Dolly Parton and the English countryside.

Driving up to Charlbury on Friday we had the latest Dolly Parton CD "Blue Water" on. Did you see her at Glastonbury?  I did - or at least virtually via the dear old BBC (too old to actually go to these things now!). She is not just a good singer but a source of wisdom. I remember wanting to use one of her homely homilies in a lecture I was writing but my then Director, one Ralph Michell, was disapproving. He's now at the Cabinet Office where I'm sure they don't do Dolly.

Here are some of my favourites.

"The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain".

"Storms make trees take deeper roots".

"We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails".

It was a pretty glorious weekend in Charlbury. It's such a delight to move from the pollution of London  to the purer air of the Cotswolds. Walking the Hound down the Mill Stream I was reminded of just how beautiful our English countryside is; the bird song was joined by the bells of Spelsbury Parish Church  and the sounds of the cricket over the fields. Of course we must never take this great inheritance for granted and so the work of bodies like the National Trust, the CPRE or the many environmental campaigning charities is crucial in stopping the depredations of over development. It's another reason why we must resist any attempt to curtail or silence our independent voice or any move by the Charity Commission to make us delineate our so called "campaigning" spend. After all, what are the "Campaign to Protect Rural England" to do in their accounts but say they spend 100% of their income on campaigning. Their official objective is to "campaign for a sustainable future for the English countryside [and to] highlight threats and promote positive solutions". It's what they do William!

And last week we had our annual Charlbury Beer Festival, quite an event these days with a vast array of boutique beers from around the Cotswolds. The proceeds go to international development charities - and no nonsense about  "every penny" as Charlburians are a sophisticated lot and understand the need for "overheads" in charities. You get an idea of the size from this photo. 

Progress is often good but sometimes bad. Our vicar in Charlbury has recently departed for the Archdeaconry of Dorchester. We have been told we are not to have a new vicar but a "priest in charge"; the Bishop of Oxford seems to be into control-freakery. The succession of Vicars and Rectors of Charlbury dates back to the 11th century. Unbroken till now. There have been some distinguished Vicars; notably one of the translators of the King James Bible. I'm afraid in such matters I'm a decided reactionary. When they do appoint a "priest in charge" I shall continue to call them Vicar. This is probably just part of a future plan to amalgamate us or turn the Church over to Carphone Warehouse.

Anyway, enough rant. I'm off to Cardiff.

Filming in Islington, Boris, pensions and yoof.

Up early for a spot of filming in Islington (where else) on pensions. And before you yawn, for many of us this is becoming a key issue. And it ought to be so for all my charity CEOs.

It's not just the "pensions revolution" that George Osborne announced this year, but also auto-enrolment that comes into force next year for all our staff.

  

These mean all charities have to review their existing schemes - some will not be approved for the future - and make arrangements for auto-enrolment. It has to be electronic and automatic when new staff join. There is also the question of how we tell staff about pensions and give them advice on choices.

ACEVO has worked with one of the country's top pension experts for over 14 years. Back before I came to ACEVO we chose Foster Denovo to provide our staff pensions and the experience was so good we asked them if they would work with member charities on their pension schemes. 14 years later we are now still working with them and are planning a new advisory offer, which covers both advice to us as employers and advice to staff. It's needed.

So this morning we were filming to provide a new web portal for use by employees and employers and explains key concepts and things to do and know. It stars yours truly and Ian Bird, the key guy at Foster Denovo.

Funnily enough I was having a chat on this theme with one of my newer members of staff - 23 and not enamoured with the idea of saving for a pension. I remonstrated with him! But it did show how we do need to do work with employees on why they should take an interest in pensions. As one gets nearer to that time (for me many years ahead!) pensions loom larger. But I intend to be wise and invest my pension pot rather than buying up a wine warehouse or blowing it on a round the world trip.

The film studio was in a gorgeous Georgian terrace and up the road was Boris Johnson's house. Just had to go and look!

And talking of feckless yoof, a new welfare package should be offered to young people in an attempt to slash youth unemployment, according to a report published yesterday by a leading think-tank, the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ).  It wants politicians to make a commitment that tackling youth unemployment will be a 'moral mission' in the next Parliament and calls for a fresh relationship between young people and the State. The ambitious four-stage blueprint outlines plans which will help and support young people develop work skills and training from primary school through to adulthood.

This is a good report. It shows the value of think tanks in adding to the political debate and generating good ideas, as IPPR did with their Condition of Britain report. Such a shame a number of politicians have got in such a lather over IPPR. We need organisations like them and the CSJ.

Reds under the bed?

Those of us who are aged and wise will remember the time when there was much fuss and bother about infiltration by communists or Trotskyites into cultural and state institutions. Fortunately we avoided the paranoia of the McCarthy hearings in the United States.

I was reminded of this with the current palaver over “Trojan Horse schools" and Islamic extremism. Interesting how this story had developed, though not in a terribly helpful way. Suffice to say that the reports today have not uncovered an extremist plot even though they do raise issues that need to be addressed in those 5 schools.

What is disturbing about this whole story is the damage it may do to community relations in Birmingham, and indeed elsewhere. Is it not odd that the reports talk about “cultural isolation" in a way I suspect we would not find in reports about majority white, Christian schools in rural areas? Why, then, are schools that are in predominantly Muslim communities singled out?

Clearly the teaching of respect for varying faiths and practises should be at the bedrock of teaching in all schools, whatever their local community's faith.

We live in an increasingly multicultural country. The current debate slips too easily into assumptions that the Muslim community is prone to violent extremism and terrorism. Such attitudes could indeed foster the very isolationism that is supposed to be a problem.

The idea behind free schools and academies was about empowering parents and communities. Encouraging parents to become more involved as Governors, indeed to take over schools themselves and “free" them from council control.

Ironic then that three of the schools now under special measures are academies. One was only recently singled out for its outstanding academic performance. If I was a Governor in a Muslim school I might now be thinking it’s not worth the effort.

Building strong communities and giving greater power to citizens is core to better community relations between faiths and ethnic communities. It’s what many charities and my members do as core to their job. We need more volunteers and charity activists from Muslim communities, not less. Let's not drive a wedge between faith communities. That would indeed secure the “cultural isolation" that today's reports highlight as a supposed problem.

The Queen and I.

Well, such is the power of modern communications I was able to watch the Gracious Speech on my iPad!  It seems the most interesting part of it all was the page boy fainting and the horse bolting. A lacklustre set of bills, of which only two are of direct importance to the third sector.

ACEVO has welcomed the potential of the new Charity Commission powers Bill, but we must be careful about the details. Many of us puzzle over the behaviour of the Commission. Often over legalistic and inconsistent decisions, which seem odd on common sense grounds. Many of us wonder why certain complaints get taken up whilst others are ignored. Recently there have been a raft of investigations into Muslim charities. Whilst I clearly don't know the details, I do worry that the perception may grow that the Commission has fallen prey to the current government paranoia on 'Trojan schools'. The last thing we need is the perception amongst the Muslim community that the Commission is taking an anti-Islamic stance, when they often fail to investigate similar allegations with other charities. As with the whole of society, we need active volunteers and trustees from the Muslim community. We must ensure they are encouraged, not discouraged from actively volunteering. And if people wish to have Muslim-led charities that work in Muslim communities, we should welcome and support them just as we would those from any other faith. We must not instinctively think it suspicious, or give that impression.

We also need a clear understanding of when and why the Charity Commission take up cases, and whether they have effective methods for whistleblowing.

I was very disturbed at the decision on the Human Dignity Trust, which fights in the courts to end discrimination against homosexuals in other countries. This could not possibly be for the public benefit, the Commission has ruled, because changing these laws is contrary to public policy and could prejudice our relations with states that put gay men in jail. For these reasons, the Commission has denied the Human Dignity Trust registration as a charity, a decision that will be challenged in court today I'm glad to say. What a perverse ruling. It risks adding to the impression of a reactionary Commission, which is unhelpful both to them and to the sector.

We all want an effective regulator. We need them to have strong powers. But we also need to ensure their resources are wisely used and carefully targeted. So ACEVO and our members will work with the Cabinet Office on the new Bill provisions, to ensure just that.

It is often said that our sector is over-regulated. Let's ensure that we combine light-touch regulation with effective oversight and, most importantly, that we do not allow the Commission to forget that a part of its role is to build trust and confidence in our sector. That, after all, is a large part of what effective regulation will achieve.

And so, that's enough of the Queen. I have moved from Hall to Castle! From Union Hall to Castle Townshend to be precise. And we are staying at the Castle:

The Castle.

Castle Townshend

The castle.

My Great Grandfather x 5, the Rev. Thomas Somerville, was brought by his father to Ireland in 1690. His father was the Rector of Leswalt in Co. Galloway, in SW Scotland. They were fleeing persecution as the Rev. William had been deposed from his living for being an Episcopalian, still praying for the Jacobites. He fled with his young family (his son Thomas was only one) in an open boat to Ulster, together with one Rev. James Cameron (no relation I'm sure!) and his family. 

Anyway the Rev. Thomas became a successful clergyman for Castle Townshend and Union Hall, and his son Thomas II built the magical house, Drishane, which you see here. The Somervilles still live here and we popped in to see distant cousin Tom Somerville the 8th.

At Drishane

 

At Drishane

Tom’s great aunt was the magnificent Edith Somerville, the author and painter.

Castlehaven

 I shan’t mention the evening of dancing and singing with a number of cousins in Skibereen on Wednesday night, and certainly no photos of that! Needless to say it was all very Irish.