Why give money to charity when they shaft what they purport to defend?

Freedom of Insult!

Spend it on getting a decent haircut, Rod.

It's long overdue.

Bill Corr

Spend the dosh on a few of the Mo-toons teeshirts and send them to people who deserve to receive them, like the Ayatollah of Canterbury and Lord Ahmed of the Dauntless Ten Thousand.

Or start a campaign to get Mad Mel made a Baroness!

[NOTE: The Mo-Toons can be found in two minutes on Wikipedia: look for 'Mohammed Cartoons']

Johnnyboy

Rod, how about a new suit/shirt/tie? There are some groovy shops in Bath with just the right sort of gear for you... You're gonna need something a little more dapper if you are to continue to dine with such luminaries as Portillo and those other posh blokes I saw you with the other day. BTW what was on the menu?

Fergus Pickering

Well, don't give it to the NSPCC which thinks it should spend your money on attacking Grammar Schools. Ditto Barndos. And don't give it to the RSPCA which thinks it should spend your money attacking fox-hunting. Oxfm? Nah! Theyb soend it all on fat salaries for themselves. You might try Donkey Sanctuaries. Or the Distyressed Gentlefolks Association. You might need them sometime. Or give iot to an old drunk, who will spend it honestly on booze which, I am sure, will do him short term good. As for long term... well you know what Keynes said about the long run.

Ray

You could always make a donation to the work of the Military Ward at Selly Oak Hospital (visit www.uhbcharities.co.uk).

They're the guys trying to patch up wounded British servicemen and women after the the Taliban and their fellow jihadis have visited upon them the wrath of Allah.

Occasional Ostrich

Rod, didn't your mum ever tell you, "Charity begins at home"? Mine did. Repeatedly. Until it finally got dinned into my thick skull that a high percentage of what I might otherwise have given was wasted on paying the numpties who ran the charity, allegedly for the greater good of whichever exclusive section of society they purported to represent.

But, I guess, without charities, who would provide this pittance? The state? GB himself, even?

Bruce, UK

Wild Turkey. In a roadhouse in rural Pennsylvania.

David Ossitt

“I suppose I could go back to spending the money on myself. Otherwise, suggestions gratefully received………….”

Spending your hard earned cash on you and yours; is to be commended, and I for one would encourage you so to do.

I have grown tired of the fact; that many charities simply waste huge amounts of the money given, that fact, together with some weird and wonderful politically correct diktats that many charities now prescribe to, have caused me to limit my charitable giving.

As you have asked for suggestions; might I offer you the three to whom I still make regular donations, these are, the Royal Horticultural Society, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the National Trust.

All are worthy and to my knowledge all are free of any political pressure and non show politically correct leanings.

If I could; I would stop our government, from giving the obscene amount of overseas-aid that it currently does, until it can be proved, that it is of benefit, to those intended.

John Lea

Season ticket for Celtic?

YA

"..Royal Horticultural Society, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the National Trust.."

What a naivety - do you think this public won't be able to transfer money to Taliban - on pretext of essential R&D on crops growing, funds raising and birds singing?

The only charities I would risk to pay are "The Anti-Terror UAV Operations Support" and "The Fossil Oils Replacement R&D Fund". If somebody knows their contacts, please paste a link.

Kay Tie

Don't give it to charity, lend to people as a microloan: go to www.kiva.org. You get the money back and can lend it out again, and you know it's spent wisely because it has to be repaid. Truly empowering.

Paulinus

Mary's Meals feeds kids in Africa & other hellholes so they can go to school and get a job rather than relying on handouts from the DfID or the like.

It's run by Left-Footers so that'll probably put the kibbosh on it for you, but other readers might want to support it.

http://www.marysmeals.org/

C Powell

Rod: how about a hospice? They do valuable - and largely unsung work - carrying for the terminally ill and doing so in a way which tries to ease their last moments of life, treating them with dignity as people and thereby providing some comfort to their families.

They do far more for "human rights" than the Pharisees shouting loudly about the topic.

David Ossitt

"It's run by Left-Footers so that'll probably put the kibbosh on it for you"

Well said; that man.

Linda Smith

How about donating to your local hospice? We all might need to use one one day, and there might be none available without adequate funding. Can't see funding coming from the Government.

daniel maris

Rod -

Not suggesting you are a millionaire or anything but why not set up your own small charity. That way you can be assured the money is going in the right direction and, if you publicise it here I am sure you'll get plenty of supplementary donations.

How about the Free Speech Defence Society or The Deserving Poor Fund?

Radgie Gadgie

How about funding a vigil outside New Scotland Yard in honour of Ali Dizaei. Or for a statue to Mary Seacole which could be put next to Nelson on his column.

ed hall

Well any spare cash I have is spent on prossies. Only a suggestion.

RandyB

Uh, Amnesty does *not* support freedom of speech and human rights unconditionally. Not for a long time. They were willing to say freedom of speech had its limits when the Danish cartoons came out.

The last few years have demonstrated that U.S. and U.K. military forces care a lot more about human rights than Amnesty does.

BTW: I'm also a former member, but I left a long time ago.

David Ossitt

ed hall

“Well any spare cash I have is spent on prossies.”

Come on ed; out with it, that’s not spare cash at all, surely that is included in your usual budget.

Daniel Lionsden

Some suggestions
1. Give generously to the Mary Seacole memorial fund.
2. Use it to campaign for The Spectator's own gender section.
3. Get into bed (figuratively!) with Mel Phillips and fund her new English Tea party movement.

Arthur

I would go back to plan A. Spending your money on rubbish, thus keeping people in employment, is by far and away the best way to be charitable.

I Fought the Bigot

What's a left footer? Is that the opposite of a "Proddy Barsterd"?

Occasional Ostrich

@Radgie Gadgie

Which Nelson is that you're referring to? Mandela?

Wilhelm

Why dont you give the money to Nick Griffen.

The amount of abuse he gets from the media, he needs a well deserved holiday.

Edward McLaughlin

Rodders, it takes this long for you to see through A.I's specious nonsense?

Buck up.

rusty

Ignore the suggestion to get a haircut.
He's only jealous, probably half bald.

Paul

Allo mate. Do you care about the environment eh? eh? You know the planet's dying don't you? Gawd strewth it's bleedin' tatters en it? Anyway all you gotta do is give me yer details and sign up to Gweenpeace and a direct debit will make sure the planet is safe. Wot? You 'eard about the hacked emails? Nah, don't worry bout that it's all bollocks. Just sign 'ere luvvie.
Gweenpeace squire you know it makes sense. Farking parky innit?

Chris George

RNLI

Lifeboats, what's not to love.

scabbard

You ARE the world. You can only change yourself, not other people. Keep your money.

Fergus Pickering

I am setting up a charity for indigent poets. Make out your cheques to me.

Merlyn

Spend it on supporting Geert Wilders who is being tried by a kangaroo court, disallowing him his choice in witnesses, this to an elected parliamentarian when the elections are due.
A land breaking trial of the century on our freedom of speech... getting NO COVERAGE.

Andy Gill

Well why don't you donate to Gita's organization, Women against Fundamentalism? It would deprive Amnesty of the revenue while supporting its victim. Rather poetic really.

Peter Briffa

The evil nature of all charitable giving was summed up years ago here:

http://www.libertarian.co.uk/lapubs/econn/econn040.pdf

ROBERT TAGGART

AS A STATE SPONSORED SCROUNGER ONE WOULD BE MORE THAN HAPPY TO ACCEPT YOUR CHARITY !

Richard

Since Begg himself and the islamist groups he supports oppose utterly freedom of speech then supporting him or them does not support freedom of speech. None of them have need of support for their freedoms, they are not threatened except by their own violence. Begg was an unlawful combatant under the definitions of the Geneva Conventions, therefore subject to summary execution by the customs of war. That the US saved and spared his life is a good thing, that he abused their good action does not reflect well on him. The leadership of Amnesty are naive and ignorant.

Wily Seatrout Cole

Spend it on a lovely bunch of flowers for Dianne Abbott. You know you want to.

Verity

Merlyn took the words right off my keyboard. Geert Wilders, a legitimately, legally elected Member of the Dutch Parliament is being tried in a kangaroo court in nightmareish abasement to allah, mohammad, joke "lord" Ahmad, whatever.

This is a true nightmare situation and happening in calm, sane Holland. It beggars belief.

GaryO

Smile Train
http://www.smiletrain.org.uk/site/PageServer

Water Aid
http://www.wateraid.org/uk/

No politics, no religion and certainly no taking sides on I/P conflict.

But how about your new friends the MCB?

Dixon

If a chugger ever tries to buttonhole me for Amnesiasty I just tell them its against my principles because I support the use of torture.

Peter Crawford

Donate to the Kick Millwall-ism out of Football Campaign.

This worthy organisation seeks to eradicate the poison of Millwallism from the game for good.

Donations can be made via a brown envelope to me @ the third StamfordFurter stand from the left of the main entrance. I will be wearing a white carnation and talking about how good Kerry Dixon was in a German accent.

I always knew sense would prevail.

Lady Loudmouth

David Ossitt Feb 8th. As a South African, I wish your government WOULD stop handing out such large 'colonial guilt trip' hand outs. Then, perhaps, Mr Zuma might be forced to realise that there are more pressing needs than simply getting his leg over half the female population of this country.
Rod, Freedom of Insult's quite correct. Get yer barnet sorted out.

Verity

Re the question, definitely spend your money on yourself. This is the one sure way to know that the recipient will be pleased.

Minekiller

I had a conversation once with a Dutch Charity which claimed a 'human rights approach' to it's interventions in developing countries. So I asked if that was the Universalist or Culturally Relativist approach....bearing in mind they worked in Afghanistan, where women are jailed for being raped. The fudged response with much foot staring and squirming was that 'compromises' had to be made in order to get some aid to people in need. This is code for 'keep our funding rolling in at all costs'

Jason

Rolf Harris. Give it all to Rolf Harris, every last penny.

Herbert Thornton

I'm with Merlyn and Verity on this one. The lights are going out in western Europe and every bit of support for Geert Wilders relights another, even if small, candle.

As for Amnasty International, please, as I've done, adopt this more suitable spelling.

Charis Dunn

Yep I also vote we all give as much as we can to the RNLI.

Not Mark E. Smith

So how does one contribute to Geert Wilders' cause?

gerry

To - Not Mark E Smith, here:

http://www.geertwilders.nl/

J. Bro

Maybe you should give the money to a charity that supports women that have been "shafted" by their husbands days after their marriage. Does Gita have anything to say about women's rights against fundamentalist philanderers?

Noa "No I don't keep moths in my wallet" Zrk

What about using it to defend freedom and the rights of man?

Donate it now to the " Free Ali Dezaei" fund.

You know you want to.

seacole Australis

RSPB - nah. They only support Raptors.
How about Hedgehog charities. Afterall, there is a little bit of a prick(le) in all of us.

Verity

This is so chilling it is unbelievable.

"Geert Wilders: on trial for telling the truth
donderdag, 28 januari 2010
There is nothing hyperbolic in stating that a trial which has just started in Holland will have unparalleled significance for the future of Europe. It is not just about whether our culture will survive, but whether we are even allowed to state the fact that it is being threatened."

If I can get back to the source of the quote, I will in a minute, but I don't want to jeopardise it by trying before I post this.

Verity

J Bro - You may have misunderstood the point of this thread.

I suggest you take your kind and very interested concerns about women who have been "shafted" elsewhere.

We are talking about the nightmare "trial" of a Dutch MP who was legally elected to represent his constituency being tried in a kangaroo court for objecting to the legislators of the European countries and Britain opening the sluice gates to primitive immigrants.

This is not to say there aren't some muslim immigrants to some European countries somewhere, or Britain, who aren't decent contributors to their host country.

The point is, Mr Wilders was never accorded the right - like the rest of civilised European citizenry - to object to the invited invasion.

Mr Theo Van Gogh, a film maker with an interest in his subject, was murdered by a Moroccan as he cycled along the streets of Amsterdam, going somewhere ... going about his business ... and a note was hammered into his dying chest announcing that Geert Wilders and Aayan Hirsi Ali were next.

What on earth was a Moroccan doing in Amsterdam? What was he assumed by EU legislation, to be contributing to Dutch society?

How did he get in?

And Dutch MP Wilders, a legitimate person with an EU passport, was denied entry into a fellow EU country, the United Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland, by a fat, ignorant slag of a "home secretary" whose main domicile was her sister's back bedroom (for perfectly understandable expenses purposes) because an immigrant going by the inexplicable title of "lord" Ali had ordered her not to allow him to land in Britain.

Dave will not do more than two or three tweaks and cosmetic changes. Dave has accepted the new world order and craves to work within it.

So immigrants are ordering around elected MPs in Holland and cabinet ministers in Britain, and are also determining who gets tried in Holland.

Think about it.

Stuart Seacole Smith

As a number of readers suggested, a hospice seems a good choice. Animal shelters too.

Other than that, the basic rule is: the smaller the charity, the better. There's less chance of you ending up funding some form of politically correct bureaucracy.

While I agree that amnesty is not a worthy recipient, I'd suggest that virtually any enviornmental NGO should be avoided like the plague (WWF, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace), and I'm afraid that loved as they may be I'd have to add the RSPB in there too - they're a huge organisation and have strayed far from the path of protecting our feathered friends, and deep into environment policy agitation.

Also, I wonder how many people are aware that each year the European Commission funds an environmental umbrella group in Brussels called the European Environment Bureau (EEB), and that the EEB then cascades this money down through its various enviro-NGO members (of which there are hundreds - lord knows what they actually do, but in any case, the 3 I mention above are included in the network) to fund their activities.

A sizeable portion (though impossible to quantify) of the Commission's funding is then directly channeled into... lobbying on EU environmental policies by the NGOs.

Personally, I think the fact that the Commission is paying NGOs to lobby itself is scandalous. Added to the fact that most of them have forgotten what they were set up to do in the first place, it's adviseable to steer well clear.

When was the last time WWF fed a panda a bamboo shoot?

When did RingPeace last say anything of any relevance? Actually, have they ever?

Virtually all NGOs, whether dealing with the environment, social policy, human rights, consumer/food safety know very well which way their bread is buttered. Hysterically exaggerated scare stories are the order of the day in order to increase media coverage, and hence subscriptions and donations from the suggestible. And as far as I can see, it is set to stay that way.

Further, with the so-called "civil society" machinery which has now been embedded into all forms of government and decision-making, it's pretty well impossible to strip all the single-issue nonsense and spin out. The NGOs know they've got a "job" for life!

Exactly how much each of their "jobs" costs society in terms of overly complex/ unnecessary red tape, and delay or inaction to all forms of societal projects is anybody's guess.

And against this background our goverments are all pretending to be behind measures to improve Western competitiveness and maintain wealth in the face of (predominantly) asian manufacturing and service provision competition. What a laugh.

DK

A lot of Catholic Churches collect cash which is given to visiting missionaries who take it back to Africa/Albania etc cutting out the middle-ponces.

manuel escott

Doctors Without Borders: no overpaid administrators(like the Red Cross and noble work from volunteer doctors, surgeons nd nurses. And their wr is ongoing: DWB have three facilities opertin in Haiti on a regular basis.

Graeme Thompson

Alternatively, you might like to be the first person to make a donation to the 'Send Mo Back to Guantanamo' Campaign.

Martin Paul.

As The Roman Catholic Church is the source of much of the world's problems, avoid giving to CAFOD, etc. Marie Stopes might be a worthwhile cause.

Willsteed

You ask for suggestions how to stop the payments...

- Either go online to your bank account, go to the Transfers section where you'll find Direct Debits, and Standing Orders. You will find the payment set-up in one of those, and simply delete it.

- Or if you don't do online banking, call your bank and ask them to delete it.

Greta Garbage

The money is not the issue here is it?

Given your principled and correct stance on the traducement of the original purpose of Amnesty, my suggestion is that you advise of your resignation, together with your reasons, by public letter. I trust that you will be joined in doing so by other concerned Spectator journalists.

Frank P

Bruce UK (12.09pm)

"Wild Turkey. In a roadhouse in rural Pennsylvania."

Cold Turkey in a Priory rehab clinic would probably be a better investment.

Simon

Salvation Army.

peter

Amnesty have always been a prissy organisation for the wet leftists in their ivory towers. They certainly have no interest in campainging for your release from prison if you have uttered an opinion to the right of Tony Benn. This is classified by amnesty as "Hate speech" thus the controversial historian David Irving ended up in jail in that cosy alpine republic for a year because of words he said in 1989 doubting the extent of certain events 70 years ago. Either free speech is universal or not you cant just defend those views you agree with.

Denise

you could lend me £100,000 over 216 months and i pay you back £500 a month, please get in touch