Wednesday 24 March 2010

Fakecharities launch new campaign...

... on behalf of, er, fakecharities.

Further to my occasional series 'I'm surprised they are that blatant about it', the FT writes up a press release from The Charities Commission:

Public sector cuts could create a "financial black hole" for thousands of charities that receive a high proportion of funding from the government, the charity watchdog warns today. The Charity Commission's concern underlines the wide ripple effect of Treasury austerity, which is likely to be felt across swaths of the economy that are not part of the public sector but have a close relationship with it...

Dame Suzi Leather, who chairs the Charity Commission, warns that in spite of economic recovery: "Our research shows that the financial recovery for charities may lag behind that of other sectors."


Since when is the Charities Commission the cheerleader for, rather than watchdog of, 'charities' in general or fakecharities in particular?

What sort of 'research' did the Charities Commission carry out? A couple of 'phonecalls to sound out which charities might like to appoint Dame S as a trustee for a modest annual fee when her contract runs out, only to be told that their budget for overpaid meddlers was already maxed out?

Ah... from the press release (link as above)... "The key findings of the survey of 1,010 charities, carried out by MVA Consultancy...". Their website in turn explains that "MVA Consultancy provides advice on transport to central, regional and local government, agencies, developers, operators and financiers....", i.e. they are a fakeprivatecompany, who are
(a) living off Ye Olde Taxpayer and
(b) claim to specialise in transport, about a million miles from 'phoning round a few charity mates.

7 comments:

JuliaM said...

"...likely to be felt across swaths of the economy that are not part of the public sector but have a close relationship with it..."

Good! Bring it on!

Michael Heaver said...

Mark, would you be interested in joining the UKIP Hub team?

Letters From A Tory said...

Fakecompanies doing research for fakecharities to improve the survival chances of fakecharities?

Nope, can't see any vested interests there....

Mark Wadsworth said...

JM, the sooner the better, eh?

MH, yes, send me an email.

LFAT, you missed out a step: it's actually "Fakecompanies doing research on fakecharities for a quango to improve the survival chances of fakecharities"

Chuckles said...

Perhaps dame Suze has suddenly realised that without some fake charities to root for, perhaps we don't really need the Charity Commission?

Bit of negative slack, rightsizing and all that.

John Pickworth said...

Dame Suzi Leather?

Mmmmmm, off to check my extensive collection of 1970's porn.

neil craig said...

It is common for government departments & regulators to become the captives of the people they are ostensibly controlling but having the government charity regulator, who is supposed to be checking that all charities are genuine, acting as lobbyists for fake charities to be given more money by government does seem a bit Alice in Wonderland.