There's a fakecharity for everything ...

Man Widdicombe mentioned The Child Growth Foundation in passing here. Now, if that name doesn't scream "fakecharity!" then I don't know what does, so I did the usual, cut and paste the charity number into here and click view accounts.

On closer inspection, it appears to be a negative fakecharity, i.e. an industry lobbying front. Ignoring the ten per cent of income that comes from donations and royalty income (what?), the bulk of their income is grant income from the following three companies:

1. Novo, which has two main subsidiaries, one is "a healthcare company and a world leader in diabetes care" and the other is "the world leader in bio-innovation... [their] natural solutions enhance and promote everything from removing trans-fats in food, to advancing biofuels to power the world tomorrow."

2. Merck Serono, which is part of Merck, the pharamceuticals and chemicals giant.

3. Ipsen, another specialist pharmaceuticals company.

And where does all the money go?

In a fit of honesty, Note 15 to the accounts admits that the wives of the honorary chairman, deputy chairman and treasurer received £52,000 in salaries in the year (nice work if you can get it), but the bulk of their income is spent on grants to a whole raft of UK (state) universities and NHS hospitals as listed in Note 3.

The final note in the accounts is also well worth a read, but I won't spoil it for you. In the light of that, why on earth The Daily Mirror would imagine the chairman's views to be of the slightest relevance to anything whatsoever is a mystery to me. As Man W points out, The self-same chairman also pipes up on behalf of the National Obesity Form, which is yet another drugs industry lobbying front, of course.