
It seems strange to make an argument that charities need to serve all parts of the public. Of course if what Baroness Stowell of Beeston, the Chair means is that the provision of education to vulnerable people will assist our whole nation then I would fully agree with her. However most of us are not in a position of needing the education provided for vulnerable people. Likewise the overseas charities that are working to assist some of the most vulnerable communities across the world are serving all of us in that sense too, even though few of us get to even visit such areas. However if what she is suggesting is that every person in our nation needs to have to be served directly for the charitable sector to be judged as successful then that is pure nonsense. It is clear that the work from Elton John to men and women suffering from Aids and HIV was very helpful, but his charities have not helped him as there is no indications that he has been affected by either of those conditions, although of course he knows many people who have. It would be rather strange if for the charitable sector to be effective that some sort of charity would need to be established that would help Elton personally, given how wealthy he is and how easy it is for him to get the help he needs using the money he has in his possession. Over many years I have benefited enormously from working with and even establishing a range of charities but I have not personally needed those charities for my own needs. YMCA Downslink Group which I chaired from 2002-2012 worked with people much younger than me, Sussex Pathways which I helped to set up and was a Trustee from 2008 to 2014 was formed to assist people leaving prison and so far I have never been a prisoner and FareShare Sussex which I set up in 2001 after several years research is a charity that provides food that is passing its sell by date or no longer marketable and would otherwise go to landfill and instead is delivered to organisations waiting for food to cook for vulnerable people. It improves the lives of the people benefiting and arguable we all benefit from less food waste, but it is very hard to suggest it benefits most people in Sussex directly. These are just a few examples of charities that I have benefited from but not one has served me. Is Tina arguing that this makes the charitable sector inadequate?