Free Republic

The figures are astonishing. There are more than 195,289 registered charities in the UK that raise and spend close to £80 billion a year. Together, they employ more than a million staff – more than our car, aerospace and chemical sectors – and make 13 billion ‘asks’ for money every year, the equivalent of 200 for each of us in the UK. But many charities have become hungry monsters, needing ever more of our money to feed their own ambitions. And while registered charities claim that almost 90p in every pound donated is spent on ‘charitable activities’, many spend at...

Some 183 organisations from 42 countries have come together to issue a plea to world leaders to impose a tax on financial transactions to help meet the costs of the economic crisis. The group is the largest coalition yet to demand that a tax is levied on international financial transactions. Members include Britain's Robin Hood Tax campaign, supported by the TUC, Friends of the Earth and ActionAid. Their plea comes ahead of the summit of leaders of G20 economic powers in the South Korean capital Seoul on November 11-12. The issue of measures needed to stabilise the world economy and...