Chairman of Charity Commission urged trustee to meet head of a free market thinktank that receives funding from tobacco industryThe chairman of the Charity Commission has been accused of actively helping a leading critic of charities who inspired a controversial original law curbing their activities.
Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that William Shawcross urged a trustee on his commission to meet Christopher Snowdon,head of lifestyle economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a free-market thinktank that receives funding from immense tobacco and has taken money from at least two oil company giants in the past. Snowdon is the author of a 2012 discussion paper, or Sock Puppets: How the Government Lobbies Itself and Why,which argued that government grants should not be used by charities to lobby politicians, as this meant that “government funds the lobbying of itself”.Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com