I loathe the TV spectacle of Children in Need.

Nonetheless, with such a bunch of selfish, heartless 2@s in government, charities are even more necessary now than they should be in a "civilised" society.
Just because rich greedy baaastaaards are pushing us towards a feudal society is not a reason to abandon compassion.

"Charity" is a word that means love, compassion, caring for your fellow humans ... etc
"Charities" on the other hand, encompasses organisations spread across a wide spectrum that includes, at one end, genuine care for others and, at the other end, tax breaks for Eton College ... with a huge range of worthy/less-worthy causes (depending upon your opinion) in between.

There are charities where we all (or the majority of us) believe that they are vital causes, these should be funded by taxation according to the donors ability to pay.
The rest are matters of personal choice.

I have a couple of issues with "Charities", in so much as:

a. A large number of Charities sit on assests worth millions, yet are still allowed to fund raise. I think that they should only be allowed to hold a small 'emergency' fund then have to spend whatever they collect each year.

b. Smaller charities - loads of people seem to set themselves up as fundraising charities, then take a "directors" salary from the takings - or use the charity money to 'fund' their money making endeavours / stunts / chosen 'lifestyle' of do-gooding.

When you consider that Christchurch in New Zealand has a fifteen year rebuild plan after the 2011 earthquake(s) then you realise the truth of what you have written above.

But why should I have to put up with my local services being cut, restrictions on NHS spending etc, to pay for cyclical natural disaster relief that always happens somewhere else in the world ?

Yes, there is a big difference between a local library closing, and the devastation of an overseas settlement, but why do I end up losing out ?

Because ultimately no single country in the world operates in isolation (well maybe Burma and Albania) and a huge natural disaster that wipes out a whole country's infrastructure is important to all of us.

Why do you think the two are linked? It's government policy to follow Austerity as the way to reduce the deficit. That is why you see what you do locally not because we give immediate relief when there is a natural disaster. The Labour opposition (and the Lib Dems before they were blinded by power) advocated a different approach.

As I said there is also a difference between the Overseas Aid budget which is an ongoing thing and disaster relief. I think you could argue giving overseas aid to some countries is no longer justified when we face austerity here but not disaster relief.

Even then I am not sure cutting the overseas aid budget is really justifiable. We are something like the 7th largest economy in the world. The fact we see the cuts we do at home is very much down to the choices our current government makes. If they hadn't sent a penny to the Philippines you would still lose out with the loss of your library. Guaranteed.

It is all part of the deliberate and ideologically driven policies of the current government to reduce the size of the state using the banking crises and resulting huge deficit as the excuse.

With respect, that's an opener that belongs in the [iBook of Uh-oh Prefaces[/i.

Alongside "With respect..."

Albeit the UK is spending ~£11Bn this year on Overseas Aid (inc emergency disaster relief), i.e. taxpayers money, why should I therefore feel emotionally guilty into giving any more, or not questioning whether the money is well spent ?

You don't have to feel guilty and not question if the money is well spent. You just need to realise if we didn't spend a penny on overseas aid you would still see what you see locally such as libraries closing etc. It's government policy and a deliberate choice on the part of government to implement these cuts and they would still do it if they closed the overseas aid budet tomorrow.

This absolutely.

+1

Let's not forget the free publicity that new Supergroup 'McBusted' got from performing on CIN. Performers should have to pay to appear on CIN IMO