A number of MPs over recent years have challenged charities for making high payments to senior workers. I have written several times on this blog about such attacks. Most of these challenges have come from right wing MPs whose challenge has been directed at charities working overseas, and they appear to have ignored the charities which are well connected to their party such as the Wellcome Trust. However over recent years the average wage of senior workers has dropped. The argument used by some of these critics (Priti Patel was the one I recall being the most persistent) was that when donors give funds to charities, they do not then expect the money to fund high wages. It is therefore quite surprising that when the Charity Commission released this press release on Monday that such critics did not question the Government. The press release states that the Government will give an additional £5m to help cover the costs of the Charity Commission. The subtext which is there in black and white below the first few paragraphs is that this funding is a temporary solution whilst the Charity Commission comes up with a plan for the charities it regulates, to pay for a similar sum in the future. So whilst charities are openly criticised for pay a thousand pounds to hard working individuals, it is acceptable for them to find millions of pounds to fund a Government Department. This should have led to people like Priti Patel shouting at the top of their voices in the House of Commons, but amazingly there has been silence! This is rather disturbing. Who really will stand up to defend charities and their donors?