Much amusement in Tory MPs offices as an email has just this afternoon arrived in their inboxes from none other than Dominic Raab, asking for their support. Their financial support for a charity parachute jump by him. Guido senses that puns are too easy here…
“Dominic Raab’s skydive for Shooting Star Children’s Hospices” next month will, it says, benefit childrens hospices. Raab has so far raised £10,000 and is halfway to his £20,000 target. If you want to see Raab jump you donate here.
Young Femi is just 29 and three-quarters years old, but this election he’s been through more than anyone should have to endure. He desperately needs someone who cares…
When Parliament dissolved a few weeks ago, Femi was badly affected; with his national broadcaster TV spots drying up, thanks to them selfishly inviting actual politicians over campaigners from disintegrating organisations. No one should have to experience this…
For the record. I’ve had no national televised media slots for the last two weeks as the media programs have chosen to focus on politicians. I have tried to get on TV, but I’ve had nothing back.
So I’ve done my best to do what I can on here, focusing on tactical voting.— Femi (@Femi_Sorry) December 11, 2019
Guido is therefore delighted to launch this year’s Christmas appeal for the nation’s favourite privately-educated, ski-holidaying, Remain activist.
- For just £100, Femi can buy a loudhailer and a silly hat so he can return to our screens (albeit in the background of actual interviews, occasionally shouting ‘Stop Brexit’)
- For £1,000 a day, Femi can hire his own studio to feel the warm glow of the studio lights once more.
This Christmas, please help show actual grown men like Femi that they haven’t been forgotten…
UPDATE: It seems our appeal has done wonders for Femi. It transpires we have raised so much money Femi is able to forgo TV entirely, and go on a lecturing tour of French ski resorts. Guido reckons middle-class skiing holiday-goers may be a case of preaching to the converted…
The Guardian sat on stories from charity sex abuse victims, according to claims made by an industry insider. An ‘overseas aid expert’ writing under a pseudonym told the OpenDemocracy website:
“Why didn’t the complainants go to somewhere like the Guardian? They did.
“These victims are not typical Mail and Telegraph readers and they understood that a story about a lack of accountability in an aid organization will likely be followed in those newspapers by calls for less foreign aid. None of the victims support that goal. What they want is aid plus accountability.
“Almost all of the complainants went to the Guardian first. Different Guardian journalists were contacted, but all went quiet. One told me: “I just wanted to say I haven’t forgotten about this. Unfortunately the decision to work on the story or not is above my station, so I’m just waiting for a decision either way…” Later, when I asked if they had heard back the same journalist said: “I haven’t unfortunately. It was passed onto powers that be. At the moment it’s looking like it’s not going to run… I presume after some weighing of pros and cons.”
The writer then claims the whistleblowers turned to the right-leaning press: “When the Guardian sat on the story a subsection of the whistleblowers went to the Mail and the Telegraph, who ran it with many fewer sources.” The importance of a plural media…
UPDATE: Priti Patel tells the Sun:
“The Guardian and Save the Children should be apologising to the victims of these horrendous acts who have been let down by their appalling conduct and the subsequent cover-up. They have shown a callous lack of responsibility and a complete betrayal of the victims.”
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The release of Edelman’s annual “Trust barometer” is particularly well-timed given Oxfam’s attack on philanthropists this morning. The survey of 33,000 respondents in 28 countries has found that trust in NGOs in Britain has plummeted by four points compared to last year. This means more than half of those polled now actively distrust British NGOs. We talk about a crisis in polling and economic forecasting, today’s Oxfam report shows why the credibility of NGOs is falling off a cliff as well…
Oxfam this morning launches an attack on eight billionaires whose wealth they label “grotesque“, claiming this “super-rich elite are able to prosper at the expense of the rest of us“. Guido has done some cursory digging and found that the eight billionaires lambasted by Oxfam have made at least $60 billion in charitable donations. By contrast Oxfam spends around £300 million a year on charitable causes. It would take more than 150 years for Oxfam to raise as much for charity as the eight billionaires they condemn today.
- Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft: More than $27 billion dollars in charitable donations, some 48% of his net worth, saving some 6 million lives fighting malaria and polio.
- Amancio Ortega, founder of Inditex: More than $95 million in charitable donations.
- Warren Buffett, CEO, Berkshire Hathaway: More than $21.5 billion in charitable donations.
- Carlos Slim Helu, owner of Grupo Carso: More than $4 billion dollars in charitable donations.
- Jeff Bezos, founder, Amazon: More than $25 million dollars in charitable donations, invests hundreds of millions in not-for-profit ventures.
- Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook: More than $1.6 billion in charitable donations.
- Larry Ellison, co-founder, Oracle: More than $564 million dollars in charitable donations.
- Michael Bloomberg, founder, Bloomberg LP: More than $4.22 billion dollars in charitable donations.
Sources: The Independent, Forbes, WealthX
Once again it falls to Guido to point out the wholesale transfer of political operatives to the charity sector is backfiring. In 2014 the Charity Commission found Oxfam guilty of failing to maintain their political neutrality over their anti-Tory electioneering. Oxfam’s policy director Richard Pyle is a Labour supporter whose Facebook likes include LGBT Labour and a string of Labour candidates, MPs and MEPs. Oxfam’s treasurer David Pitt-Watson was Labour’s Finance Director for two years and was even appointed General Secretary of the party. The Red Cross secured a week of anti-Tory headlines with its overblown claims that the NHS is experiencing a “humanitarian crisis”, its new head of media is the left-wing former Guardian journalist Polly Curtis. Today’s Oxfam report effectively endorses Jeremy Corbyn’s new policy position, slamming pay ratios at FTSE 100 companies. People aren’t taking the naked political spin of the Labour-centric third sector seriously. It says it all that the best media hit Oxfam had today was the front page splash on the communist Morning Star…
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