One thing which must be obvious to all of us, of whatever political persuasion, is that anything in the Mail or Grauniad or even now the Telegraph and certainly the Independent, Times, Reuters or the FE and throw in Newsweek, Time or Huffington Post needs to be taken with a grain of salt.
The only way seems to be to skim through the article, then go straight to comments, for though the threads are full of trolls and shills, the real people do get their voices heard, providing those voices don’t say anything too radical. When you think of how it was before news had feedback facilities and before the net, is it any wonder people were brainwashed?
Now a minority of us are not brainwashed to the same extent. Therefore, two stories which perhaps need to be viewed in context are Help for Heroes and Louise Mensch.
The contention was that HforH was wasting contributions on state-of-the-art facilities for recovery, when they should be giving that money directly for rehabilitation. In other words, the money has gone to cushy facilities for staff. Plus the MoD is saving money on what they should be doing by letting charities take up the slack.
# I watched this on Newsnight yesterday and heard Philip Hammond say that the cost of care etc. shouldn’t be down to the Government alone. I was appalled by this statement as It was the Government that sent our lads & lassies off to war in the first place, not the public. So why should our brave troops have to depend on charities?
# It would be nice if people actually did their research! Firstly, the stately home as some are referring to is a former officers mess which is rented at a cost of £1 per year. Secondly, the building IS NOT a private residence, but a Personal Recovery Centre for wounded, injured and sick service personnel and veterans ergo, there will be no “selling it off for a fat profit” as someone has commented. Thirdly, the £20 million “renovation” costs have not been spent on posh fixtures and fittings as these were already in situ, but has actually been spent on accommodation blocks (so the girls and boys have their own space), sporting facilities and well being areas. Finally, if you would care to review h4h’s website, you would actually see that not one penny donated by the public goes towards salaries (these are covered by the trading arm of the business). All I can say is, if you go into a hospital with peeling paint would you feel cared for and looked after?
# Sorry to admit it but, I have never given money to this charity. I believe it is the duty of the Goverment / MOD to assist these troops. Too many paid staff in all charities, RNLI is another. Phenomenal renumeration. Padding out ill fitting prosthetic limbs with socks, Holding the tin out to buy a pair of boots for a Lifeboat Man. Both have megabucks in the kittty. Outrageous. My money stays in my pocket, sorry.
# I fully believe that Bryn & Emma Parry always have and always will have the best interests of my wounded colleagues & friends, Tedworth House is being/has been fully restored to provide a top notch rehab facility to all who need it, a couple of people complain and H4H are being made out to be outlaws or thieves, innocent until proved guilty is the way our country runs so please wait until all the facts are laid out and the press moves on to it’s next sensational headline with no substance.
Don’t know which way to think on that one.
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Mensch
North Northwester commented along the way in his excellent take on Mensch and Cameron:
Hoo-boy, I can’t wait to read what James writes about this one..
She had been allowed to go back to the constituency on Thursdays and Fridays in a special concession from the PM but it hadn’t proved enough of a help. I am completely devastated – it’s been unbelievably difficult to manage family life.” The Prime Minister, hinting that she was in line for promotion …
The thing is, she’s now done what we’ve been calling for – to get TF out of parliament and out of any position which would affect our lives, apart from buying her chick lit. So as it’s a done deal and apart from putting pressure on Cameron, the heat has largely gone out of it. The spotlight now falls on Chloe Smith and the other hundreds of parachutees there, let alone the millions across the country who should never be in charge of more than running a raffle [see post yesterday about the jobsworth in the women's high jump].
Don’t know which way to think on that one.
I always start by reading the latest accounts on the Charity Commission website. It’s not a complete answer, it’s a place to start thinking.
In the example of H4H, I always understood that the flagship facility was for recovery, especially after that disgraceful episode down at the local pool where some stupid woman actually complained about amputees not looking pretty enough.
There was also a kerfuffle (not without merit) about objections to the family visiting unit, effectively a guest-house so that people in hospital could have their families over during long recoveries. [Short story; there was an objection on security grounds. This sounded fanciful but in fact Iranian spooks had assassinated a target member of exiled Parsees in Paris, so that explained why they felt jumpy at having what they thought would be a target nearby. The objection was defeated on many grounds and it was pointed out that it was most unwise to dress ordinary nimbyism up in security clothes.]
Unfortunately, it is probably true that a charity is all too easily flattered in to complicity by the MoD and other civil servants so that it may start serving political needs rather than those of its beneficiaries. How handy is it to have a big public employment project in a constituency, especially if you don’t have to fund it? H4H has become a larger operator than it thought it would be, and very fast. Well-meaning people often find it hard to stick to the core purpose. In 2011 it had just over 100 employees and manipulated £47m.
The charity took 16 weeks to convert an old house in to a recovery centre ready for residents, which is better than I’m doing getting some door handles changed so I’m not inclined to throw stones at them, but working at that speed poor decisions are sometimes made.
As for the RNLI, you either donate to them, or you don’t, depending what you think of the principle of lifeboats. It is a large organization and moreover one which does something operational rather than just gassing. The accounts aren’t that easy to read; you can see the pensions element but the wages seem to have been consolidated in to the various categories. Therefore I can’t easily tell if some people are feather-bedding themselves, but I can’t think there is any objection to paying someone properly for a full-time job if the charity wants that job done.
The fund includes a £5m reserve set aside for the dependents of those who have died carrying out rescues. Surely that’s a good thing? The claim that “RNLI is another one” seems poorly researched and offers no evidence for that opinion. It had 1,609 employees in 2010 to run a complex operational national organization. It sounds OK to me. For comparison: Basildon Hospital has 3,500 employees, Addenbrooke’s has 7000, so the RNLI runs with a staff smaller than a medium regional hospital.
However, we could do with a fiercer definition of charity. We won’t get it precisely because the definition was loosened to allow political activity to masquerade as charity.
I read in comments elsewhere that she doesn’t have a driving licence. So er, get one? Norman Tebbit landed the killer punches when he remarked that she seemed to have a casual attitude towards obligations.
Chloe Smith ~ apparently Cameron believed her to be an accountant when he put her in the treasury ~ check the fucking CV’s! Then again, Danny Alexander, no 2 in the treasury (sic) was doing PR for national parks a few years back, as well as a rumoured celebrity look-a-like gig as beaker from the muppets.
Vis a vis H4H – I’m inclined to see the charity as a good one, buffing up what the MoD are able to do, and this is a good thing. The *actual* criticism of note seems to be that once vets have left the armed forces, these facilities aren’t available to them. If that is the case, then it needs to be changed, whatever the MoD have to say about it. Funds raised should fund services available to servicemen and ex-servicemen alike.
I’ve sent a comment but the spam trap has eaten it.