Thursday, February 01, 2007

Charity Commission Opens Formal Inquiry Into Smith Institute

This is a statement from the Charity Commission...

The Charity Commission for England and Wales has opened a formal inquiry into the charity The Smith Institute today. The decision to open an inquiry was taken in the light of new information we have received which raises concerns about some of the charity's work.
The scope of the inquiry is to determine whether The Smith Institute is both established and operating as a charity advancing the education of the public in the field of study and research into the economy of the United Kingdom. The Commission has informed the charity of this decision. The Commission has been and continues to engage with the charity in relation to the issues raised.

Surely it couldn't be as a result of information provided in my little FILM?

UPDATE: I love it! A commenter has just said he heard Michael Crick say on PM that the Inquiry was down to a journalist on Telegraph and the Conservatives. Where exactly did they get the ammunition from, I wonder? HERE'S a clue...

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

No, I listened to Michael Crick on PM, and he said it was work done by the 'Telegraph and the Conservatives'.

So there you are.

Anonymous said...

Who is running the shop?

For there are British troops fighting on two, widely separated fronts, in Iraq and in Afghanistan.

The Prime Minister is being interviewed by the police in a corrupt use of legislative seats criminal enquiry, and some of his closest advisors are being interviewed on perversion and conspiracy counts; some have been arrested and bailed.

The charitable organisation with the closest of links to the Chancellor of the Exchequer has been placed under investigation by the Charity Commission.

The 2005 general election Labour Party campaign, run by the Chancellor, seems to have been funded througout the country by funds raised in a manner now the object of investigation

The Labour Party fails to call either a special conference to discuss the behaviour of its leaders nor, in the House of Commons, does it attempt to hold them to at least an explanation of what is going on.

So perhaps the question should be, who is going to take charge ?

The Head of State must be taking advice. It would be reassuring if a trusted and sensible person would speak to us.

Anonymous said...

P2...worry not! Prezza is in full control. He's keeping his trousers on cos Pauline's watching like a hawk, he's given up croquet due to the wet lawns and he's personna non grata in Texas since the casino decision. Poor slob's so bored he's having to start earning his 130k.
Happy now?

Anonymous said...

I thought I heard PM give Micheal Crick some of the CREDIT!

The listen again facility is not up yet but I'll have a look.

Anonymous said...

Graham e @ 6.14

Precisely. Prescott . That's all the Labour Party can offer.

Anonymous said...

Manic thinks you have little to be proud of, Iain

Anonymous said...

Good story and nice bit of nasty little sneaking by Iain and his pals. Now someone really should look into his TV operation and the way it's funded by neocon far-right organisations in the US. Some sort of christian racist outfit I seem to recall.

Anonymous said...

The media and No11 have come to the stark conclusion that they can no longer guarantee total media coverage or manipulation as they wish, and that bloggers now weild as much power as newspapers and TV. (e.g. charity commissioner enquiry).

today's alleged terrorist arrests is believed to be a contrived response to divert media attention away from the Downing St (both 10 and 11) sleaze enqiries, and the emphasis in news reports is not on the terrorist act, but the fact they allegedly planned to use the internet.

linked to John Reids announcement that the HO will revisit the 28 day detention rule, the government will use this latest arrest as reason to put curbs on the internet, and perhaps on particular blogs.

Anonymous said...

7:04 PM this gang can try to put curbs on these blogs ,the internet has far outgrown this lot ,they cant even stop porno sites so how can they stop political blogs , names change sites change ,they would end up a laughing stock , king john after robin hood

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 7:04 PM, you'd be surprised what the authorities can do. To disconnect the internet in Britain, all they need to do is ask BT to switch off it's main interconnects. 95% of users in Britain would then have no access. Don't think they wouldn't do this in time of emergency. One recalls the day of 7/7 when for some strange unexplained reason all mobiles in London stopped working as an example.

Anonymous said...

7:37 PM
See what your saying.

Iain Dale said...

Tim Ireland, bovvered?

Anonymous, 6.58 18 Doughty Street receives no funding from anywhere apart from Stephan Shakespeare. So keep your nasty little smears to yourself.

Anonymous said...

why does Tim Ireland call himself Manic? He seems awfully obsessive. Is he mentally disturbed?

Anonymous said...

1. Briefing. It's been covered. Learn some new tricks.

2. Stephan Shakespeare? Would that be the co-founder and Chief Innovations Officer of YouGov (and staunch defender of Jeffrey Archer)?

3. Smears? You're one to talk.

Anonymous said...

Iain you know as well as I do that the only people whom the execrable Crick hates more than Tories are bloggers.After all in his tiny self obsessed mind he is the ONLY chosen one allowed to expose dubious political behaviour (which he knows full well only happens in the Tory party) and you lot aren't "proper" journalists like he is. Surely you must know that? Oh and the BBC distorting facts in order to big up one of their own - no change there then.

Anonymous said...

I don't believe Dale. There is just too much cash and slickness behind his operations, for it to be anything other than hidden funding sources. Let's see the accounts. Better yet, can someone call the Revenue & Customs and get them to run an investigation? The sheer quantity of his leaks and vigilance suggests a team of operatives and a well-funded operation. I would guess at CIA funding or else Bush-arena neocon organisations, which adds up to the same thing.

Anonymous said...

It wouldn't be surprising if Iain lies to his accountant - most Tory small businessmen do! However, I find it less likely that the CIA are involved. Especially given the somewhat random nature of his posts, which are frequently incorrect. Although I agree he is a smear-merchant as bad as the NL people he professes to loathe.

Iain Dale said...

I see the 'anonymous' nutters are out in force tonight. Please bugger off back to Guido's blog. We don't need your sort here. Do you not realise how pathetic you sound?

Anonymous said...

Can you not generate your own anonymous nutters then, Iain? Manic knows of several Conservatives bloggers that create such things out of thin air.... and they seem to pop up at the most opportune times.

Now, could you answer Manic's question please?

Anonymous said...

Can you not generate your own anonymous nutters then, Iain? Manic knows of several Conservatives bloggers that create such things out of thin air.... and they seem to pop up at the most opportune times.

Now, could you answer Manic's question please?

Anonymous said...

Sehr geEhrter Iain

Gut getan

Grauer Adler

Anonymous said...

"why does Tim Ireland call himself Manic? He seems awfully obsessive. Is he mentally disturbed?"

Maybe, maybe not.
He does, according to his blog, find some political intelligence on Page 3 of The Sun. In the captions to the photos, no less
Personally, I prefer to go to the Beano for such things. Much better informed and far less chance of developing repetitive strain injuries.

Anonymous said...

The sheer quantity of his [Iain's] leaks and vigilance suggests a team of operatives and a well-funded operation. I would guess at CIA funding or else Bush-arena neocon organisations, which adds up to the same thing.

This is irony, right? You're just being satirical. Yeah?

Not even NuLabouroid trash could be loopy enough to actually mean this kind of garbage.

Anonymous said...

Yet again, another anonymous contributor comes galloping to Iain's rescue to continue with the briefing.

Tell me, you anonymous halfwit, after reading this, can you honestly say that propaganda does not appear on Page 3?

After reading this, can you honestly say that David Blunkett did not knowingly make use of this propaganda device in a pathetic attempt to save his career?

Psst! Iain! Manic is waiting for you…

(pats mattress)

... or would you rather keep wearing your princess outfit, waiting for anonymous strangers to happen by and rescue you?

Anonymous said...

Michael Crick has changed his mind again! On Newsnight he says that Bloomberg TV broke the story!

Anonymous said...

Attention anonymous New Labour trolls inventing crap and making nonsense false accusations in order to try to divert attention away from what is turning into the greatest political scandal of the modern era:

F**K OFF You've got nothing of any note whatsoever to say!

Oh and while you're at it lend me a tenner, I want to buy a peerage.

(My sincere apologies to Iain and anyone else who is offended by that word).

Anonymous said...

On a non-insane note.

The reason that mobile phones experienced problems on 7/7 was -

1) Very large numbers of people left their offices. Standing in the street, they tried to call home/each other.
2) Mobile phone systems are cellular - theycan only support a small number of people trying to make a call from each cell.
3) Phone networks in general can only support a certain proportion of the users making calls.
4) The overloading of both the mobile and terrestial networks has been studied and detailed in telecomms industry publications.
5) Late in the day, the police/resue services requested that the option be activated (on one network) to prioritise phones which they used - in effect phones used by them were guranteed to get through.

Anonymous said...

"The reason that mobile phones experienced problems on 7/7 was"

The reason the networks ceased operation was because the City of London police, not the Met, ordered them off air. The City plods thought this would clear the air for police communications and that was true. It also caused chaos for everyone else including medical services. The injured would have received better (i.e. quicker) treatment had City plods followed correct procedure.

Anonymous said...

Guido 2.0 @ 11.05
Just to point out: the current convention is that anonymous posters (halfwitted or not) generally post...er...anonymously.
Regards,PJ