such moments to pass; compassion is a force which is deep within human nature but which we sometimes don't allow to the surface.

In a little over a week, voters in this country will choose representatives to the UK Parliament, which holds the power over our international policy.

We are being urged by the far right of the political spectrum, and by some voices in the national media, to reduce the country's international aid budget to a tiny fraction of its current level, abandoning our commitment to tackling poverty and supporting development around the world.

To do so would be to abandon our compassion, and to be driven instead by fear and selfishness.

There's always more we can do to improve the quality of aid, and to make more of an impact on the challenges the world faces.

Increasing co-operation between donor countries is an important part of that, and it's something the EU is good at.

But those complaining about the money we spend rarely contribute such positive ideas; they just want to leave the poorest people in the world to their plight.

There's a great deal this country has done to cause the problems facing developing countries.

From invasion, occupation and empire to unfair trade rules; from imposing privatisation of their assets to extracting their wealth through impossible debt burdens.

Climate change, which poses unprecedented threats to the basics of life in developing countries, is largely the result of the way we in wealthy countries have been living.

When we see natural disasters such as an earthquake or tsunami, it's too easy to regard it as unfortunate but unavoidable.

In reality, such events are dramatically more damaging because of poverty and underdevelopment.

When we see the desperation of human migration, as with the thousands of deaths in the Mediterranean, some people will urge us to see the victims as somehow less than human.

We need the courage to be driven by our compassion rather than by our fear, not only at times of immediate need, but every day.

And perhaps more than ever on election day.