Charities

I had not appreciated until quite recently that governments have been making donations to charities. There seems to me to be something very wrong with this. A charity should be supported by those who for whatever reason believe it is worthy of support and if there are not enough supporters to maintain the charity in its chosen field it should close. Why should the taxpayer be forced to make a contribution to a charity with which he/she profoundly disagrees like so may charities I could name? I heard Dame Hoodless the other morning on the radio saying how she was in favour of the Big Society but that there was no one in charge of how the cuts would be applied and that as a result the cuts were harming charities. At no time did this lady indicate, nor of course did the BBC make it clear, that Dame Hoodless is a Labour Party apparatchik and that her charity is in receipt of a considerable amount of taxpayers funds. The Tories must insist that these conflicts of interest are made clear since without such disclosure the impression one is left with is that the Tories are not only hardhearted but also incompetent in applying the cuts to charities. Much better though for the government to cease all charitable donations.