Storm in a tea cup...

[Gob]

There has never been such a brew-ha-ha at the Women’s Institute.

For 20 years the thirsty ladies in village halls have received free parcels of Yorkshire Tea.



But now the complimentary cuppas, enjoyed by members in more than 6,000 branches, are to be stopped because of charity law red tape.

The decision has caused outrage among the 96-year-old organisation’s 200,000 members – who shook off their once-genteel image with stunts such as the nude calendar that inspired the 2003 film Calendar Girls.

A Facebook group has been launched called ‘Reinstate our Yorkshire Tea’, on which members complain that they were not consulted by the top brass about the decision.

The Facebook page also carries accusations that discussions about the tea on the WI’s own website have been ‘censored’.

Problems started when the National Federation of Women’s Institutes (NFWI) decided that to protect the WI ‘brand’ Yorkshire Tea needed a contract to supply the organisation with free tea.

But the tea’s makers, Taylor’s of Harrogate, decided the contract wasn’t for them and have now dispatched the last goody boxes.

A Yorkshire Tea spokesman explained: ‘It was a case of “we need a contractual relationship”. This wasn’t for us. There were lots of elements to it. We started conversations and we didn’t get that far.

‘It’s been difficult for everyone. We have had super letters of support and thanks from ordinary members. They’re a very vocal bunch and we hope they’ll carry on drinking Yorkshire Tea for years to come.’

The WI blamed the situation on ‘constraints and obligations on the NFWI Board as charity trustees under current charity law’.

A spokesman added: ‘While members are free to accept gifts in kind, no public acknowledgement for the commercial company is allowed in return unless there is an agreed contractual relationship clearly stipulating the terms of engagement.’

The decision could provoke a backlash as fierce as the occasion when members slowclapped and heckled Tony Blair at a 10,000-strong WI conference.

On Facebook, Shirley Markham of Farmborough WI writes: ‘Please NFWI have another think! Our long association with Yorkshire Tea has done nothing but good to many causes and people, why change it if it works?’

Claire Fox, director of the Institute of Ideas, said: ‘How ironic. We have a Government that promises to get rid of red tape and nurture charities yet somehow, the ever-more elaborate, trumped-up regulations imposed on charity trustees means a genuinely altruistic act by business is scuppered.

'If the Big Society means anything, surely it’s butting out of informal arrangements.

‘Mr Cameron promises to roll back the state to free up People Power. Maybe he could start with rolling back charity law.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... mbers.html#

[Scooter]

I am ignorant of why the legal requirements in the UK came to be on this issue, but I have been involved with a number of charities and all of them have required some sort of agreement with commercial entities that have provided donations or sponsorships to the charity. Such agreements include, among other things, provisions regardling the use of each other's names and the description of the relationship created between the charity and the business as a result of the donation or sponsorships. It is in the interest of both the recipient charity and the donor business to have such terms spelled out as a means of protecting their interests.

[Andrew D]

The decision could provoke a backlash as fierce as the occasion when members slowclapped and heckled Tony Blair at a 10,000-strong WI conference.

Which turned out to be of significance how?

[Gob]

10,000 potential voters, more if you include family and friends, a most extensive networks of contacts.

In Context
Following the embarrassment of the speech itself, Downing Street became entangled in a row about whether Mr Blair had actually been invited to address the WI at all.

WI leaders said the prime minister had approached them about a speech, while Number 10 insisted the invitation had come from the organisation itself.

The WI began as an educational movement in the 1920s and now has more than 260,000 members in 8,000 local groups.

Although traditionally considered the reserve of blue-rinsed ladies who enjoy making jam, the WI has actively campaigned on issues such as the future of post offices, human rights and third world debt.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/date ... 499641.stm

[Andrew D]

Blair? Isn't he history?

[Gob]

yes?

[Andrew D]

Is 10,000 voters or even 260,000 voters a significant number? Here in the US, 10,000 voters are a minuscule blip on the national scene (except in the rare cases of extremely close elections): The population of San Francisco is seventy-five times that. And even 260,000 voters are barely a third of my home town's population.

[Gob]

In areas where the election could be swung by as little as 66 votes, getting the WI offside could be a seat loser.