Charity Commission exposes the Guardian’s TPA lies
Posted on February 2, 2011The Guardian is always in the vanguard when it comes to alleging that the TaxPayers’ Alliance or anyone else criticising Government waste are guilty of inaccurate claims. It seems only fair, then, to draw attention to an official finding – not an allegation, mark you – that the Guardian itself has been making up stories about the TPA.
In December 2009 the Guardian ran a front page story by Robert Booth alleging that the TPA was in breach of charity law for accepting donations from a registered charity, the Politics and Economics Research Trust. John Prescott promptly got in on the act, filing a formal complaint.
Nine days later the same paper gleefully reported (again in a story by Robert Booth) that the relationship was being “investigated by regulators”, namely the Charity Commission. The smear implication was clear – and the headline may as well have been “hooray, we don’t like them and an investigation confirms their guilt”.
Strangely, there’s no report in the Guardian today about the findings of the Charity Commission’s investigation, which was published yesterday. Nor, despite his promise that “I’ll let you know when I get a reply”, has Prezza published it or even made reference to the report’s existence.
It’s not really so strange, actually, because the Charity Commission’s findings don’t make happy reading for either the Guardian, Robert Booth or John Prescott. In short, the PERT and the TPA were cleared entirely of the allegations.
But there’s even more to it than that – it turns out that at best the story was written on the back of a fag packet, and at worst it was deliberately misleading the public in order to discredit the TPA.
When the Commission investigated the claims, they found that the PERT was in fact obeying the law – as it said at the time. More remarkable than that, they found a number of massive holes in Booth’s original article:
Booth claimed that the Midlands Industrial Council had donated to the TPA through PERT. The Charity Commission found that in fact the MIC had not done so.
Booth claimed that the MIC was able to claim gift aid on donations to a charity. The Charity Commission found that the MIC is an unincorporated association, does not pay tax on its income from donations by members and thus neither it or its members would have been able to claim gift aid.
Booth quoted David Wall, secretary of the MIC. The Charity Commission spoke to him and reports him as saying that “the comments attributed to him in the newspaper article were misleading”.
Most damning of all, when the Charity Commission asked Booth for “any additional information” on his story or the issue, he “had no further information to provide” – i.e., when he was given a free run to prove his story, produce his evidence and stack up his claims, he literally had nothing to offer.
So in short, the outfit Booth that claimed had donated hadn’t, the tax relief he claimed they would have got if they had donated wouldn’t have been claimable and he was unable to produce any evidence to back up his false claims. How’s that for accuracy?
At the moment, the original Guardian stories are still online, and they have published no retraction or apology. The smear is still common currency among the TPA’s detractors, despite the fact that it has been comprehensively proven to be untrue.
When will we see the Guardian run a front page story headlined “Guardian allegations against TPA ‘totally unfounded’, says official report”?
Tags: charity, Charity Commission, Guardian, Midlands Industrial Council, opinion, Politics, public spending, Robert Booth, TaxPayers' Alliance
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Iain Dale, Richard St Ruth, Mark Wallace, Mark Wallace, Emma Boon and others. Emma Boon said: RT @wallaceme: Crash Bang Wallace: Charity Commission officially exposes the Guardian's lies about the TPA http://bit.ly/hctaQ2 [...]
22.02.2011 13:53
Bloody crap rag. It’s about someone sued there ass off. Oh wait, they have huge offshore funds to deter any would-be litigation? Bugger.
22.02.2011 14:59
I’ve only just recently stumbled across the Guardian’s tendency to re-hash the same article over and over (sometimes years in between publications). Yeah, it’s a naff paper alright.
08.09.2011 22:03
‘When will we see the Guardian run a front page story headlined “Guardian allegations against TPA ‘totally unfounded’, says official report”?’
Never would be my guess.
22.02.2011 15:05
The problem is where else will this information, and the information currently on Guy Fawkes site be seen ? It obviously won’t make the news on the BBC, but will any of the other newspapers publish it ? that probably depends on how much they have to hide as well.
22.02.2011 15:26
“…but will any of the other newspapers publish it ? that probably depends on how much they have to hide as well.”
Norman is right here. If we had a true free press this would be no issue. Since all big newspapers are in bed with each other this will never happen. I’m sure that’s another reason why they want to control the internet.
22.08.2011 23:17
What do you expect from a bucnh of champagne socialist, tax dodging, Caymen Islands hedge fund investing, liar liar red flag on fire hoons?
How anyone can take that “newspaper” seriously is beyond me – go on you reds, prove you are stupid, buy the Guardian & support your hypocritical, Tuscany dwelling, Caymen Islands investing, corporation tax dodging millionaire “comrades”.
Hoons the lot of them – any comment on the report on any BBC platform Mark? (……just my little joke)
22.02.2011 15:27
Last night the Guardian came around to my house, ate my baby and buggered my dog. This is REALLY what the lefties do. Now if the don’t sue me we’ll all know it’s true.
22.02.2011 15:38
The TPI should sue. They have a cast-iron case.
22.02.2011 16:08
Freddie Star ate my Guardian
22.02.2011 17:45
I’ve tweeted John Prescott, asking him if he is going to apologise to the TPA. Unsurprisingly, he hasn’t replied. He only lives 3 miles away from me. I may have to knock on his front door and ask him personally!
22.02.2011 22:12
You would become a personal hero of mine if you were to knock up Prescott and demand a response. That’s the kind of direct interaction that these lefties fear – they’re all for the people (at least their kind of people), at a distance…
23.02.2011 08:19
Is it worth taking this to the PCC?
23.02.2011 06:19
I’m amazed to see such a thorough investigation by the Charity Commission. Usually, when a left wing charity (most of them are) is accused of something the Commission finds some excuse for doing nothing about it and if it is eventually dragged into investigating, gives nothing more than a slapped wrist and the whole corrupt bandwagon rattles on. Sith Institute anybody?
23.02.2011 11:10
Interestingly on the Grundian web site there is a heading for “apologies” I have always presumed it was for editorial apologies rather than readers. Yeah Right
23.02.2011 15:23
Good post; needs wider acknowledgement but then tthe Sunday Telegraph ought to put some of Bookers findings on the front page but never do
23.02.2011 16:06
Notice the guardian has an article on this now… though it looks like Mr Booth is spinning it towards a vindication of his story.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/feb/23/charity-commissioners-taxpayers-alliance-donation
23.02.2011 17:09
“When will we see the Guardian run a front page story headlined “Guardian allegations against TPA ‘totally unfounded’, says official report”?
Presumably when they are sued, which is what should happen after a made up smear story
23.02.2011 20:26
“Bloody crap rag.” Not like the Daily Express then, a newspaper whose journalists are so lazy they get the ‘TaxPayers [sic] Alliance’ to do their work for them.
The ‘TaxPayers [sic] Alliance’ is just the Freedom Association without the blue rinse and the grey hair – I suppose Mark Wallace left because he got fed up with waiting for its geriatric leadership to pop its clogs like Norris McWhirter.
” It’s about someone sued there ass off. ”
Learn to speak and write English – ‘there’ is the opposite of ‘here’, ‘their’ is the possessive of ‘they’, which is a singular pronoun. In Britain an ‘ass’ is a donkey, not a backside, which we call an ‘arse’, Notihing against our American friends, who came up with the wonderful term ‘astroturf’ to describe outfits like the ‘TaxPayers [sic] Alliance’
24.02.2011 08:16
Is this really anything new for the media to paint organizations or businesses in a negative light when they might actually be doing something useful? They like to get the “attention grabbing” part the story for controversy sake, not for actual fact reporting.
11.08.2011 15:25
I guess Stephen is right, the only reason they did this is to get more attention to themselves
17.08.2011 15:56
Integrity in the media seems to be lost. Too often, they are more interested in reporting a controversy than in reporting the facts. We as readers should and must question all writers…even the ones we trust.
04.09.2011 08:33
The media do have a big roll to play but as a small business guy it drives me mad that they are constantlly trying to talk us back into a downturn.I fell its because good news does not sell?
11.10.2011 23:11
@ Ed
Did the media ever have Integrity? If it existed it certainly wasn’t in my lifetime!
online mixing
17.10.2011 16:59
I have been reading the guardian recently and I fell that the are still holding out for the small man here . We have always got to watch out that they want to sell newspapers but I think they have ot it right on this one !!!
21.10.2011 08:38
Guardian has become a newspaper that rehashes stories. The source of info is becoming more questionable.
03.11.2011 15:35
Andrew, I agree with you that The Guardian has rehashed alot of stories. However, I still think that their information is rather solid and at least somewhat reliable.
Mark
31.12.2011 02:39
The Guardian, like many of the other media outlets in the world today are only really interested in the profit margin.
17.01.2012 22:01
Ah yes, the Guardian at work again. Not sure about some of their stories, a little fishy but interesting. But I do agree with you, the Guardian has made up stories about the TPA, lame.
Dan
12.03.2012 20:06
To each his own opinion, but you have a point there.
27.03.2012 13:09
I think people should demand Guardian to publish a front page story and ask for a response to the unfounded allegations. when more people demand them a response, they will eventually publish a story, if not on the front page. this is important to clear TPA’s reputation.
18.06.2012 19:07
After reading that I’m just waiting for the Guardian to get slapped with a lawsuit, bound to happen but a good read nonetheless. Thanks, Ray
20.06.2012 19:47
@ Tess. I think that is not the solution as the Guardian readers will never demand it, and any other do not matter. The only way out is what Ray suggests; a lawsuit and a hefty one too. Let Mr. Booth stew in his own juices.
28.06.2012 04:53
people got to own their words here
11.07.2012 15:14