Our weekly round-up of outlandish and interesting information collected from the corners of the charity sector. 

Not Hancock's half hour

Another week has come and gone and, much like the sun rises in the east and sets in the west; this column returns once more to Matthew Hancock, minister for the Cabinet Office, paymaster general and (if you squint) a slightly taller, more annoying doppelganger for omnipresent light entertainment heavyweight Declan Donnelly.

Flush from his #VivaVellum triumph last week – a victory that will surely echo down the annals of British politics for generations to come – Hancock took to the dispatch box to outline his ongoing vision for the UK voluntary sector.

That vision of course being that all voluntary organisations which apply for government grants will be gagged from actually saying anything remotely political because, you know, ‘free speech’ and ‘democratic values’ and all that.

If Mr Hancock expected that his trip to the box would be easy, he didn’t reckon with Anna Turley, Labour MP for Redcar and shadow minister for civil society. The following exchange was perhaps best summed up by a chap on Twitter who said that Turley’s question reduced Hancock to “quivering with monosyllabic rage”.

"Can [Matt Hancock MP] explain why the Charity Commission rule on campaigning appears to be ‘do as I say not do as I do?’," she asked. “I welcomed his clarification that charity voices should and could be heard on issues that affect them. But it flies in the face of their own recent gagging clauses.”

And then, the coup de grace, the knock-out punch, the money shot, Turley questioned whether or not “the minister can now confirm that charities are allowed to speak out – but only if they agree with the minister?”

*Mic drop*

Hancock wobbled to his feet, eyes glazed, hand clutching that same, damned Manilla Folder he was pictured with in the house of rolls and, after briefly steadying himself, replied to the question in the fullest possible manner:

‘No’.

Not since men like the Pitts (elder and younger), Disraeli and George, have the Houses of Parliament rung with such superlative oratory. Take a bow Mr Hancock!

Selling up and selling out

The Centre for Sustainable Philanthropy at Plymouth University has sold its naming rights to an American based global fundraising organisation for a cool £700,000.

The centre, home to renowned fundraising think-tank Rogare, will now be known as the Hartsook Centre for Sustainable Philanthropy.

What’s the Latin phrase for ‘what a bunch of sell-outs?’

This column is excited by the news. Firstly because it may well mean that Professor Adrian Sargeant can finally get that promotion we all know he deserves: Adrian ‘Lieutenant’ perhaps? No, Adrian ‘General’ has a better ring to it.

Secondly because it opens up a world of exciting opportunities for the sector as a whole. One sizeable donation from Gina Miller later and we have MCVO: the Miller Council for Voluntary Organisations. Can you imagine? It rolls right off the tongue and into your heart.

English Heritage strikes again, again

Remember when English Heritage annoyed a Cornish councillor so much that he accused them of ‘Disneyfying’ Tintagel? Halcyon days. This column referred to English Heritage at the time as the charitable sector satirist’s version of ‘an oasis in the desert’ and truer words were never written.

English Heritage has now doubled-down on the ‘Disneyfication’ of the Cornish coast by – and this is amazing – erecting an eight-foot high, bronze statue of King Arthur. They’ve also suggested that they would like to turn Tintagel Castle and the surrounding coastline into a sort of Arthurian, ‘fairytale theme park”.

The statue – called ‘Gallos’ which is apparently Cornish for ‘Power’ – is so big that it’s going to have to be airlifted into position by helicopter. More than 200 Cornish historians are so angry at this latest Camelotian-development that they are planning some kind of mass criticism/boycott/grumbling to the local press.

The Mebyon Kernow (Party for Cornwall) has gone one step further and suggested that English Heritage is effectively acting as the vanguard of the UK government’s wider Cornish genocide.

MK Deputy Leader Cllr Loveday Jenkin said: "I am incredulous that the 'Arthurian statue' was air-lifted onto Tintagel Castle in the very same week that the UK Government announced that they were axing all funds for the Cornish language.

"To see a quango turning this important site into a 'theme park' at the very same time that central government is undermining Cornwall's national language is disturbing in the extreme. “

Charitable donations going towards bronze statues, face-carvings and Cornish genocide. Diary can’t wait for English Heritage’s first set of accounts to come out!