Charity Muggers Kill Old Lady
16/05/15
This week we heard of the death of 92 year old Olive Cooke, who was hounded to death by a host of ghoulish charity fundraisers. Over a one month period Olive received 276 begging letters from charities as well as being bombarded by numerous calls every day from blood suckers, leeching the goodness out of the poor woman. After months of being hounded, she quite simply had enough and decided to throw herself off the Clifton Suspension Bridge.
Last year citizens gave £10.6bn to charity, how much of that giving resulted from harassment and extortion is unknown. We do know that the Fundraising Standards Board received over 8000 complaints about charity extorters in 2013, that was a 50% increase over 2011. Now, those keen to show concern for the death of Olive are calling for tighter regulation of charity's fundraising activities. Don't hold your breath!
There is only one solution to the charity problem, in the first instance, ban all charity begging, and longer term, phase out the very idea of charity giving and stop papering over the cracks of the social failure to provide adequately for citizens' needs.
UP
Social care funding: time to end a
national scandal.
• 1999: A Government-appointed Royal Commission published proposals
for reform. These included a more generous means-test and free personal and nursing care. The proposals were accepted in part by the then Labour Government (free personal and nursing care was introduced subsequently by the Scottish Government, citing the Royal Commission’s recommendations).
And ten years after...
• 2009: A Green Paper by the Labour Government proposed a National Care Service, and a subsequent White Paper proposed a two-year cap on social care charges initially, followed by free social care after 2015.
That didn't happen...
• 2011: The Coalition Government established the Commission onthe Funding of Care and Support (the ‘Dilnot Commission’). This
Commission proposed a cap on lifetime social care charges and a more generous means-test.
Dilnot was far too radical for the Tory boys...
• 2014: The Coalition Government legislated to implement the Dilnot Commission’s proposals with cross-party support, but the newly-elected Conservative Government in July 2015 postponed their introduction fromApril 2016, citing funding pressures and a lack of preparedness by localauthorities. In 2017 the implementation of the proposals was postponed indefinitely.
Yes, a Care Act was legislated but never switched on...
• 2017: The Conservative Government committed to publishing a Green Paper on social care in the March 2017 Budget, a commitment reiteratedin the Conservative Party manifesto for the 2017 general election, which also included proposals to introduce a floor on the costs an individual could incur. The Green Paper has been delayed numerous times: the latest revised date for publication was April 2019 but the Secretary of State blamed “Brexit and the need for bandwidth” for the missed deadline.
The Green Paper has been postponed until 2020... check out the excuse coming from tea boy, Matt Hancock, talking nonsense about 'bandwidth'.(Source: House of Commons Library)
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