Saturday 1 January 2011

When did charities stop understanding the meaning of 'charity'?


The point of charity is that it is a voluntary act - something we choose to do not something forced upon us. It seems that the newly-knighted Sir Stephen Bubb - the bloke in charge of ACEVO, the voluntary sector bosses union - doesn't quite understand this:

He suggested that a tax on bank bonuses – which are expected to top £7bn this month – was now necessary to prevent thousands of organisations from closing or scaling down. Billions of pounds raised from such a levy could be fed directly into the Big Society Bank set up by the coalition to encourage social enterprise, Bubb told the Times. Charities would then be able to bid for the funds to help to fill the gap left by the estimated £1bn being shaved off local government grants, he argued.

Sir Stephen, rather than urging his members to go knock on the doors of those bonus-rich bankers and ask for a donation - you know guys, the charity bit - he wants the government to do it for him. But why stop with bankers bonuses eh Steve? What about all the other people making millions on the back of risk and hard work - haven't you forgotten them?

Or Sir Stephen, did you just want an easy, lazy story so as to get your newly-knighted monniker into all the papers on New Year's Day?

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2 comments:

Clarissa said...

He is simply squealing - much like everyone else who can see their comfortable taxpayer funded life disappearing down the drain. It is people like him who make one despair about the honours system.

SadButMadLad said...

As someone who had a relative working at HBOS/Lloyds I can testify that HBOS used to give around a £1m/yr to chosen (by the workers) charities.