Charity begins....... where?

It seems we now have a politicised charitable system. The supposedly independent Charity Commission is now displaying the ideology of the government.

Charity has been refined from "contributing to community benefit" to "contributing massively to those whom the government decides are worthy of help"., although only in respect of education.

Two fee paying schools schools have already lost their charitable status, because they did not supply sufficient bursaries to students whose parents could not afford fees. The remainder have been put on notice to provide evidence that they are providing sufficient benefit.

Sufficient public benefit is hardly objective - the Women's Institute enjoys the status, which helps to keep down fees of members, who are generally hardly poor. The same applies to the University of the Third Age and to many other clubs and societies in my area. They offer a service which they are prepared to offer to others who are willing to pay the (subsidised) subscriptions. Their public benefit in general could not be claimed to be towards the poorest, but they would in general claim to be offering a benefit to society.

Some of the recipients of the tax refunds are much less worthy - exclusive religions, some of whom have very questionable moralities or engage in questionable activities, including implicitly supporting terrorist activity.

Why education only, and why is the best that we have to offer targeted and regulated in this way? To put the question is to answer it. The ideology behind it all is an antipathy towards private education.

But the Charity Commissioner need not bother unduly. If Gove becomes the next "education" secretary and implements his revolutionary proposals, then there will be many more excellent state schools and many of the private schools will close. The Left will be happier in one respect, but unhappy that they will not be able to control and ruin the system.