Good Causes

As I said the other day - Gordon Brown responded very quickly to the article in The Times newspaper about the outside earnings of Westminster MPs - see post dated 14 October 2012 'Part-Time Workers'

Now I think that Gordon's explanation is quite pathetic I have to say - because the key issue is whether or not his charitable works for the oddly named 'Office of Gordon and Sarah Brown' - interfere with his day job as an MP.

And I think that any fair minded person would say that Gordon is in effect a part-time MP - because he spends so much of his time doing other things.

70 days a year in Abu Dhabi, for example, on behalf of the New York University (Abu Dhabi campus) - for which he is paid an additional £70,000.

As far as Gordon's charitable works are concerned - they only become an issue because he already has a day job as an MP - but I can imagine the furore if a civil servant or some other paid public servant tried to behave in the same way.

Lots of people do work for good causes - although they don't always wear their charitable hearts so publicly on their sleeves. 

What I woulkd like to know about the Office of Gordon and Sarah Brown is:

1 Whether the charity employees anyone and if so, who? 
2 How is the charity governed - who sits on the charity's board?     
3 How much of the charity funds go to good causes and how much is spent on expenses?
4 What kind of expenses does the charity incur, e.g. on air travel and hotel accommodation? 

Gordon Brown's response to The Times 

This article reports that, according to the register of members’ interests, Gordon Brown had an “annual income” in the year to July 2012 of more than £900,000 from work as an academic, author and speechmaker. The accompanying graphic (see tab) states that more than £33,000 of this money was paid to charity and that the rest was not for personal gain but “goes towards the running costs of his office and staff”. We are happy to make it clear that Mr Brown’s only personal income is his salary as an MP; he has declined the pension that he is entitled to as a former Prime Minister. All money from his speeches and writings goes to the Office of Gordon and Sarah Brown to fund his and his wife’s charitable and public service work, including, as its website states, £508,729 in charitable donations in a continuing programme of disbursements. Mr Brown has asked us to make clear that not one penny goes to him. We are happy to do so.