Sharpe's Opinion

Using taxes to bail out charities crosses a dangerous line

LFaT is upset about Governments bailing out charities, and with good reason. Key passage:

Charities and government must always be kept apart because the second that a charity feels a duty towards the government rather than to the people they help, the charity might as well not exist because their independence has been comprimised.  We already have enough problems with charities who receive funding from the UK or EU governments (or both) acting as a government mouthpiece when Labour needs someone to feign indignation.  The harsh reality is that charity donations are drying up and they will keep drying up until our economy hits rock bottom – and I fear we’ve still got a long way to go on that front.

I’ve always had a problem with ‘charities’ which turn into political pressure groups with motives that I simply don’t understand – Greenpeace being the obvious example. I also think that any charity famous enough for me to have heard of it is obviously using far too much of its money on advertising and too little on charitable work. However, I know some who comment here have rather strong (negative) feelings about charities, even ones who aren’t receiving government bailouts, so I’ll say no more…