contribution by Stephen Newton

The Evening Standard’s Paul Waugh is hyping up a complaint to the Charity Commission from the Greg Hands, Conservative Party candidate for Hammersmith and Fulham, about the Tony Blair Africa Governance Initiative, a newly registered charity.

The nature of Hands’ complaint is not revealed, but Waugh is ever so excited to hear that Hands complaint is to be assessed.

How exciting… not.

Scratch the surface and it becomes clear that Greg Hands has received little more than a letter of acknowledgement.

Any complaint the commission receives is subject to an initial assessment no matter who made it or how serious or frivolous its content.

At this stage the Charity Commission has yet to decide whether or not to investigate, but it has passed Hands complaint on to the charity out of courtesy.

It is far too soon to tell whether there is any merit in the issues Hands raises and every chance Paul Waugh will be disappointed.

Perhaps Hands and Waugh are upset that Liam Fox’s Atlantic Bridge charity has felt obliged to formally end its commitment to the ‘special relationship as exemplified by the Reagan-Thatcher‘ partnership’ as it buckles under the strain of an all too real Charity Commission investigation.

(Although we’re sure that when its advisory board of William Hague, George Osborne, Chris Grayling, Micheal Gove et al meet up, their love of Maggie is undiminished.)

Fox’s think tank (which has not published a thought since registering as a charity in 2003) is best known for paying for $2,500 a night rooms for US senators like Jon Kyl who spent last summer attacking telling Americans that Britons hate the NHS and sponsoring celebrations of William Hague’s books.

The Charity Commission investigation of the Atlantic Bridge, and a parallel US investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, are ongoing.

Reader comments

1. sunny hundal

   RT @libcon: Standard's @paulwaugh hypes up charity complaint: http://bit.ly/9GRbWf

2. Les Crompton

   RT @libcon: Standard's Paul Waugh hypes up charity complaint http://bit.ly/d3Xlxj

3. Liberal Conspiracy

   Standard's Paul Waugh hypes up charity complaint http://bit.ly/9GRbWf

4. AndyG

   RT @libcon: Standard's Paul Waugh hypes up charity complaint http://bit.ly/9GRbWf

5. CharityAcrossAmerica

   "Liberal Conspiracy » Standard's Paul Waugh hypes up charity compl…" http://bit.ly/anhZDU Charity Across America

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.