What is it not?

More than 2,000 charities across England have had their funding cut or withdrawn altogether by local councils, according to research.

Then they’re not charities, are they? Not for profit organisations, certainly. Quangos, probably. But charities, no.

A quarter of all charities receive funding from the state and for some groups – such as employment and training organisations – it can make up the bulk of their income.

*thud*               *thud*               *thud*               *thud*                  *thud*

That’s the sound of me hitting my head off the desk. Look, a charity is an organisation that an individual donates money or time to voluntarily. An organisation which takes money purloined from me under the threat of prison, without my having any say so is not a charity. It just isn’t. We already have employment and training organisations, they are called schools and colleges. Throwing money at organisations to right their wrongs is not the answer. Address the problems in the education system. This is a system that is little more than a stat generating organisation so politicians can throw brickbats at each other. Come on, why not really think about the children, instead of the next election or management ‘teaching’ post? As for organisations who get the bulk of their income from public funds, well, where’s the accountability? Where’s the democracy? If I’m not happy with the way the Home Office or FCO is being run, I at least get the chance to vote for someone else to have a go, with these ‘charities’, where is my say? It’s my bloody money.

Research for the False Economy website [. . .] found it was charities related to children and young people that were most affected, with more than 200 receiving cuts in funding.

Look, the party is over. I’m sure you’ve been doing very important work and I’m sure it’s made you feel very important. But the fact is that our national debt is running at £900 billion, we simply do not have the money. You may as well shriek that the sun isn’t green and that our rivers don’t run with ginger beer.

Voluntary Action South Leicestershire (VASL) has lost £20,939 state funding for its befriending service, which supports those those who are isolated and lonely.

And that is a scandal, not that the funding has been cut, but that people are isolated and lonely and relying on ‘support’, whatever form that takes, from perfect strangers. I find myself wondering how much support a group can provide. How often are these people visited or taken out? Once, twice a week?

The problem is not a lack of public funds. The problem is a system which squeezes so much out of people financially that they have to work and work and work to keep their heads above water. A system which has spent the last twenty years telling people there is no problem that cannot be solved by state funding and intervention, when the truth is that there isn’t a problem which cannot be made worse by state funding and intervention.

Successive governments have launched shocking and devastating attacks on the old bastions of family, friends, neighbours and community, and reduced them to rubble. They’ve told us for over a generation that only the state can provide your needs, desperate to make us reliant on them, and they simply cannot deliver the goods. Dave’s Big Society is a con, he wants people to provide the services for free, but I get the impression he’s wanting to make sure it is all carefully overseen and controlled. Governments don’t like people doing things for themselves.

These people aren’t isolated and lonely because of some nebulous ‘social decay’, they’re isolated and lonely because of a social vandalism that is nothing short of criminal.

Well, now they’ve run out of our money. Again. Giving people our cash to do stuff that has always been done by friends and family was never going to work, will never work and can never work.

The problem is, the system is so comprehensively destroyed, I don’t know if it can ever be repaired; looking after the people is now the job of the state and the state is incapable of love, tenderness or humanity – it will always be reduced to numbers on a sheet of paper.

How? How can you quantify compassion? It certainly can’t be expressed in pounds and pence and checklists.

Also available on thesnowolf.com

Happy New Year - now hand over your cash.

I really don't understand what it is the government intend to acheive. The first day was good, we were told about the scrapping of the ID cards and home information packs, the databases connected to the aforementioned ID cards was to be removed, if I remember correctly the databases concerning children and the retention of the DNA of the innocent were supposed to go the same way as well. Day one was good. It has all been rather downhill from there, hasn't it?

Just as the government that went before it, this government seems hell bent on destroying business, small and large and squeezing a huge number of the population even tighter as the spending budget, which they claim to be cutting, grows at an alarming rate.

I am talking about this of course:

Petrol station forecourts were busy across the country yesterday as drivers tried to beat the latest fuel price rises.

Duty rose at midnight and combined with Tuesday's VAT rise the move will add around 3.5p to the cost of a litre of diesel and unleaded.

Many motorists ar unhappy about the rise, but the real anger is coming from the haulage industry.

Simon Chapman, from the Freight Transport Association, said it is now becoming a political issue.

"The Chancellor is treating the road freight sector as a bottomless well from which cash to bolster the public finances can be drawn," he said.

I see where you're coming from Simon, but believe me, it isn't just road freight which is being milked mercilessly here, this is a tax on going to work for anybody who uses a car to commute, which is most of us. I can see the Righteous screwing their faces up at this, but you know what, I'd love to use public transport to get to work. Really I would. However there is a problem, I work shifts that cover a 24 hour period. When I start work at half six in the morning, there are no busses that cover the 20 mile route between my house and place of work. When I work shifts where I can use the bus, it takes well over an hour and means me turning up either very early or very late, the same goes for the end of a shift, there are either no busses or I'd have to leave early or sit around for ages once my shift has finished.

The trains are even worse, there is no direct train service between here and there, in order to go by train I have to get a train to one of two towns, and then wait at one of those stations for an hour in order to get the connecting train. I would then have to catch a bus from the station to the part of town where my office is, or walk for half an hour. Once again that is assuming that there are trains to catch at the time of day I have to start or finish work.

In short I have no option but to drive.

The AA has a diagram which is quite helpful and is based on the assumption that a litre of diesel (what my car runs on) is 120.9p, I wish.

Assuming this diagram does not factor in today's duty increase and the imminent VAT rise, it means that almost 63% of every litre of petrol goes to the government. Is that not enough? You want more? What for?

Then there's the VAT rise. The introduction of VAT on fuel was a nasty, cynical move. In what possible respect is the heating of one's home and getting to work a luxury item?

This is the story which will run. Cut public sector jobs and the public will support it. Let the students spray paint anarchist symbols all over central London whilst they demand more money is taken from us and given to them by a cash thirsty state. The only campaign or demonstration which has had any effect since the poll tax riots was the blockading of the refineries by road freight hauliers, and they really did have the public behind them.

Everyone dislikes taxes, but the duty and VAT on fuel is nothing but banditry. There is no good reason to attack petrol like this, beyond the fact that it is a resource that everybody uses, either directly or indirectly. So important a resource is petrol and diesel, that a tax on it is the equivalent of a tax on life. It puts up the cost of getting around, it puts up the cost of moving livestock, grain and vegetables from farm to plant, and the cost of moving produce from plant to store and from store to home. These fuel tax rises are the rises that will get the people out on the streets, as the rise impacts on all of us and it is deeply unjust.

The hauliers brought the country to a standstill, and I think they can do it again. I certainly wouldn't be surprised if they gave it a go.

The problem is that as this rise hits mainly individuals, the politicans don't really care. We are just polling station fodder. It is our job to shut up and file through dutifully once every five years and vote for the same old people who will continue to screw us over in the same old ways.

They will listen to 'charity' though. Hot on the heels of the ridiculous plans announced by the idiot Maude, the 'charities' have decided that they don't want these cuts, and don't trust us to donate willingly, even with a 'nudge' from nanny, so they have drawn up a plan of their own to get more of our cash by force.

Charities are calling for a new tax on bankers' bonuses to help protect their organisations from funding cuts.

Sir Stephen Bubb, chief executive of Acevo, which represents 2,000 charity leaders in Britain, said such a levy could help prevent thousands of charities closing or cutting services.

How can government cuts possibly hurt charities? Surely their income comes from donation, bequests, judicious investments. . . oh.

No, you see, Stephen, it doesn't work like that. That isn't charity. A charity is an organisation that people give money to voluntarily because they support the aims and work of that organisation. A charity is not an organisation that demands money from the taxpayer, with the government stood behind them like the gutless little bully's idiotic muscle, to do stuff that they think is important. That is extortion.

The fact that you propose this and start squealing like a stuck pig because the Treasury has ever so slightly reduced the amount of publicly funded swill it pours down your throats suggests to me that the public don't particularly care about the 'good cause' you represent, or don't trust you to actually do any good around your cause. If they did, you wouldn't be bleating about horrible cuts because you would have a regular income stream in the form of donations.

Go take a look at the RNLI, Help for Heroes and the Royal British Legion. They are charities.

And whilst we're on the subject, all you national and local goverment departmental heads, all you CEOs of 'charities', you are ensuring your prophecies are self-fulfilling. You whine that cuts will hit frontline services and those you rely on, and to prove your point you then cut those services whilst ensuring that your equality and diversity community cohesion outreach officers and your six figure salaries, bonuses, company cars (no doubt with fuel cards to protect you against the rise in duty) and other perks are left untouched. You betray the people you have made dependent upon you, the people who work tirelessly for the cause they genuinely believe in (rightly or wrongly) and act in a manner more deceitful and with more venality than any politician. You are a disgrace.

Happy bastarding New fucking Year.

But who decides?

Let's see how this 'Big Society' thing works shall we?

People could give to charity every time they use bank cards in shops or at cash machines, the government has said.

 So you mean beyond the collection tins on many shop counters, the charity muggers on the high street, the envelopes dropped through your letterbox and the door to door collectors, the government has decided we need more opportunity to give to charity?

They could also be prompted to give money when they fill in tax returns, or apply for passports and driving licences, the Cabinet Office suggested.

We're already prompted to give money when we do all those things, that's the reason we have to do those things in the first place. What they mean to say is we could be prompted to give more money.

Lottery winners would get thank-you letters from ministers if they donated large sums to good causes.

Oh, that would be the icing on the cake, wouldn't it? Only a politician would think that winning a lottery prize would be made better by some arseclown, who is probably due to be sacked, voted out or convicted of stealing the equivalent of a nice lottery win from the taxpayer, sending a letter telling you what a good little drone you are.

But here's the thing, who decides what constitutes a 'good cause'? Of all the big charities, the only two I have any faith in are the RNLI and Help for Heroes. As far as I know, neither of these two take any cash from taxes. Both these charities save lives. Both these charities stand for what I believe charities should do. I'm betting that the 'good causes' the politicians have in mind are probably made up of the usual suspects: the RSPCA, who seem to no longer really care about the animals, all they care about are prosecutions and taking people to court to make them donate. The NSPCC, who spend most of their time spreading fear about noncism and picking the very lowest of the low hanging fruit. ASH who, well, go see Dick and Leggy.

To me, this looks like a scheme to get even more money out of our pockets and into those of organisations who already take a hefty portion of their income from the tax pot. You and I are well aware of the fake charity scam, but the vast majority of people aren't. When the subject arises and I explain my objections, I am looked at as if I've just said the moon is actually a giant vanilla cheesecake and the Royal Family are alien zombie robot lizards from space.

'But, but, they're charities.' It does not compute. It's kinda like pointing out to a seven year old child that Father Christmas doesn't exist. The bottom lip goes out, it is contrary to the evidence available. The TV goes on about him, he saw him at the shopping centre, the toys from Santa arrived the previous Christmas, even the mince pie and carrot were reduced to crumbs. So how can this be the case?

Here's a line to strike fear into all our hearts:

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude said it was not an attempt to "compel" people but to encourage the "big society" agenda championed by Prime Minister David Cameron.

And we all know what happens when government calls for something to be voluntary, optional or safe-regulating, and the preferred choice is not taken up, don't we children? Yes, that's right, they'll just pass a law.

 

The Big Society is goverment telling us 'give us your money, and we'll decided where it is best spent, once we've taken an admin fee, natch.'

Where's the difference?

The One That Makes No Apology. . .

. . . for posting this in its entirety from Old Holborn's place. If only we had people of this calibre at the helm of our country.

By Ronald Neil, formerly of the BBC (extract)The Pentland Firth is one of
the most dangerous stretches of water in the world. Powerful currents and tidal
races compete with each other and when whipped up by a driving gale the seas can
be awesome.And on the winter’s night of March 18 1969 the eight-mile wide strait
separating the Orkney Islands from the Scottish mainland was at her most
treacherous.

A Force 9 south-east gale had been blowing for three days. It was snowing.
Visibility was virtually zero, and the tidal races were running at 10 knots
against the wind.It was into this fearsome mountain of sea that coxswain Dan
Kirkpatrick launched the Longhope lifeboat TGB in a bid to rescue the crew of a
stricken tanker, Irene.The situation was a deadly one. An immense flood tide
running like a millrace south-east out of the firth and meeting the seas pouring
down the east side of South Ronaldsay … both of them opposed by the south-east
gale. One Orcadian commented afterwards: “It was the way into Death’s dark vale
if ever there was one.”

In trying to convey to viewers in the comfort of their own homes some sense
of the scale of the storm that night, I said in a report for BBC News that the
waves the Longhope crew faced were the height of four double-decker buses,
stacked one on top of the other… upwards of 60 feet.In fact the freak wave that
took her was said to be all of 100 feet high. It is reckoned that the lifeboat
climbed this mountainous lump of sea, and then toppled over backwards.

Wick radio reports only silence

By 10 o’clock that night Wick radio could get no reply from the TGB … there
was only silence. When I arrived on the Orkney island of Hoy with a news camera
team the next day, the community was already fearing the worst.The RNLI honorary
secretary on the island, Jackie Groat, agreed to an interview. His comment at
that time was remarkable. If the lifeboat was lost then they must have a new
one, for it had been their task down the generations to police the seas of the
Pentland Firth.

We flew back with the film to Aberdeen for insert into the national news.
As the plane bucked and slewed a few hundred feet above the Pentland Firth we
spotted below us the most awful sight of all… the TGB floating upside down,
being tossed and thrown by the unforgiving seas.That was the image that 10
million BBC viewers saw on their teatime news that night.

Behind us we had left an island community devastated by the disaster. All
but one of the lifeboat crew were found in the upturned hull. Coxswain Dan
Kirkpatrick was still at the helm. Not one had survived.The community was to
learn that the crew of the Irene had not required the lifeboat after all. They
had all been safely taken ashore by breeches buoy.

Amazingly, when the RNLI inspector called at each home to break the
terrible news, one of the first questions he was asked by every one of the
Longhope widows was about the crew of the Irene. Without exception they all said
their husbands would have been so pleased to have known they were safe…….

No official ceremonies of remembrance were held today, with victims'
families preferring to mark the occasion privately.Tony Trickett, operations
manager of the Longhope lifeboat, said islanders would remember the tragedy in
their "own quiet way".

He said: "There are still some widows on the island and they decided they
would rather not do anything specific today - they live within sight of the
lifeboat shed and see it every day."We will commemorate the tragedy in our own
quiet way as we have done for many years.
"We in the lifeboat service will always remember this and my own flag is
flying at half mast today."It was the most dreadful of tragedies and is still
very much in people's minds."But support for the lifeboat remains - we are a
lifeboat community and have been since 1874."

There is a website, www.fakecharities.org which is administered by DK, if ever there was an example of a real charity, the RNLI is it.

The one that would write a letter of complaint if it wasn't so hot and if it thought anyone would take the blindest bit of notice.

How interesting to see that the BBC has admitted to keeping £106,000 that it managed to cream off premium rate phone calls, and should have gone to charity.

Now, that may seem a little startling at first glance, but of course it is peanuts. Peanuts compared to the £700,000 it spanked on the BBC2 idents back in February last year, or the £18 million proposed in October for the launch of a Gaelic language channel - max audience: 70,000, or indeed the insane and costly move of a large number of services (Radio 5 et al) from London, where all the news is, to Salford, where all the news isn't, for no reason other than it seemed a good idea in the pub at the time.

What a fine example of a public body the BBC is turning out to be, running out biaised news coverage (for example the complete failure to talk about the oft referred to EU aspect in the recent report on Royal Fail, sorry, Mail.), rehashing old tut and passing it off as something new, such as Bianca and Rickaaaaaay in Brain Stem Deathenders, Celebrity do anything for TV exposure and charity (except we now know that money wasn't actually going to charity) and a seemingly ceaseless parade of shows detailing the auction of cheap antiques and the sale of houses.

A shame as what the BBC does well, it does very well. Like. . . well. . . . OK, I'm struggling to think of something at present. The kids' programming is nothing but crap imports, we don't need Brain Stem Deathenders on 15 nights a week, Life on Mars was excellent, except for the fact it was destroyed by the bloody awful Ashes to Ashes. Comedy is now nothing but sketch shows (Little Miss Jocelyn? Titty Bang Bang? Give me strength) and the sports coverage shrinks each year and offers nothing but tired presentation and banal punditry.

Hang on, what AM I paying my licence fee for? If the BBC were a subscription channel like Sky, would I subscribe? Probably not. Perhaps it is time to scrap the licence fee, or at the very least have a directly elected head of the organisation that we take out back and quietly shoot if things go pear-shaped.

Hmmmm.

Oooooh, the Mediaeval season on BBC4 has been quite good, and I'd turn on to watch Stephen Fry on anything. Perhaps they could commission a series where he goes round to celebrities houses and reads their meter before telling them how much their house is worth, cooking them dinner and sniggering at their worthless knick-kancks. We could call it 'The Very Embodiment of The Dumbing Down and Destruction of a National Institution, and the BBC.'

I bet Ant and Fucking Dec wouldn't beat that in the People's Choice award either.