There was the usual fighting talk when Angela Smith lost her seat at South Basildon and East Thurrock at the election: the seat’s only on loan to you Tories, we’ll be back, and so on. It may well be that Labour will regain this marginal constituency when the pendulum swings again, but it won’t be… Read more »
Posts Tagged: Angela Smith
What happened to the big splash on the Compact?
2010 was supposed to be the year of the big push for the Compact. “Next year is an important time to make a big splash,” said Richard Corden, chief executive of the Commission for the Compact, when the cross-sector fair play agreement was refreshed in December. At the time, the Compact was still reeling from… Read more »
Fire and brimstone missing at Unite’s mass meeting for charity workers
The mass meeting last night of charity sector workers organised by Unite showcased a side of the Labour Party rarely seen these days. Labour MPs initially outnumbered charity workers in committee room 11 of the Palace of Westminster, as delegates battled with hordes of tourists and schoolchildren to get through security. The MPs declared themselves… Read more »
Smith, Hurd and Willott were given an easy ride at the volunteering hustings
At university we had hustings to help students decide which of their peers they should elect to represent them on their college’s governing body. They were heated events. We crammed a hundred or so people into a small room, gave the candidates a good grilling and scrutinised every word they said, throwing back difficult questions… Read more »
Senior politicians were competing to impress charities last night
Loans are all the rage. Last night I joined around 200 people who went to all-hail them at a House of Commons reception organised by the Social Investment Business. Proceedings were delayed by a parliamentary lobby of hundreds of kindly-looking middle-aged people wearing ‘Homeopathy Worked for Me’ t-shirts, which caused 30-minute delays getting through security…. Read more »
Funding the Future conference: policy was thin on the ground as Nick Hurd recycled his jokes
Shadow charities minister Nick Hurd announced to delegates at the Funding the Future conference yesterday that he was going to tell them something they might know already. “There’s going to be a general election soon.” It was not the first time he’d made the joke. He said it last week at an Institute of Fundraising conference,… Read more »
We’re going to the zoo, zoo, zoo…how about you, you, you?
A woman of principle, or a bit of a crank? The question relates to Angela Smith, Minister for the Third Sector, who has made it clear that she’s not prepared to attend an event at London Zoo because she’s a strong supporter of animal rights and a patron of the Captive Animals Protection Society. That… Read more »