Suzi Leather

Finsbury Park Mosque (North London)
According to a quote on the website of The Charity Commission: "a charity is not able to support, promote or criticise a political party". Yet I would suggest that the politicisation of charities and the whole concept of giving to them is now an established fact and, for the cash-strapped political establishment of the UK, it's a godsend. Take for example the case of St Tony Blair, just as soon as he could he set up a 'foundation' to apply all the tricks he had learned from hobnobbing with the Clintons. The money flows around Blair are as complicated as ocean currents but we do know that it is the UK taxpayer who picks up the bill for his security in the UK. The sum is around £6 million, you may think this is, considering Blair's wealth, unjust.

This is the paradox. History shows that charity evolved from a personal act of giving into a formal structure to right wrongs and sweep away injustice on a grand scale. However, while the scale of things may have increased dramatically, injustice has adapted itself also, it takes on new forms.