Noticeable by their absence

Below are excerpts from a random selection of articles about the proposed restrictions on tax relief for donations to charity.

What strikes me is that the people bleating the loudest are all the tax dodgers, fakecharities, money launderers and quangocrats. None of these sources has managed to get a single quote from a genuine non-taxpayer funded actual real life charity, have they?

City AM: Investment manager Brewin Dolphin and accounting firm Baker Tilly spoke out against the proposal while business secretary Vince Cable said he was “sympathetic” to concerns.

Osborne is also under pressure from the Arts Council and Universities UK after a survey showed almost nine out of every 10 charity bosses said gifts from major donors will be severely hit if tax relief is capped at £50,000 a year, or 25 per cent of an individual’s income, whichever is higher... Iona Joy, head of charity effectiveness at think tank New Philanthropy Capital, said: “The government has made a mistake – don’t confuse philanthropists with tax dodgers.”

The Metro: Of 120 chief and senior executives asked, 88 per cent said it would have a 'negative impact' on what they receive from major contributors. A further three per cent said ministers should have consulted them before introducing the measures, while 78 per cent called on George Osborne to ditch the cap, the Charity Aid Foundation (CAF) survey found.

Evening Standard: Oxford and Cambridge universities have joined the increasingly bitter row over Chancellor George Osborne's controversial cap on tax relief for charitable donations... Meanwhile, Arts Council England warned at least £80 million in regular donations to its organisations was at risk, while a new £55 million "matched funding" scheme with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) could also be in jeopardy.

BBC: Philanthropist Marcelle Speller, who set up the website localgiving.com, told the BBC she had put £2m into the project adding: "I think it's rather galling to feel that the last four years and that money has now been seen as a tax dodge."

The chair of Arts Council England, Dame Liz Forgan, said: "We think at least £80m worth of regular donations to some of our largest organisations could well be at risk."... Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of Universities UK, said universities raised £560m from "philanthropic gifts" in the last year, which went towards bursaries, scholarships, facilities and research. They were the "preferred cause" of big donors, so expected to be hard hit, she said.

Daily Telegraph: But charities told The Daily Telegraph that the Government’s aggressive rhetoric would be interpreted as an attack on all giving at a time when many organisations are already struggling to cope with cutbacks in state funding.

Unicef, the children’s charity, said that the government’s approach was already hampering urgent efforts to raise funds for a million children facing food shortages in West Africa. Sir Nicholas Hytner, artistic director National Theatre, said the plans made “no sense” and that he had already received a call from a wealthy individual who was seriously reconsidering a £250,000 donation...

John Caudwell, the billionaire founder of mobile phone retailer Phones4U who last year gave £1.8 million to an appeal backed by Daily Telegraph readers for a monument to members of Bomber Command, said: “Those charities are there doing the Government’s work for them. If the Government did their job properly these charities would not be needed. The fact that a rich person may get around about 20-odd per cent of their donation relieved, they are still contributing to good causes 75 per cent. Who is going to pick up the tab if they stop giving?”

Last night, Dame Stephanie Shirley, who runs a group called Ambassadors for Philanthropy and has herself given away £60million, accused the Government of "a cack–handed assault on philanthropic giving". Dame Shirley said the charity sector stood to lose "hundreds of millions of pounds a year".

Even charities with a large number of regular donations from people on more modest incomes said they would be hit by the clampdown. Karen Rothwell, director of marketing at the RSPB, said the move was a “big blow” to its efforts to recruit bigger donors to help funds one-off projects to protect threatened species. Meanwhile Cambridge University said it was watching the situation “with concern” describing philanthropy is the “bedrock” of its success as a world leading university."