Well , it has turned into quite a day of celebrations ! My mother's 81st birthday and the New Years Honours List! Most of the family waited up till after midnight to see the list ; I had not mentioned what was to be in it! My brother had guessed an OBE ! So they was much rejoicing to see the actual entry. You could hardly miss it in there at number 3 ; and wedged between , as brother commented, an odd industrialist and my old Politics tutor at Oxford.
But you can rely on your relations to keep you down to size : I phoned my Aunt Joan with the news and she said , " well, I shan't be calling you Sir , you are still that naughty boy I used to look after " ! And my great Aunt Marjorie, at the splendid age of 98 , said she always thought that the lovely boy in his grey flannelette suit made by his mother would go far!
We celebrated as a family , together with the Hound ( now to be known as Lady Sparkles ) at the Port Light up on the cliffs overloking a gloomy looking Atlantic. Fish and chips and champagne. Nothing too grand. Untypically I turned down a request to do a Sky interview on my Honour.
But work goes on. We have been working with the Times on a story that will make the news tomorrow . So it means phone on tonight and not too much Joliet or I won't be compos to talk to press. That would never do. The sector faces an uncertain future 2011 may be a great challenge. Major cuts. VAT rising on Tuesady. Gift aid transitional relief going. We face potentially thousands of organisations failing or merging. And the key point is that demand for what we do is as important as ever. Demand will increase. The cuts will harm many of our beneficiaries.
Paul Woodward, the CEO of Sue Ryder has pointed out that the rise in VAT will cost him £1m. With £1m he could fund a 16 bed hospice for
6 months or provide 50,000 hours of patient care.
It is time the Governmnet acted. We are to make a proposal to the Chancellor for a specific measure to support the sector now. It's essential. If we get that support then our sector can rise to the challenge that more service delivery will provide. The long term future f our sector remians bright. But 2011 will be fierce.
Happy New Year to you all.
Friday, 31 December 2010
Wednesday, 29 December 2010
That was Christmas that was!
Allison Ogden Newton's Blog of Christmas prompted me to a reflection on the Bubb Christmas!
One of the highlights was the Festival of 9 Lessons and Carols at Southwark Cathedral. It was packed out. I nearly got stuck in the N Transept which would never do so I managed to transoprt myself and Head Hunter extraordinaire Mr Fielding to the Choir where we had both an excellent auditory and visual experience of the excellent choir. In 2010 the Cathedral has been celebrating the remarkable reign of the Rev Henry Sacheverell. In 1709 he had become so incensed at the actions of the then Government that he preached a number of sermons deriding them. He became both celebrated and notorious. And the Government were not happy. So in 1710 he was charged with seditious libel and convicted to a 3 year suspension of preaching. The public were outraged and the Government humiliated. The Government subsequently fell. In recognition of the courage of the Rev , Queen Anne gave her Arms to the Church where they can still be seen today. It demonstrates the importance of the Church's role in speaking out,particularly on behalf of the marginalised and excluded. That must always be a role for the Church and their voice will be much needed in the coming years.
I guess it's a sign of old age but after a gorgeous Christmas repast and fine wines my aged parents and I fell asleep on the sofas ( my sister Lucy said the noise of snoring was quite appalling ) and didn't get round to opening Christmas presents till after 8 pm! And to think as a child I could hardly wait to get at my stocking and sack left by kindly Santa !
Now I'm down in Devon , in Hope Cove , at my brother Nick's for the usual Bubb clan New Year get together. It's my mothers 81st birthday tomorrow. We shall be celebrating!
One of the highlights was the Festival of 9 Lessons and Carols at Southwark Cathedral. It was packed out. I nearly got stuck in the N Transept which would never do so I managed to transoprt myself and Head Hunter extraordinaire Mr Fielding to the Choir where we had both an excellent auditory and visual experience of the excellent choir. In 2010 the Cathedral has been celebrating the remarkable reign of the Rev Henry Sacheverell. In 1709 he had become so incensed at the actions of the then Government that he preached a number of sermons deriding them. He became both celebrated and notorious. And the Government were not happy. So in 1710 he was charged with seditious libel and convicted to a 3 year suspension of preaching. The public were outraged and the Government humiliated. The Government subsequently fell. In recognition of the courage of the Rev , Queen Anne gave her Arms to the Church where they can still be seen today. It demonstrates the importance of the Church's role in speaking out,particularly on behalf of the marginalised and excluded. That must always be a role for the Church and their voice will be much needed in the coming years.
I guess it's a sign of old age but after a gorgeous Christmas repast and fine wines my aged parents and I fell asleep on the sofas ( my sister Lucy said the noise of snoring was quite appalling ) and didn't get round to opening Christmas presents till after 8 pm! And to think as a child I could hardly wait to get at my stocking and sack left by kindly Santa !
Now I'm down in Devon , in Hope Cove , at my brother Nick's for the usual Bubb clan New Year get together. It's my mothers 81st birthday tomorrow. We shall be celebrating!
Giving
The government green paper published today is a welcome boost for the need to increase giving in the UK. It's shocking but true that 8% of us account for nearly half of all giving. And as The Archbishop of Canterbury reminded us at Christmas ,the rich are pathetic at sharing their good fortune. So Acevo fully supports the notion that we need to establish a giving norm of 1%. It was an idea canvassed by Greg Clark MP when in opposition so let's see how we can get it implemented.
Following objections from the Treasury, the green paper is noncommittal about fresh tax breaks for giving, but says many of the existing incentives are poorly understood by UK corporations. Payroll giving is perceived as too time consuming by many small businesses, while big corporate donors tend to give to a narrow range of causes likely to be uncontroversial with shareholders.
And the fact that charities will face a major new tax bill from January 4th when VAT rises, they will lose £140 m when gift aid relief is removed in April and they continue to lose millions because of the Treasury refusal to reform the gift aid scheme. All of this against unprecedented and savage cuts and rising demand. . The Green Paper would have rung more true HMT dropped the Scrooge act and continued transitional relief and started on the urgent reform of the system.
Acevo has for years argued one sensible reform would be to reverse the declaration on the gift aid forms so you opt out if you are a tax payer , rather than the current opt in. A good example of how this loses charities money was my own experience at the SouthwarUk Cathedral Carol Service last week. They were excellent in providing the gift aid envelopes and I filled mine in , but the declaration was so small I missed it until the excellent David Fielding pointed out my error. How many other taxpayers sitting there did the same thing? Of course the Treasury resist even this simple change as they don't want us to take full advantage of the scheme. Until the Government speaks with one voice and the Treasury play their part in encouraging giving I'm afraid there will be hollow laughs at ideas to get people to give at the cash point. No doubt the Treasury have already announced that they cant allow you to gift aid cash point machine donations. If you donate by mobile phone you also can't gift aid. So I shall be unable to wish George Osborne a Happy New Year till he gets a grip and sorts all this.
Following objections from the Treasury, the green paper is noncommittal about fresh tax breaks for giving, but says many of the existing incentives are poorly understood by UK corporations. Payroll giving is perceived as too time consuming by many small businesses, while big corporate donors tend to give to a narrow range of causes likely to be uncontroversial with shareholders.
And the fact that charities will face a major new tax bill from January 4th when VAT rises, they will lose £140 m when gift aid relief is removed in April and they continue to lose millions because of the Treasury refusal to reform the gift aid scheme. All of this against unprecedented and savage cuts and rising demand. . The Green Paper would have rung more true HMT dropped the Scrooge act and continued transitional relief and started on the urgent reform of the system.
Acevo has for years argued one sensible reform would be to reverse the declaration on the gift aid forms so you opt out if you are a tax payer , rather than the current opt in. A good example of how this loses charities money was my own experience at the SouthwarUk Cathedral Carol Service last week. They were excellent in providing the gift aid envelopes and I filled mine in , but the declaration was so small I missed it until the excellent David Fielding pointed out my error. How many other taxpayers sitting there did the same thing? Of course the Treasury resist even this simple change as they don't want us to take full advantage of the scheme. Until the Government speaks with one voice and the Treasury play their part in encouraging giving I'm afraid there will be hollow laughs at ideas to get people to give at the cash point. No doubt the Treasury have already announced that they cant allow you to gift aid cash point machine donations. If you donate by mobile phone you also can't gift aid. So I shall be unable to wish George Osborne a Happy New Year till he gets a grip and sorts all this.
Friday, 24 December 2010
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