There’s a campaign fronted by various celebrities aiming to rise money for Syrian refugees. The advert exhorting us to text to give £3 states that the UK government will match our donation.
Your donation will be doubled by the UK Government, meaning that your gift will go even further to help save more children’s lives this Winter.
Doubtless this is believed by countless generous folk. However, the government is doing no such thing. It doesn’t have any money. Not a bean. What will happen is that you will be doubling the money, for any money in the government’s coffers comes from you – and I, of course. It’s our money that it is very generously donating. So if you decide to give, you will be giving the whole £6 yourself – or if not you, someone else who has had the money taken by force.
Meanwhile, in the NHS, in care homes, in closed plodshops, in closed ambulance stations etc., etc.
Quite so. That’s why I give ’em sod all..
It’s just like that plastic bag tax. Five pence is nothing, it’s the belief that government shall take our money with threats and spend it more wisely. As for giving to good causes, I thought that charitable contributions should be voluntary. I choose my own charities, thankyou.
It’s always been easy to spend someone else’s money, but politicians and apparatchiks who run the show for themselves now are experts in the field.
I notice that – unsurprisingly – the advertisenment contains at least one blatant lie; namely the words at the foot of its ad: UNICEF IS FUNDED ENTIRELY BY VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTIONS. Of course, the notion that the UK taxpayers’ addition to the £3 donation is somehow “voluntary” attaches a whole new meaning to the word.