Happy Friday once again, readers. This week, Society Diary hopes you are still buoyed by Sunday’s European election results, which proved conclusively that the general public wants the government to either deliver a no-deal Brexit or revoke Article 50 and that anything else would be considered treason. Safe in the knowledge the country is no longer divided, please read on for this week’s charity highlights.
Battle of the bands
Firstly, for a bit of light relief, some violence.
As an erstwhile indie rock fan, Diary has always had a soft spot for lyrical genius and all-day breakfast champion Pete Doherty. Similarly, after watching the swear-heavy Oasis documentary Supersonic, Diary is a fully paid-up member of Team Liam when it comes to a choice between the overly-emotional and aggressive singer and his control-freak guitarist older brother Noel.
Diary was therefore shocked to learn this week that Gallagher and Doherty were getting into a scrap, for charity. For those who missed it, Pete challenged Liam to a boxing match after the latter “stole” his bassist Drew McConnell. He told Phil Taggart’s Slacker Podcast: “We would make a fortune for ourselves and for good causes.” Good to see Pete hasn’t forgotten about reimbursing number one there.
The two have history. Doherty told the podcast that Liam once made a joke at his expense at V Festival, when he pointed to an inflatable penis and said “glad to see Pete Doherty could make it today”.
More significantly, both have also had children with singer Lisa Moorish, Liam's daughter Molly and Pete's son Astile.
Warned about Liam’s famous exercise routine, going on daily runs, Pete dismissed this saying “I weigh him in”. He added that Liam “needs a slap”.
Diary is as sad as the next person about indie rock failing to penetrate the Radio 1 playlist as it did fifteen years ago and if beating seven shades out of each other is the only way to revive the genre, then so be it. Perhaps if the fight is a success, the winner could face another indie hero and raise some more money for charity. The drummer from the Ting Tings perhaps. Or maybe the bassist from Mystery Jets.
Actually Ed Sheeran does boxing in one of his music videos so maybe he could so something for a good cause by facing off against the biggest members of Queens of the Stone Age or Rage Against the Machine.
Run, Matt, run (in a sumo suit please)
Regular readers will no doubt be aware that Diary is a lifetime member of the Matt Hancock Appreciation Society (charity status pending). So the news that Matt has put himself forward for the leadership of the Tory Party has left us fizzing with excitement.
Matt is styling himself as the candidate of the future and progress (the less said about his #VivaVellum campaign the better), which is undoubtedly a plus for charities, which are generally big fans of having a future.
He was, very briefly on his meteoric rise through the ranks (helped mainly by other people being sacked, or quitting) the Cabinet minister responsible for charities, which was as good a reason as any to do some thorough research on his charity credentials.
And boy does he have some charity credentials.
"I have dressed up as a sumo wrestler, carried a pedometer for a week and even lost two stone to race a charger around the Newmarket July course," he once told the House of Commons.
"Charities channel the best of our instincts against the worst that life can inflict, whether that is sickness of mind and body, entrenched poverty or natural disaster."
He is also on the record as despising the term “third sector” opting instead for “civil society”, which is good enough for us.
Other Tory candidates with ties to charities include Andrea Leadsom, who founded a parenting charity a while back.
Meanwhile Penny Mordaunt has some actual hands on experience of working for a real life household name charity before entering politics.
Finally Rory Stewart, who’s rapidly become a Twitter favourite for pretending to hold his phone and smoking opium, not at the same time, has also founded a charity – the Turquoise Mountain Foundation.
“In late 2005, at the request of the Prince of Wales and Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan,[17] he established, as Executive Chairman, the Turquoise Mountain Foundation, a human development NGO, in Afghanistan, and relocated to Kabul where he lived for the next three years restoring historic buildings in the old city of Kabul,” Wikipedia says.
There are probably more candidates with charity links, but there are *checks notes* currently 12 MPs standing and Diary got bored.
Related articles
