Is corruption too strong a word?

Take a read of this from John Trenchard (thanks Devils Kitchen for the spot) about "The Parenting Fund", who describe themselves as "a charity aiming to improve the wellbeing of children and families in the UK. We are a catalyst for change, working to make the voices of families heard." In fact as John Trenchard says "The vast bulk of it's income in 2006 was the £9,806,916 granted from the Department of Education & Skills - i.e. the taxpayer, out of a total income of £11,613,991.

Voluntary donations to this "charity" in 2006 totalled a mere £2,500.

Not so much a charity - more of a government department"


Then we discover, from their web site, who heads this charity (as "Chair"), none other than Fiona Millar who we discover "is a journalist specialising in education and parenting issues. She started her career on the Mirror Group's graduate training scheme then worked on the Daily Mirror and the Daily Express, as a news reporter, lobby correspondent and freelance feature writer. She co-authored a book of interviews with prominent women' By Faith and Daring' with Glenys Kinnock in 1993.

Between 1997 and 2003 she worked at Downing Street as a special adviser to the Prime Minister. She now writes a column in Education Guardian, is a contributor to the Guardian comment pages, LBC radio, the New Statesman and regularly takes part in television and radio debates about education.."

That would be Fiona Millar who as well as being a special adviser to Tony Blair when he was Prime Minister is also the long term partner of Alastair Campbell and the mother of his children.

So let's see what we have here, this is a charity that was setup in 1999, which gets 84.4% of its income from the government that its "Chair" and her husband used to work at a very high level for. This "charity" receives just 0.022% of its income from "voluntary donations". This "charity" produces helpful "family friendly" "overarching family policy" reports that highlight the poverty gap, support intervention in parenting etc. etc. etc. All good pro New Labour statist stuff and mostly paid for by the same government, does that seem "proper" to you?


They also produced a press release, that I think is worth repeating here, commenting on "Tony Blair's record for families". You will not be surprised to find out that it is a largely positive review (bearing in mind who the "Chair" of the "charity" is...

"The Family and Parenting Institute comments on Tony Blair's record for families

As Tony Blair announces his resignation as Prime Minister, Mary MacLeod, Chief Executive of the Family and Parenting Institute, UK's leading centre of expertise in families and parenting, gives her verdict on his record for families in the UK.

She said:

"Blair's premiership has to be seen overall as a positive record in terms of intentions, ideas and direction although we still have a long way to go in order to make Britain and truly family friendly society. We have welcomed increased flexibility for working parents, the minimum wage, increased maternity leave, the introduction of paternity leave, Sure Start, the Working Families Tax credit, a genuine attempt to tackle the scandal of child poverty, improvements in the affordability of child care and more and better funding for key services for families. Behind these policies has been an understanding that Government should listen to families."

She added:

"Yet it has not all been good news for families. Our recent research has shown that the health visitor service, a key frontline support service for parents, is under threat and so it is clear that still more needs to be done to protect these services.

The UK has the second highest number of men working over 60 hours in the EU and while parents have the right to ask for flexible working agreements, they don't have the right to have them. Parents also have been receiving mixed messages from Government. On the one hand they are praised and supported and on the other they seem to be the focus of blame for when things go wrong."

She concluded:

"Despite these concerns, on Blair's watch, we have woken up to the facts of social life – we are all connected to each other. There cannot be a 'no go' zone in public and economic life. Business depends on people. People depend on business. A consensus has developed across all political parties that family policy is not a sideshow to real policy, but fundamental the wellbeing of the State.

We realise it is the quality of relationships – the love, the care, the respect, the example, kindness, that raises children well. Doing more of this makes schools, streets and offices better places to be – it's about promoting wellbeing. So giving people the time to be a family and the assistance they need to get through bad times benefits everybody. Blair's Government accepted that investing in families is the only sensible course to take in social policy. And this is an admirable achievement."


I find this sort of "snouts in the trough" politics quite reprehensible.