Charity Box

One of the more insidious trends in the charity sector is the cut-throat operations carried out in their name. Charities will of course be under enormous pressure as people tighten their belts (though it is often the less affluent who give more proportionally).

We've all been stopped by chuggers in the High Street. One of the strangest aspects of this form of raising funds is their unwillingness to accept one-off monetary donations; they only want you to sign up for monthly direct debits despite your pleas of 'well, I already give half of my income to that talking donkey off the TV'.

This makes sense as the charity can make financial projections based on what it knows will be coming in. However, it does seem to be irritating beyond the 'end justifies the means' aspect.

Does there not come a time when charities should ensure that money is obtained ethically. In this regard I'm thinking of Christmas cards (ha! not yet September and the X Factor creeps into the blog - wait until the banning stories!) which give a minuscule percentage to charity whilst making a healthy profit. Why not just give it straight to the organization?

I was thinking about this when hearing of the disappointing news that the Royal British Legion has backtracked and decided to accept a donation from a BNP member, Rachel Firth who was sleeping in a cardboard box in Yorkshire to highlight the plight of homeless ex-soldiers. A good cause one would say. Of course, only half of the proceeds of this stunt will go to the RBL; the other half goes to the BNP.

The RBL defended the volte face by saying that it had originally thought the donation was being made on a political basis — and the money could therefore not be accepted but had now concluded that this was a personal gift.

Not surprisingly, this personal fundraising effort has found its way to the BNP site where the Fascist acolytes queue up to give us the real story behind it all:

• Well if BNP members money such as mine isn't welcome then I guess they can pass the hat around some gangbangers or jihadists & see how far they get on that!
  I think they realise a BNP member is more likely to be a BL supporter than not & so are the people that they help.

• What a lovely gracious person Rachel is, a credit to her country and the BNP.
  Unlike the Royal (?) British(?) Legion who, via the press, gave her a slap in the face then held their politically soiled hand out for the money.

• Well done Rachel keep up the good work, shame the RBL dont have the strength of conviction the BNP do, like Steve Gray said I Bet they dont get much money from the enrichers,

• Well done Ms firth we need people like you to highlight are housing shortage and the fact immigration is still allowed no end when we cant even home the population now,

• As the for the Royal British Legion, I would be tempted to tell its officials where to stick their magnanimity.

• What Rachel has done is a formula that cannot fail. Creative peaceful protests and civil disobedience work. It's time for all of us to sleep in cardboard boxes or do something else which will raise public opinion for the BNP cause.

• When i donate money to the poppy appeal this year i will write on the £10 note BNP in marker pen, but not on the queens side , lets see them refuse that .

• I reckon Rachel really should'nt bother giving it to them but instead should give it all to the party, as it seems we are clearly closer to the grass roots ex service personnel and more serve their interests than the Royal British Legion

• For the first time in my life I will deliberately not be buying poppies this year, I am disappointed with the RBL and, unless they totallly change their attitude, they have lost my support completely. Sorry, that is just how I feel, all charity is now corrupt. I give nothing to any of them now.

• I noticed last year in Worcester a lot of the news agents , and petrol forecourt shops didn't have collection tins on the counter, these outlets were usually run by asians

• The Royal British Legion had better learn not to bite the hand that feeds it as they have a decreasing number of patriots who care about their own and who are willing to collect money for their cause as this country is overrun by aliens.

I therefore believe that the RBL has made a mistake here. Whilst it is proper for it to remain non-political and independent, it needs to distance itself from clear attempts - like the poppy wreaths with BNP stickers - to use it to garner respectability for this party full of Nazi admirers. It is part of the BNP's attempt to gainsay the Fascist tag. Taking money like this gives publicity to these purveyors of hate. The Mersey BNP also has this story on their site and I still recoil with horror at the thought of Nick Griffin defacing the war memorial in Liverpool with his presence. Without being too hyperbolic it was tantamount to seeing Adolf himself parading through the Arc de Triomphe.

The RBL might also wish to ponder the point that many homeless people come from ethnic minorities (whether ex-armed forces or not) or are failed asylum seekers. The BNP repeat the lie that there is a housing shortage due to immigration when official figures prove this to be a distortion.