26/11/2009 – In the thick of it?
At a time when the voluntary and community sector is already feeling under threat, the decision of the Office of the Third Sector to cancel Campaigning Research grants to 32 small charities (7 of them London based) is extremely damaging. The Minister recognises that her decision is a clear breach of the Compact - and this at a time when the Compact is about to be "refreshed". The independence of the sector and our ability to campaign is something that we must continue to protect however difficult the circumstances and the OTS decision is particularly damaging in this respect. Some of us were hoping to ask the Minister questions about this at the recent LVSC Conference but unfortunately she was unable to attend due to illness. Had she been there I would have wanted to ask her whether her decision resulted from pressure from above (Number 10?) due to the nature of some of the groups that capacity builders had put forward to receive the funding. The word is that it was the nature of some of the campaigning groups that had been chosen (and the fact that they were worried about Sun and Daily Mail headlines) that led to the Government's embarrassing decision to pull back the grants having already informed the groups that they would be receiving them.
Those of us who have been watching "In the Thick of It" can almost see Malcolm making that phone call!
Posted by Andy Gregg