Charity Matters Aug/Sep 2017 ISSUE 74

RACIAL OR RACIST? Telling the truth and siding with justice can be tough calls in the UK when they involve racial aspects. Ask Labour MP for Rotherham Sarah …

SAD IT HAS TO BE The stupid and thoughtless actions of a few charities have now made it harder for all to fundraise. The Fundraising Preference Service allows any …

CURBING ABATTOIR CRUELTYCCTV cameras are to be installed in all slaughterhouses, to ensure that animals to be killed are treated with compassion …

SICK TV DROPPED Stan Kroenke, the American billionaire who owns 67% of Arsenal Football club has swiftly shelved plans to run a subscription bloodsports channel …

CHARITY THIEF SPARED JAIL A manager at the Simon Community charity for the homeless has been spared jail after stealing nearly £10,000 from his employer …

BREACHED FOX HUNTING LAWS The first convictions for breaching fox hunting laws in Scotland have been handed down to a father and son team. John Clive …

MOVING ON The head of the National Trust, Dame Helen Ghosh, 51, is leaving the UK’s biggest charity after a controversial five year tenure to become master of …

TALLY HO HO HO Could we ever see a situation where those who hunt, and/or support the hunts are placed on a special animal cruelty register, flagging them up as …

RACIAL OR RACIST?

Telling the truth and siding with justice can be tough calls in the UK when they involve racial aspects.

Ask Labour MP for Rotherham Sarah Champion who told the truth when she said that “Britain has a problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls” She should know given that 1,400 girls from Rotherham were groomed and assaulted between 2007 and 2013 by several Muslim gangs. Ask the police officers, council workers social workers and others who could have stopped it, but who, fearful for their jobs if they were deemed racist, turned a blind eye and let it happen.

Since then similar happenings in Derby, Oxford and Peterborough have come to light, as have the 108 victims of a gang of 17 men and one woman in Newcastle Upon Tyne, mostly from Bangladesh, India, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan, recently convicted of grooming and abuse.

Question is should we accept such obvious male contempt for females, along with human trafficking and female genital mutilation, as just a cultural difference which regrettably offends our human decency and coincidentally breaks our laws? And can we honestly condemn others for abuses of human rights when we allow, by turning a blind eye, the above atrocities to go on in our own back yard?

SAD IT HAS TO BE

The stupid and thoughtless actions of a few charities have now made it harder for all to fundraise.

The Fundraising Preference Service allows any and every member of the public to block phone calls, texts, letters and emails from specific charities they do not wish to support. Charities that ignore the wishes of the public can be fined by the Information Commissioner.

The imposition of these important new controls was sparked by the tragic case of 92-year-old Olive Cooke, who killed herself after receiving more than 200 written requests a month from charities for donations, as well as numerous telephone calls.

The day after the service was introduced more than 100 people per hour signed up. A poll by Pro Bono Economics has found that trust in charities is at an all-time low with 45% trusting their hairdressers against only 26% trusting charities.

CURBING ABATTOIR CRUELTY

CCTV cameras are to be installed in all slaughterhouses, to ensure that animals to be killed are treated with compassion.

The move has been welcomed by Animal Aid following the horrific cruelty at the Dunnocdkshire Farm halal slaughterhouse near Burnley, Lancs, one of Britain’s largest.

SICK TV DROPPED

Stan Kroenke, the American billionaire who owns 67% of Arsenal Football club has swiftly shelved plans to run a subscription bloodsports channel after sick footage showing trophy hunters killing lions for entertainment emerged to widespread public repugnance.

The League Against Cruel Sports described trophy hunting as “brutal and shameful” and Kroenke’s TV channel as “sick”.

Could it be that the mighty Mr Kroenke was alarmed by thoughts that the nickname “Sicko Stan” might just catch on with cruel football crowds and affect his financial health?

We’ll never know.

CHARITY THIEF SPARED JAIL

A manager at the Simon Community charity for the homeless has been spared jail after stealing nearly £10,000 from his employer.

Jamie Nailton, 41, raided petty cash and had invoices altered to divert money to his own account to feed a serious gambling habit. He received a nine month suspended sentence and has been ordered to pay £2,400 compensation to the charity within two years.

BREACHED FOX HUNTING LAWS

The first convictions for breaching fox hunting laws in Scotland have been handed down to a father and son team.

John Clive Richardson, 67, and his son Johnny Riley, 24, both from the Jedforest Hunt have been fined a total of £650 after a video filmed by investigators from the League Against Cruel Sports in 2016 showed a fox being dug out of a hole and then chased by a pack of hounds.

MOVING ON

The head of the National Trust, Dame Helen Ghosh, 51, is leaving the UK’s biggest charity after a controversial five year tenure to become master of Balliol College, Oxford.

Under Ghosh the popular annual Easter Egg Trail became the very much more commercial Cadbury Egg Hunt, with very strong Cadbury branding in the posters and printed material. It is not known whether any extra money was paid by Cadbury for the very obvious, and naff, branding which many feel took the Trust downmarket.

TALLY HO HO HO

Could we ever see a situation where those who hunt, and/or support the hunts are placed on a special animal cruelty register, flagging them up as possible people abusers too?

We ask this noting the findings of the Centre for Crime Prevention which advises of the strong links between those who abuse animals and those who carry out violent acts on people. Apparently in the decade 2005-2015 a total of 1421 violent crimes, 17 murders, and 175 sex attacks plus 19 rapes of adults and eight of children were carried out by those who had a conviction or caution for animal cruelty. Nearly 100 child cruelty offenders had previously tortured animals.

The Centre has called for an animal cruelty register, similar to the sex offenders register, on which those convicted could be placed and monitored, and an increase in maximum jail terms, from six months to five years.

Event Organisers Update August 2017 ISSUE 155

SELFISH So who pays for clogging up London when roads and public areas are closed to the public to allow sponsoring companies to promote themselves by putting their …

PERFECT FOR A SAFE CORPORATE EVENT? An 18 year old male passenger was killed and seven people were injured when the 17 year old Fire Ball ride at the Ohio …

CASH COWS AND STRIKE FODDER London’s commuters by train are currently getting a very poor deal from our railway system, it seems. Firstly the cost is a …

WEDDING SCAM IN SCOTLAND Craig Williamson, 42, the wedding planner at Guthrie Castle, Angus, has appeared in court charged with fraud. Reportedly he double or …

ONE IN NORFOLK Southgreen Park is a modern non-residential events centre set in the village of Mattishall, in the heart of rural Norfolk and close to East Dereham …

EXTRAS AT THE MARRIOTT Well-heeled guests using the twelve premier suites at the London Marriott County Hall hotel are offered a Silver Lining package for £300…

DIARY DATES
27-28 September 2017 Festival and Outdoor Event Show. Sandown Park
11 October 2017 Academic Venue Showcase Emirates Stadium

DESTINY Is love stronger than death? This is a question explored in Destiny, the 1921 silent expressionist and allegorical film from director Fritz Lang, his first notable …