 CHIT CHAT [Petition for a genuinely good cause ... please read!] |
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Posted on 26th Nov 2008 at 20:49
I received this from my local children's hospice, sent to them by another hospice ... read on, I hope you'll all be able to sign the petition:
Naomi House hospice, one of the children's hospices in the UK, are asking for support from people to sign a petition asking the Prime Minister to do everything in his power to assist with the recovery of funds lost by UK charities.
They say that viral emails can work – please help us to prove this can work as well for Naomi House as they say it did Barack Obama! You know how you all like to sign things and petition people – well with your help we might be able to persuade the government to consider the plight of UK charities who have assets frozen in Iceland.
As you may have seen in the media, we along with many other charities have been caught in the Icelandic banking collapse. We have £5.7 million pounds frozen. After nearly two months the government remains silent on the subject of whether we will have our funds returned even though they have looked after the smaller retail depositors to the tune of £2.6 billion.
The Treasury line is that we must take our chances with local authorities and other institutional investors. This will take years rather than months as we wait for the administration process to grind through. With your help we may not have to.
Number 10 would not allow us to start a petition specifically for Naomi House so the petition on the attached link is for UK charities in general. If we can all get sufficient signatures we may be able to get the government to focus on the plight of UK charities and do something positive for us all.
Please sign up via the link and please circulate your own email address book asking all your contacts to do the same. If we can get this to go viral we just may be able to get some positive action. Thank you.
http://petitions.number10.gov.<wbr></wbr>uk/CharityHelp/
Best wishes,
Alison
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Posted on 27th Nov 2008 at 07:19
Wow, how did they have £5.7m tucked away? I don't have that amount of capital on my balance sheet.
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Posted on 27th Nov 2008 at 07:58
GET IT SPENT. I'm sorry but the idea of squirrelling away 5.7 mill is obscene handling of a charity in my view.
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Posted on 27th Nov 2008 at 09:21
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Posted on 27th Nov 2008 at 10:34
This one is a bit of a gut-wrencher.
Agreed, Alison, a very worthy cause and tragic that the charitable donations of many good-hearted people may be lost. However, petitioning the PM to bail out what was, essentially, a very poor investment decision, is rather missing the mark.
Charities, along with all of the local authorities, have a very serious duty to protect the funds in their care and use them wisely. With any money investment, the investor should ALWAYS ask what is the risk/return. When any institution is offering an outstanding rate, there is always an underlying reason why it is so. For ages now, both Northern Rock and Icelandic banks have been offering market-beating rates. Now we know the reason! But even if we didn't know the reason, we should always be aware that risk & reward are always very close pals. It's a variation on the theme of "If it sounds too good to be true...."
Putting all of your eggs in a high risk/reward investment simply should not be on the agenda when dealing with other people's money. Any smart investor will always tell you to maintain a portfolio spread across different sectors to safeguard against unforeseen events. Granted, the current situation is an extreme event, but a well-spread portfolio would still have substantial value and would certainly not be zero.
As to what the PM could do, even if he wanted to, I am slightly at a loss to know. If the money ain't there, it ain't there!
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Posted on 27th Nov 2008 at 11:23
From what I can tell, the government has managed to have talks with the Icelandic govt about releasing the funds of private and retail investors, but not those of local councils and charirites.
Okay, with hindsight maybe it wasn't a good place to keep money but then again so many local authorities also had money ion the same place!!
Best wishes,
Alison
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If you spot an error in my post ...well, that's just proof that it's impossible to proofread your own work!
The Proof Fairy Professional proofreading and copy-editing for individuals and SMEs
Editor of Community Times In The Vale magazine, Wantage, Faringdon & Grove
Your virtual reception - Call The Office partner
Tel: 01367 888229 or 07927 330293
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Posted on 27th Nov 2008 at 12:42
It's a different story for (some of) the local authorities.
My local authority had a bit of cash squirreled away as red tape at governmental level meant they were vetoed from spending it until the next financial year, so they looked at somewhere to put that cash and gain maximum interest, and were given directions - from the treasury department - to put it in an Icelandic bank.
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Posted on 27th Nov 2008 at 16:36
Have signed Alison and hope it helps.
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Posted on 27th Nov 2008 at 19:14
I am very sad that anyone, be it a person, company or charity can lose money this way.
I do think it's even sadder that Naomi House have chosen to broadcast this to everyone...they were in all the papers and on the TV. I think tha many people would be put off donating to a charity that has already lost so much money, as they will want to feel that their hard earned cash is wisely invested for the good of the children. I think their PR campaign, in this instance will have a really negative effect.
I hope I'm wrong and wish them all the best.
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01202 802863 / 07835 749835
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Posted on 27th Nov 2008 at 20:19
I've signed the petition. it shouldn't need doing really since it shold be taken as given that the government will do everything to recover lost money.
Having said that, i do agree with the sentiment "why was the money beign saved?" what on earth good is it doing stuck in a bank. certainly not helping those it was intended for
Simon
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