When is charity a real charity?

Hat Tip to devils Kitchen.
A new website, fakecharities.org, has been created to highlight those charities which receive state funding and which the site’s creator alleges support the government.
Charities listed include Age Concern, which is described as "applauding government initiatives with £2m of public money",They do, and the government gave them £1,954,000 last year (23.3% of all income from donations).
4Children, "a glorified quango",They are, and the government gave them at least £2,378,257 last year.
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), "the original fake charity, formed by the government in 1971".They are, and they get less than 3% of their income from voluntary donations.
Other charities listed include RSPB, Christian Aid and Stonewall.Whose combined income from the government was in excess of £38 million last year.A spokesman for Age Concern denied that accepting money from government inhibits its ability to speak out for older people."This has been clearly demonstrated in our recent advocacy work criticising the Government's failure to address increasing fuel poverty and the scandalous state of the social care system."But should we be forced to pay for your 'advocacy work'? That's the question.
An interesting debate to be had there ,what really constitutes a charity today,would it be totally independent and only exist on donations If it doesn't then do we need to look at a different , different constitution different ethos and very different perception by the public

My Mrs Trwynynymorpeth has been in touch

Strong rumours are that Jonathan Morgan wasn't the only key political figure to leave their post last week. Over in Welsh Labour, could the whispers of the departure of a key staff member really be true?
If you know more let me know, more as I get it

Good on you Bethan and Leanne

Hat Tip to Politics Cymru
Politics Cymru understands that Bethan Jenkins and Leanne Wood are the 2 Plaid AMs who won't be voting with the Assembly Government on the controversial introduction of top-up fees in Wales.They're backing a campaign by Cymru X (Plaid's youth wing) who are writing to the party's AMs asking them to maintain their policy.
This is one that should be a no brainer - no top up is Plaids Policy. Follow the Party line not the yellow brick road Plaid.

Politics Show Wales today -unacceptable cuts

From 1 April the Welsh Assembly Government will cut budgets for the education of 16-18-year-olds by 7.4%.John Griffiths said the cut reflected a tight budget across departments, but it would not narrow student choice.
Teachers' representatives claimed that the situation will be made worse because once cuts are passed on to schools by local authorities they will not be capped at 7.4%.
Anna Brychan, who came across in a very informed way on the show ,and is head of (NAHT)Cymru told The Politics Show Wales that some schools were reporting a cut in their post-16 budget of up to 28%.
"It makes the funding system post-16 unstable and inevitably puts jobs at risk" she said It was a "huge, unexpected reduction," "It's not sustainable"She also said many NAHT members thought there was a "hidden agenda" to move away from having sixth forms in schools, and that "a very great number of them" feared for the future of sixth forms in Wales.
Just as worrying was Brian Lightman, the immediate past president of the Association of School and College Leaders, who said: "I think it's going to have an absolutely disastrous effect on the operation of post-16 education in Wales."It's a massive cut and it's been applied across the board."
Unions said the threat to teaching jobs was considerable, and schools would not be able to offer as wide a range of courses.
So was the money out of this budget re-directed to fill the gap in Jane Hutts early years plans?
Whats the rationale education wise in this?

Shock -Five Universities to work together to drive Welsh economy out of recession/

So we hear that five universities are pledging to work together in an attempt to help drive the Welsh economy out of the recession.
Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cardiff, Glamorgan and Swansea universities say closer co-operation will help Wales create a "innovative and dynamic economy".
The colleges estimate that they have a combined annual turnover of almost £1bn and do 95% of all research in Wales.
"We have a huge range of innovation, research and development, and business skills within our universities and we can place some of these inspirational sorts of aid and help at the beck and call of companies," says Richard Davies Swansea head honcho
The idea is that we have to move as we come out of the recession into an economy where we create our wealth in Wales from our brains - more than our hands,"In the recession we feel that we have a responsibility to use this massive talent that we have in the university base, and our students as well, to actually help companies come through these difficult times."
Question, shouldn't they have been doing this anyway,and do the realise that its the wealth creation and opening up of new markets that will make the difference.
Academic speak doesn't hack it and can actually be repressive, it really depends on the pedigree of those who head up the initiatives. Actually some life experience in the real world and out side of education helps.

And now for something completely different

The earliest footprints showing evidence of modern human foot anatomy and gait have been unearthed in Kenya.The 1.5-million-year-old footprints display signs of a pronounced arch and short, aligned toes, in contrast to older footprints.The size and spacing of the Kenyan markings - attributed to Homo erectus - reflect the height, weight, and walking style of modern humans.
The findings have been published in the journal Science.
The footprints were found near Ileret in northern Kenya. What they found was two sets of footprints, one five metres deeper than the other, separated by sand, silt, and volcanic ash.
The team dated the surrounding sediment by comparing it with well-known radioisotope-dated samples from the region, finding that the two layers of prints were made at least 10,000 years apart.
The finding is a critical clue for mapping out the evolution of modern humans, both in terms of physiology and also how H. erectus fared in its environment.
Now that to me is amazing and newsworthy and is much more interesting than the tedium of that huge pension payout.
The next I want to hear of that is Sir Fred paying it back or being taken to court.