There is nothing inherently wrong with charity fundraisers like Comic Relief, where millionaire stars of stage and screen come together to urge ordinary folk to part with cash for good causes. After all, charity exists to pay for the things we deem not important enough to be funded by the taxpayer. Donating a few quid to help people less fortunate than ourselves rightly makes us feel good about ourselves and, more importantly, really does save lives and make other people’s lives better. It’s a good thing.
It can be argued, I suppose, that the public purse is not finite, that we can’t afford to to fund everything centrally and therefore charities plug the gaps and don’t they ever. My worry is charities taking over from government.
For the life of me, I cannot understand why we need charities like Help For Heroes. Not that they don’t do a great job, but the fact that injured and disabled armed service personnel who have been hurt serving their country rely on what are effectively hand outs. I don’t mean that veterans are holding out the begging bowl, of course I don’t, but I can’t pretend that I am not uncomfortable with the voluntary sector funding essential work which if it didn’t would be done by no one. This applies to all manner of charities, not just the one I have used as an example.
Comic Relief’s £71 million will be used wisely and it will do good things both home and abroad but it comes at a time when government spending cuts, many in the very areas being funded by Comic Relief, are about to hit home like never before. For instance, did you know that the seismic cuts implemented by George Osborne (you might remember him: he’s the editor of the Standard) have not even reached the halfway point. To date, many of the cuts have savaged services to the most vulnerable people in society, like the sick, the disabled, the infirm and the old. Osborne’s cuts run into the billions so the £71 million, welcome though it is, will be mere sticking plaster over a gaping and widening wound.
I do not detect a public mood to increase taxes or redistribute the ones we already pay so we are where we are. When Comic Relief is yesterday’s news, the poor will still be poor and the disabled will still be disabled and the old will still be isolated and lonely as social care reaches the point of collapse.
Well done to Gary Barlow and others for asking us to make up the shortfall left by people like him avoiding taxes and for giving up some time for what is undoubtedly a great cause. I’m not interested in these big charity events anymore, preferring to donate to much smaller, local efforts and not relying on so called celebrities to promote them. I’m rarely moved these days by films of worthy celebrities driving trucks to distant parts to provide very temporary relief, although I acknowledge that temporary relief is better than no relief at all and at least withy Comic Relief many of the plans are for the long term.
But for people of my generation, we remember Band Aid and Live Aid when millions in Africa were starving to death. It made a difference, but not for long, and 30-odd years on the problems are still there, exacerbated by the pernicious effects of climate change.
For as long as our leaders lead for today, lacking compassion and vision, Comic Relief and events like it will plug some of the gaps but most will get bigger.
