Crash Bang Wallace
Libertarian political blog from Mark Wallace; political opinion, breaking news and exclusivesAsterix and the bureaucrats
Posted on July 20, 2010Times have changed in children’s literature and TV. Where once you could be pretty sure that the fiction kids devoured encouraged a spirit of adventure and a culture of individual responsibility now you just don’t know.
What is the likelihood of most books being as lackadaisical about health and safety as Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons where, when sent a telegram by the children’s concerned mother asking whether they should be allowed to go sailing on their own, their naval officer father replies simply: “Better drowned than duffers. If not duffers, won’t drown”?
In the 21st century, Swallows and Amazons would end abruptly with their parents being banged up with Karen Matthews, and the kids sent off into care.
In the spirit of promoting children’s fiction which encourages a healthy view of the world, I’d like to draw your attention to the following clip from The Twelve Tasks of Asterix, in which our hero has to take on the most difficult opponent of all – bureaucracy:
Charities reap the whirlwind
Posted on July 17, 2010The National Council for Voluntary Organisations are up in arms today at the prospect of charities facing cuts in the amount of taxpayers’ money they receive.
Did they seriously not see this coming? Even if all of these charities were blinkered enough to believe that public spending would never have to fall, they broke fundamental rules of good sense by becoming so reliant on the state in the first place.
Apparently, the taxpayer is now the source of a staggering 1 in 3 pounds going to charities.
That raises serious concerns about the co-opting of charities by the state - like when the NSPCC, which receives EU money, decided to back the Lisbon Treaty, for example.
Worse, this reliance on Government has poisoned the whole mindset of many charities. There’s no doubt that they are faced by a crisis, but what is the NCVA doing with today’s media exposure?
They’re complaining about the inevitable spending cuts, rather than trying to make things better by appealing for donations. As well as selling their independence, they have abandoned their initiative.
It’s time charities returned to being charities, rather than being just another arm of the state.