The commentators                    07-08-15

...on Kids Company

Running a major organisation, with statutory duties, takes a lot more than a colourful character at the top. Running a charity is very hard, considerably more difficult than running a business. Rather than advertising to willing consumers, a charity is dealing with clients who are either chaotic or recalcitrant. Rather than drawing on capital markets, charities are reliant on curiously motivated, often capricious, donors. With no debt facility, they have to manage cash, the flow of which is a monthly enemy
- Philip Collins, The Times
Gaby Hinsliff
Reading the case studies she shared with the Centre for Social Justice for its report on child protection last year, the uncomfortable feeling remains: what, exactly, do we think Camila Batmanghelidjh should have done with the six-year-old she describes finding in his underpants in the snow, unfed by his crack-addicted mother, surviving off scraps from neighbours? Told him she had hit her quota that week? We are in danger of obsessing over a faulty sticking plaster, rather than the gaping wound it failed to cover. The frightening thing is that we now have one less way to stop the bleeding - Gaby Hinsliff, The Guardian
With the greatest will in the world, the suggestion that Kids Company funding is being stopped and that Camila Batmanghelidjh is being ‘discriminated’ against because she knows secrets about historical sex abuse concerning members of the Establishment does not seem credible. And it also suggests that Miss Batmanghelidjh was willing to keep quiet, as long as the money kept rolling in. If all this is true, why is she answering questions in a television station instead of in a police station?
- Jan Moir, Daily Mail
Far from being bullied, it is Ms Batmanghelidjh who is the bully. For too long she has emotionally blackmailed the government by insisting that without its funding vulnerable children would have to be turned away. Instead of trying to shut it down, two Cabinet Office ministers overruled their most senior civil servant to give £3 million to her charity in an attempt to keep it afloat. The credulity must end. Ms Batmanghelidjh and her operation are looking murkier by the day.
- The Times

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The only reason this case from Shoeburyness reached the public consciousness was because someone mentioned age. That turns out to have been a side issue, and we shall probably never know the full story. That may be right and proper, a family's private traumas should not be aired for public entertainment. 
But if women are being coerced into signing away the right to look after their children when they are not mentally fit, in order that councils can meet adoption targets - as the grandparents' lawyer and MPs suggest - then we need to know.
The journalists covering this story have fallen for the clickbait angle and missed the real issue.
Editor's blog: Grandparents' tale of woe

Comment archive, 2015

June 5 Fifa
June 4 Politics
June 3 Charles Kennedy
June 2 British politics
June 1 Fifa
labour leadership contenders
May 22 UK politics
May 21 UK politics
May 20 The Labour party
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ballot box
May 8 General election
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Sturgeon and Salmond
April 24 General election
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April 21 Drowned refugees
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Westminster
April 10 General election
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Ed Miliband
March 27 Prince Charles's letters
March 26 UK politics
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March 24 Lee Kwan Yew
March 23 UK politics
Jim Murphy, Scottish Labour party conference
March 13 UK politics
March 12 Jeremy Clarkson
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Rifkind and Straw
February 27 UK politics
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Merkel and Putin
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Alexis Tsipras
January 30 Rape law
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Hebdo demo
January 16 World politics
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January 14 Charlie Hebdo
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Picture
May 29 Fifa
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May 27 Europe
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New Tory MPs
May 15 Ukip and Labour
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Picture
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manifestos
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dissolution parliament
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March 31 General election
March 30 Depression 
George Osborne
March 20 UK politics
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Boris Nemtsov
March 6 Scotland and the election
March 5 Isis
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Copenhagen
February 20 UK politics
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February 18  UK politics
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education
February 6 UK politics
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Pope Francis
January 23 UK politics
January 22 Chilcot inquiry
January 21 Page Three
January 20 Anti-semitism 
January 19 Religion and freedom
Charb
January 9 Charlie Hebdo
January 8 Charlie Hebdo
January 7 UK politics
January 6 UK politics
January 5 UK politics
For EI daily digests from June to December 2014 please click here
Comment digest courtesy of
Editorial Intelligence
Camila Batmanghelidjh
August 6
Kids Company
August 5
Labour
August 4
Labour
August 3
Calais
Calais
July 31
Calais
July 30
Calais
July 29
Labour
July 28
Lord Sewel
July 27
Labour
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July 24
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July 23
Labour
July 22
Labour
July 21
Counter-terrorism
July 20
Boris Johnson, Greece
Picture
July 17
UK politics
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UK politics
July 15
Iran
July 14
Greece
July 13
Greece
Picture
July 10
Budget
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Budget
July 8
The Budget
July 7
Greece
July 6
Taxation
Greek debt
July 3
Grexit
July 2
Heathrow
July 1
Grexit
June 30
Grexit
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Tunisian massacre
Alexis Tsipras
June 26
Monarchy and Brexit
June 25
UK politics
June 24
UK politics
June 23
Greece
June 22
Greece
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June 19
Greece and Europe
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UK politics
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Politics
June 16
Social mobility
June 15
Politics
Merkel, Obama G7
June 12
Politics
June 11
Politics
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Politics
June 9
Europe
June 8
Politics
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