A prosecution of a hunt brought by the League Against Cruel Sports has collapsed after the court heard of the close links between the League’s expert witness, Professor Stephen Harris of Bristol University and his friend at the League, Paul Tillsly, the head of investigations.

The court heard that an academic paper by Harris was sponsored by the League, that Harris had appeared at their campaign events and that a book written by Harris had been published by the League.

The revelations call into question the seven previous convictions of huntsmen where Harris was an expert witness.

Three senior huntsmen at a Northumberland-based hunt have been found guilty of illegal fox-hunting after being chased around the Lowick area by investigators with cameras from the League Against Cruel Sports.

Joint Master Timothy Wyndham Basil Smalley was fined £2075, Huntsman Ian McKie was fined £1150 and Kennel Huntsman Alan Proe was fined £480. All three men are in their 50’s and all three had additional victim surcharges and court costs added to their fines. Continue reading →

Male suicide in Britain is being under-reported due to fears that widows could lose out on life insurance payments.

This is the concern of male suicide charity CALM – Campaign Against Living Miserably – which is compiling a report for a group of mental illness and counselling charities. It notes the sharp rise in male suicide, particularly among middle-aged men, and is calling for a re-think on how suicide is categorised at inquests.

Some retailers selling charity Christmas cards are donating less than 10% of their sale price to the charity, according to a recent survey by consumer organisation Which?

Reportedly Asda donates just 20pence from its sale of £3 charity cards, or 6.7%, the same percentage donated by the Co-op on its £1.50 cards. WH Smith and Waitrose both donate 10%, but John Lewis, which owns Waitrose donates 25%.

Charitable types wanting as much of their money as possible to reach their charity are advised to purchase cards directly from the charity, rather than through a retailer.

One good New Year resolution most can make is to stop leaving electrical gadgets in standby mode and making the power companies richer.

According to charity the Energy Saving Trust this will save the average household £30.

CHASE 2016, the charities and associations event takes place Tuesday 16 and Wednesday 17 February 2016 at the Business Design Centre, Islington.

Admission is free, as is a programme of more than fifty short seminars on aspects of marketing, fundraising, governance, membership, leadership, finance, legalities and technology.

web conferencehouse.co.uk/chase-2016

Those wishing to help out our struggling Treasury, along with some charities, should rush out on October 5th and buy up lots of the single use carrier bags that large shops and supermarkets have to by then charge 5 pence for, rather than giving them away.

Despite the monies raised going to environmental causes HMRC have refused to waive the VAT and hope to rake in £19 million a year from the estimated 190 million bags we are expected to buy in the next year to donate. Dream on, we’d say. Continue reading →

There is to be a clampdown on charities that sell or swap lists of their donors to be canvassed by others, particularly if they have not had clear permission from their donors to sell their names on.

The move comes as concern grows that vulnerable people are being aggressively targeted in this way. One 87 year-old with dementia had his name passed on to nearly 200 organisations, some of which were scam operators who conned him out of £35,000. (Daily Mail) List sharing by charities is another way that names can get into the wrong hands. Continue reading →

An independent review of the RSPCA’s prosecution work has concluded that its successful 2012 test case prosecution of David Cameron’s Heythrop hunt for illegally hunting foxes, which resulted in fines of £6,800 for the hunt and two of its members, was appropriately brought and not politically motivated. Continue reading →