NO SMOKE WITHOUT FIRE?

It looks like the Charity Commission may be looking (according to The Guardian) at the Taxpayers' Alliance (which may or may not be a Conservative front organisation) which campaigns against the misuse of public funds, has set up a charity under a different name which can secure subsidies from the taxman worth up to 40% on individuals' donations.

According to the Guardian,'The Charity Commission's records apparently show that the charitable arm was established as the Taxpayers' Alliance Research Trust in 2007, before changing its name to the Politics and Economics Research Trust. Oddly enough the charity's trustees include leading Taxpayers' Alliance supporter Patrick Barbour, the founder of Reform, a free-market thinktank which advocates lower tax and public spending and at l;east until he became leader of the UK Independence party last month, one Lord Pearson of Rannoch was also a trustee.'

The Guardian also notes that the trust was the recipient of donations worth £373,230 in 2008 and approved 29 grant proposals amounting to £278,520 with the stated aim "to advance the education of the public" and to "promote for the public benefit research into matters of public taxation, public policy, applied economics and political science". What may be more interesting is that unusually for a charitable trust, the accounts do not name the grant recipients...

Check this out for more information on the Taxpayers Alliance