Tory-led charity guilty of being party political
A major Conservative-MPs-led charity has been found guilty today by the Charity Commission of not being sufficiently independent from party politics.
The Atlantic Bridge charity was led by leading Tory luminaries such as Liam Fox and William Hague.
It was reported to the Charity Commission by blogger Stephen Newton for party political activity.
The Charity Commission reported today:
The Commission concluded that, although Atlantic Bridge is a charity with exclusively charitable purposes and is capable of operating for the public benefit, its educational objects have not been advanced by its activities because of the way in which it has promoted the ‘Special Relationship’ between the US and the UK.
The promotion of the Special Relationship is not the purpose of the charity and nor can it be. Although it is legitimate for a charity to study, research or educate the public about the ‘Special Relationship’, it is not permissible for a charity to promote a particular pre-determined point of view.
This is a huge victory for one blogger who has been researching and reporting on the charity’s work for months.
He wrote about how Atlantic Bridge’s activities included promoting a book by William Hague, subsidising a dinner for Tory MPs with a Fox News film reviewer in LA and sponsoring trips by Tory MPs to neo-Conservative think tanks in Washington DC.
The Charity Commission has not shut down Atlantic Bridge but has given it 12 months to change.
The charity’s website now says, ‘it is being updated’.
But Stephen Newton is not satisfied. “In no other arena would such a blatant disregard for the law go unpunished,” he says.
Read the Charity Commission’s report here.
Government admits housing benefit cuts will increase homelessness
The government has admitted that its planned cuts to housing benefit entitlement may make it harder for claimants to find housing and could force families to move further from where they work.
Last month’s Budget introduced a cap on the level of Local Housing Allowance (LHA) paid to claimants, and cut the level of LHA to the 30th percentile of rents in each area, rather than the median – reducing the number of properties that claimants will be able to afford.
Last week the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) published its equality impact assessment into the changes, which admitted that the cuts would hit some families hard.
continue reading… »
Do the Afghanistan war logs change anything?
A huge cache of secret US military files today provides a devastating portrait of the failing war in Afghanistan, revealing how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, Taliban attacks have soared and Nato commanders fear neighbouring Pakistan and Iran are fuelling the insurgency. The disclosures come from more than 90,000 records of incidents and intelligence reports about the conflict obtained by the whistleblowers’ website Wikileaks in one of the biggest leaks in US military history.
The Guardian has full coverage here, and the NY Times here.
A few thoughts…
1. No doubt it will further dampen support for the war in Afghanistan. But keep in mind this detailed events up till 2009. Things may be better under Obama’s administration (though probably not by much). The fact that George Bush was incompetent and conducted everything badly is widely known.
continue reading… »
The police and liberalism of fear
In his later political writings Bernard Williams advocated an approach to political thinking that he called – following Judith Shklar – “The Liberalism of Fear”.
At its root this approach prioritises an issue which is taken to be the fundamental problem of politics: that of controlling, limiting and ordering violence between individuals and groups so as to allow peaceful relations to exist, and human achievement to flourish.
For Williams the modern liberal western state is a particularly successful – though by no means unproblematic – solution to this basic problem. The modern state, via army, police and other controlled institutions successfully monopolises legitimate violence within a given territory (to borrow Max Weber’s famous definition).
continue reading… »
Major investor: climate ‘most important issue’
The chairman of one of the largest fund managers in the world has called global warming ‘the most important investment issue for the foreseeable future’.
Jeremy Grantham, chairman of the Board of Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo (GMO), a Boston-based asset management firm, sent out a newsletter warning investors that they had to take global warming very seriously.
He summarised his position in a series of 13 points about global warming here (via Climate Progress).
Some of these points:
4. The uncertainties arise when it comes to the interaction between greenhouse gases and other factors in the complicated climate system. It is impossible to be sure exactly how quickly or how much the temperature will rise. But, the past can be measured. The temperature has indeed steadily risen over the past century while greenhouse gas levels have increased. But the forecasts still range very widely for what will happen in the future, ranging from a small but still potentially harmful rise of 1 to 2 degrees Fahrenheit to a potentially disastrous level of +6 to +10 degrees Fahrenheit within this century. A warmer atmosphere melts glaciers and ice sheets, and causes global sea levels to rise. A warmer atmosphere also contains more energy and holds more water, changing the global occurrences of storms, floods, and other extreme weather events.
5. Skeptics argue that this wide range of uncertainty about future temperature changes lowers the need to act: “Why spend money when you’re not certain?” But since the penalties can rise at an accelerating rate at the tail, a wider range implies a greater risk (and a greater expected value of the costs.) This is logically and mathematically rigorous and yet is still argued.
…
8. A special word on the right-leaning think tanks: As libertarians, they abhor the need for government spending or even governmental leadership, which in their opinion is best left to private enterprise. In general, this may be an excellent idea. But global warming is a classic tragedy of the commons – seeking your own individual advantage, for once, does not lead to the common good, and the problem desperately needs government leadership and regulation. Sensing this, these think tanks have allowed their drive for desirable policy to trump science. Not a good idea.
9. Also, I should make a brief note to my own group – die hard contrarians. Dear fellow contrarians, I know the majority is usually wrong in the behavioral jungle of the stock market. And Heaven knows I have seen the soft scientists who lead ?nance theory attempt to bully their way to a uniform acceptance of the bankrupt theory of rational expectations and market ef?ciency. But climate warming involves hard science. The two most prestigious bastions of hard science are the National Academy in the U.S. and the Royal Society in the U.K., to which Isaac Newton and the rest of that huge 18th century cohort of brilliant scientists belonged. The presidents of both societies wrote a note recently, emphasizing the seriousness of the climate problem and that it was man-made. (See the attachment to last quarter’s Letter.) Both societies have also made full reports on behalf of their membership stating the same. Do we believe the whole elite of science is in a conspiracy? At some point in the development of a scientific truth, contrarians risk becoming flat earthers.
Contrary to the media, the sex industry doesn’t empower women
contribution by Sian Norris
We live in a society that has very successfully sold the sex industry to us as an empowering ‘lifestyle’ choice where women exploit men’s ‘need’ for sex in order to extract money from them.
We are told that it’s a free choice and feminists who criticise that choice are prudes, anti sex and anti women.
This cultural narrative is a chimera that disguises the real story of the sex industry, a story that involves PTSD, sexual assault, drug abuse and sex trafficking.
continue reading… »
Widespread front-line cuts planned across NHS
Some of the most common operations — including hip replacements and cataract surgery — will be rationed as part of attempts to save billions of pounds, despite government promises that front-line services would be protected.
Patients’ groups have described the measures as “astonishingly brutal”.
An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph has uncovered widespread cuts planned across the NHS, many of which have already been agreed by senior health service officials. They include:
- Restrictions on some of the most basic and common operations, including hip and knee replacements, cataract surgery and orthodontic procedures.
- Plans to cut hundreds of thousands of pounds from budgets for the terminally ill, with dying cancer patients to be told to manage their own symptoms if their condition worsens at evenings or weekends.
- The closure of nursing homes for the elderly.
- A reduction in acute hospital beds, including those for the mentally ill, with targets to discourage GPs from sending patients to hospitals and reduce the number of people using accident and emergency departments.
- Tighter rationing of NHS funding for IVF treatment, and for surgery for obesity.
- Thousands of job losses at NHS hospitals, including 500 staff to go at a trust where cancer patients recently suffered delays in diagnosis and treatment because of staff shortages.
- Cost-cutting programmes in paediatric and maternity services, care of the elderly and services that provide respite breaks to long-term carers.
Blogger gets libel threat for criticising company
Earlier today Labour blogger Luke Bozier tweeted:
Gordon Brown’s WebCreator website is not befitting of a former Prime Minister. Tangent should be ashamed. http://gordonbrown.org.uk
He also blogged his opinion in a longer post saying that Tangent, the web company that does many websites for the Labour party, were “taking the Labour community for a ride”.
Within a few hours he received communication from Tangent saying:
I respectfully suggest you delete that tweet, issue no more similar ones and generally try to sell your products in a more professional way. I really don’t like the prospect of either a public slanting match or legal action, but if I need to protect my company’s business and reputation, I will.
Outrageous.
On Twitter the story has already received a lot of attention, with people using the hashtag #OffTangent.
Tangent has been criticised heavily on Twitter by libel lawyer JackofKent.
We’ll write more if there are further developments.
Coverage across blogs:
MTPT: Trafigura-esque Tangents, or A very progressive digital agency
Adam Grace: Instant Corporate Karma
Planet Jamie: Say A Website Is Poor, Get Libel Threat
Sim-O: Another opinion that isn’t up to scratch
Top Tweets
JackofKent:
Gordon Brown’s WebCreator website is not befitting of a former Prime Minister. Tangent should be ashamed. #OffTangent
#OffTangent companies shouldn’t be able to sue for libel. As is the case in Australia.
Libel threat for saying a website is ‘crap’? http://bit.ly/auGYr3 Wouldn’t happen if Lester’s bill were law #OffTangent #libelreform
Is Norman Tebbit more tolerant of gays than Labour leaders?
In the long tradition of controversial blog titles, I submit the above for you consideration.
It seems an odd statement after all, Norman Tebbit is a man notorious for his “strident” position on homosexuality.
Throughout the years he has done a number of things which leave him somewhat estranged from the gay community.
continue reading… »
Spending Challenge page deleted after #votegoat!
Gideon the goat (yes, after much infighting we have finally agreed on a name) has already claimed its first political scalp!
Our newest political star had accumulated ten times as many followers as the Treasury’s Spending Challenge site on Facebook by yesterday.
The day ended with Gideon the goat being invited to a special special chat with Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook) himself on what to do about unemployment.
Cameron had launched his Spending Review Challenge on Facebook with much fanfare and a video chat with Mark Zuckerberg too.
But after being thoroughly upstaged in just one day, they have now taken down their Facebook page.
Oh dear. Does this government not like competition?
According to prominent left-wing blogs (so it must be true, we don’t spend all our time trying to track down what Gordon Brown is doing) a poll found that the goat had become even more popular than the Libdems!
Gideon’s spokesperson Clifford Singer said: “Vote goat!”
You can read articles through the front page, via Twitter or RSS feed. You can also get them by email and through our Facebook group.
» The real agenda behind Telegraph’s abortion investigation
» How Scotland Yard monitors prying bloggers and journalists
» When disabled people want to work – employers can hold the back
» Revealed: the reality behind Workfare and why it doesn’t work
» Job snob? No, I’ve got the T-shirt
» Why country-by-country reporting matters to our wellbeing
» If Unions want to become stronger, they need to modernise
» Why work “reforms” in Spain are a warning for workers across Europe
» Five things you need to know about the NHS bill
» Bigger. Fatter. Gypsier. More Racist.
» Laziness levels in Britain getting lazier, wails government
|
62 Comments 15 Comments 23 Comments 8 Comments 24 Comments 16 Comments 16 Comments 83 Comments 203 Comments 85 Comments |
|
LATEST COMMENTS » Chaise Guevara posted on How Scotland Yard monitors prying bloggers and journalists » pjt posted on The real agenda behind Telegraph's abortion investigation » Chaise Guevara posted on The real agenda behind Telegraph's abortion investigation » anna-rose phipps posted on Workfare - what does the evidence show? » the a&e charge nurse posted on The real agenda behind Telegraph's abortion investigation » Jamie Scott posted on Workfare - what does the evidence show? » Judy Hamilton posted on Workfare - what does the evidence show? » Cherub posted on Watch: Obama sings the blues at White House » Common Sense posted on The real agenda behind Telegraph's abortion investigation » Jonny Mundey posted on Workfare - what does the evidence show? » mushroom77 posted on Workfare - what does the evidence show? » James KM Blake posted on Workfare - what does the evidence show? » Steve Rooney posted on Workfare - what does the evidence show? » Andy Hicks posted on Workfare - what does the evidence show? » Ian posted on Workfare - what does the evidence show? |
