It takes a certain kind of person to run a
company that takes advantage of people in desperate times, to squeeze money out
of them when they have nowhere else to go. The kind of person who would do such
a thing should be admonished by society for preying on the needy. However, this
government sees him as a person to go to for advice and to send senior advisers
to lobby on the company's behalf.
Wednesday 31 October 2012
Monday 29 October 2012
Complaint Over Think Tank 'Charity' Sent to Charity Commission
Over the last month
Social Investigations has researched the free market think tank, Reform, which
to the discredit of the Charity Commission rules, is also a charity. The findings led to the conclusion that a complaint to the
Charity Commission was justified under both misleading the public and questioning their
political independence.
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Reform are important because they dream up policy for selling off our
public assets like the NHS and the police and the Conservative party make
policy based on their research. Their corporate partners are major global and UK
corporations and scooping the financial rewards from the privatisation dreamed
up by Reform.
Reform is seen by many
organisations on both sides of the political spectrum as being an arm of the
Conservative party, everyone recognises this except it would seem, the Charity Commission.
The Research revealed:
The Research revealed:
· All the founders are linked to the Conservative
party
· Three out of the five trustees have direct
links to the Conservative party
· There are multiple companies who are Reform’s
corporate partners who are linked to Lords and MPs
· They were involved in lobbying to maintain
‘competition’ in the health and Social Care bill
· They promote privatisation in all public sector
areas
· They make a claim on their website that is
misleading
· They hold meetings with ministers and corporations
where no minutes are held using Chatham House Rules
· The Conservatives have launched two policies at
Reform
The Complaint sent to Charity Commission
Reform
Research Trust – Charity Number: 1103739
The
complaint against Reform centre on two areas:
·
Misleading
the public
·
Political
independence
1.
Misleading the public
Misleading statement
Reform state on their website: 'We are keen
to involve corporate organisations in our research because their expertise is
often left out of the Whitehall policy discussion.'
I am providing a selection of files on
three companies that are corporate partners to Reform in order to provide
evidence that Reform’s statement on their site regarding the above statement is
at best misleading and at worst deception.
In addition to the same point above, I am
providing a list of the corporate partners with their links to MPs and Lords
and a list of what area each company influences government policy.
The companies I have selected are:
·
Aviva
·
G4S
I chose three simply because I didn’t want
to inundate your organisation with files on all the companies that make up
their corporate partners to make the point. The files represent those companies
only, although the same would apply to all the other corporate partners and I
would be happy to supply more if required.
Reform currently has 31 corporate partners; many of them represent some of the most powerful companies in the UK.
Current members are: ABI, Aviva, Balfour Beatty, Benenden Healthcare Society, Bevan Brittan, BG Group, BVCA, Cable & Wireless, Capita, CH2M Hill, Clifford Chance, Citigroup, The City of London, Ernst & Young, GlaxoSmithKline, G4S, GE, General Healthcare Group, HP, ICAEW, KPMG, Maximus, McKesson, MSD, Optical Confederation, PA Consulting Group, Serco, Sodexo and Telereal Trillium.
These companies are not left our of
Whitehall policy. As the files will show, they are often involved at various
levels helping to develop policy.
Many of these companies are financially
linked to Lords and MPs from all parties, although largely the Conservatives
and in many cases they are in leading positions: Please see File titled Reform
MP company links.
In one particular case, the director Andrew
Haldenby specifically speaks up for and on behalf of G4S as it mentions in the
G4S file.
Reform receives money from donations and sponsorship. Companies often
sponsor an event so that they can lobby. The policy that these companies
influence ends up creating more wealth for the companies and is not for the
charitable aims of delivering economic prosperity to the people it claims to
do. Not once in their summary return do they mention promoting privatisation,
and yet through their corporate sponsorship, and work, this is exactly what
they are doing.
2. Political
independence.
The next complaint
looks at their political independence.- See links to Conservative party here.
‘The guiding principal
of charity law is that charities should be, and be seen to be, independent from
party politics.’
Based on the statement
above, Reform is not within charity law as their powerbase is almost totally
towards the Conservative party.
I have produced a
separate file for this titled: ‘Reform links to the right’.
Sunday 28 October 2012
Reform think tank and their links to the Conservative Party
Reform calls itself independent. However
the research below brings this claim into question in what appears to be the breaking
of the Charity Commission rules for all charities to remain politically
independent. Download as PDF
The 'charity’s' claim to independence is
based on having one Liberal Democrat (Jeremy Browne) and two Labour members
(Lord Warner and MP Frank Field) and a Conservative MP, (Julian Smith) on their
advisory team. These however do not represent the overall dominance of the
organisation towards the Conservative party, which can be seen by the
powerbase, of the founders and trustees. The bullet points below represent a list of
these connections.
- All of the co-founders have links to the Conservative party.
- Reform is recognised as part of the Conservative party movement by multiple medium including the Conservativehome.
- Two MPs to emerge from Reform both belong to the Conservative party
- Two of the trustees have provided money to individuals in the Conservative party
- Two of the trustees and a director have advised two Conservative MPs
Monday 22 October 2012
Privatising Probation: What Reform says – Government does
In February 2011, Reform, a free market think tank, produced a brochure based on a meeting held at global law firm, Clifford Chance, titled: ‘21st century justice’. The meeting in large part discussed the probation and prison service and the need for change.
Thursday 18 October 2012
Response from NHS Commissioning Board on NHS Brand Vacancy
I sent an FOI request to the NHS Commissioning Board in relation to the vacancy they announced for a NHS Brand manager as part of a team. The vacancy was originally highlighted by Roy Lilley. I almost feel like apologising for asking you to read it, but please do. The response below is utterly bewildering and my comments are at the bottom.
Friday 5 October 2012
Reform - a voice for corporations – G4S
G4S are the most powerful security company in the world, so why do a 'charity' need to offer them further support?
Bringing the activities of the think tank Reform to the public eye, Social Investigations is producing a series of articles which looks at the corporations they partner, and their claim that they are excluded from Whitehall policy. So far, the corporations covered have been Aviva and BMI Healthcare.
Bringing the activities of the think tank Reform to the public eye, Social Investigations is producing a series of articles which looks at the corporations they partner, and their claim that they are excluded from Whitehall policy. So far, the corporations covered have been Aviva and BMI Healthcare.
Reform's claim is this:
'We are keen to involve corporate organisations in our research because their
expertise is often left out of the Whitehall policy discussion.’ – Reform website
– corporate partners page
Thursday 4 October 2012
MPs and Lord's Financial Links to Free Market Think Tank
As part of a series of investigations
looking into the free market think tank Reform, the financial links between our
so-called public servants, corporations and Reform has brought into question
whether Reform should be stripped of their ‘charity’ status.
Now Social Investigations has revealed the
list of companies that give money to Reform in either donations or sponsorship
who also are employing or have financial connections to our so-called public
servants in key sectors of our society.
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