Tuesday, October 11, 2011

We need people like him

Oxfam, the charity turned NGO but claiming all the benefits of charitable status, is at it again. It is campaigning for the infamous worldwide Robin Hood Tax, a contentious political issue with misleading arguments. How do taxes on banks not affect people who are shareholders or pensioners or, simply, depositors?

One chap in Taunton has decided to campaign against what he rightly sees as political campaigning on the part of Oxfam. The NGO's big charity's answer?
Oxfam is seeking court action to ban a pensioner from one of its shops, and is asking him to pay a £10,000 legal bill.

But Barry Nowlan, 63, of Taunton, says he has a legitimate complaint about Oxfam’s “political campaigning.”

The charity banned the retired bank clerk and Lloyds shareholder from its shop at The Bridge in Taunton after he complained about a poster which highlighted Oxfam’s call for a “Robin Hood” tax of banks and financial institutions.

The charity accuses Mr Nowlan of causing: “great distress” and “harassing volunteers”.

He denies the claims but admits entering the building since Oxfam banned him by letter.

Oxfam says seeking an injunction at county court is a “last resort.”

Mr Nowlan said on Friday: “Oxfam claims its Robin Hood Tax will come from bank profits and bankers’ bonuses, not from the ordinary people”. But banks are owned by shareholders.
Someone pointed out to me that Mr Nowlan is probably a royal pain the derrière. Probably. But we need more of them.

4 comments:

  1. It strikes me that there are very few (prominent, easily accessible) charities left that haven't become left-wing political pressure groups. They also always seem to be able to link their cause to climate change, no matter how far removed it may actually be. I must admit I use Oxfam as a free rubbish collection service, putting all my unwanted clothes and books (of which I have a lot after a big clear-out) in their bags. Occasionally I get a bag from a local non-political charity through my door, in which case the I double-bag my stuff using the Oxfam one underneath and donate to the local charity. I'm also getting heartily sick of these children's charity adverts that try to portray ordinary families as hotbeds of abuse and domestic violence. The inference that anybody could be an abuser or spouse-batterer strikes a very sour note with ordinary people like me. They won't be seeing a penny of my money.

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  2. O'Sullivan's Law states that "All organizations that are not actually right-wing will over time become left-wing." By right-wing he means libertarian or classical liberal. This is particularly true of those that receive money from governments or tranzis.

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  3. There are numerous charities to which good people give money, not realising that they have been hi-jacked. They are in what is ominously called "The Third Sector" (i.e. not government, not private business) and often receive large amounts of government and EU funding for pushing propaganda about things like global warming/climate change.

    I discovered by chance that Oxfam staff were helping to organise the demonstrations at Ratcliffe on Soar power station which resulted in criminal charges. I don't suppose that people who think Oxfam is about the entirely laudable aim of relieving famine realised that their money was being diverted.

    The official deal with all these quasi charities appears to be "You tell people what we want them to hear and we will give you piles of other people's money".

    If we ever were to get an "in/out" EU referendum, the huge EU funds which these organisations receive would be a powerful incentive for them to use their influence and the trust they inspire in many good people in favour of the EU.

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  4. Another reason why an in/out referendum is a bad idea at the moment.

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