charitywonk wrote:There is a lot of nonsense being suggested here about charitable status limiting campaigning. I have worked within a number of charities and it doesn't help this debate if the facts are just wrong.
Charities in the UK have been responsible for some of the most effective and groundbreaking campaigning in our history. Nobody can surely be suggesting that the Ramblers, NSPCC, the Rowntree Trusts, Shelter, RSPCA, Terence Higgins Trust, Stonewall have ever been neutered by being charities. Indeed they have more independence and more influence than bodies who have to toe the political line such as trade unions.
The charity commission and government specifically recognise the role of campaigning charities in policy, and they have made it clear that campaigning is not linked to funding.
Frankly the insular, self centred CTC I joined in the 1980s deserved to loose its place at the campaigning table when the city campaign groups kicked off. A body whose remit is to serve society and therefore can speak as the voice of everyone who cycles is just what we need. Who do you want to represent us - Sky? Better to make CTC as good as it possbly can be by using the system to our advantage.
But this is the Cycle Touring Club, not the Cycle Touring Charity. Maybe if the CTC is self-centred, we need to do something about that and make it more what the members want, rather than turning it into something they don't.
Because at the end of the day, being a charity isn't what the CTC was formed for - it was for like minded cyclists to come together and ride (tour) with similar aims. It wasn't, and shouldn't be, a political tool, which is what it is turning into.