19 December 2011
I have just been looking through the latest edition of TFN, Third Force News: the voice of Scotland’s third sector. The front-page colour photo shows Lorraine Kelly (the thinking man’s Lorraine Kelly) stabbing a red-nail-varnished finger at the chin of a smiling Black Watch Cadet while dressed in a fetching white T-shirt and camouflage breeks. The lovely Lorraine is apparently putting the four soldiers (and one soldieress) through their paces in preparation for the 2012 Alliance Trust Cateran Yomp. The next cadet in line has his eyes closed as if awaiting his turn for the Kelly finger-stabbing. He is not smiling. What is wrong with this? Is it the free publicity given to publicity-seeking and wealthy so-called celebrities in a magazine whose every issue contains articles about poverty and deprivation and disadvantage in Scotland and the hard-pressed voluntary organizations who are trying to combat it? Is it the fact that until recently TFN was produced on thinner, less glossy (more environmentally friendly?) paper without all the lurid splashings of colour – it looked quite OK and was perfectly readable and more appropriate for a magazine promoting non-profit making organizations? Is it the glorification of the military in the photograph – young smiling-faced (well, four of them are!) cadets being trained as ruthless killing machines?
Well, as far as this article is concerned, there’s nothing at all wrong with any of this. That’s not the same as saying that there is nothing at all wrong with any of this. But there certainly is nothing wrong with Lorraine Kelly being pictured. Lorraine is a national treasure, a broadcasting icon, Dundee’s greatest citizen since the great poet and tragedian, William Topaz McGonagall, a favourite of Sustainable Scotland, lived and sometimes starved there. On the day that Scotland becomes independent – if there ever is such a day – how appropriate it would be if Lorraine was appointed Queen by acclamation. That is the day we would be all become Royalists because surely no voices would be raised in dissent. As for the Krankies – please insert what gruesome and unnatural punishment you think appropriate.
What aroused my interest in TFN was a letter, headed “Passenger tax will cost charities dear” by Ajaya Sodha, chairman, Key Travel. He argues that the rise in Air Passenger Duty in spring 2012 will have a devastating impact on charities carrying out important humanitarian aid and development work overseas. Last year Key Travel’s charity clients – which include over 2,000 NGOs including Tear Fund and Save the Children – spent over £3.2 million on APD. Since the government has admitted that the tax is being increased for revenue purposes only, Sodha claims that there is a strong case for making concessions for charities carrying out vital and often life-saving work abroad.
He does of course make a valid point in his letter but a few questions could be raised:
- Is it really necessary for all this travelling to foreign lands to take place?
- Aren’t there too many NGOs competing with each other for funds, duplicating services, providing too many staff, being too much concerned with the survival and expansion of their own organizations, and the welfare of those who work for them – particularly the bosses and managers? Too big an issue to cover properly here.
- Air travel is a significant contributor to carbon emissions which are powering the global warming which will affect disproportionately adversely the lives and livelihoods of people in the countries where these NGOs are working. If the rise in APD reduces air travel then, whatever the reason for its increase, isn't that a good thing?
- If a concession is made for charities, which already benefit from tax concessions, how many other groups will come forward with a seemingly compelling case for exemption or concession.
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