Pistis reclaims White Poppies and makes a first foray into the world of Charity Expenditure (weekending 9th November 2019)

‽istis reclaims White Poppies and makes a first foray into the world of Charity Expenditure (weekending 9th November 2019)

‽istis stood in silence, the lone white poppy wearer, at the local memorial. ‽istis remembered… and thought about… 

‽ the fallen, from here – family names that live on and those where the family line stopped at the front line; the fallen from there, from everywhere…

‽ ‘those who are serving or who have served in the armed forces’[i] including those living with stress linked to experiencing trauma, those living with mental illness, those who are homeless, those who are in prison – those reliant on charity

‽ those affected by all wars and conflict of every nationality, on every ‘side’; the much larger number of civilians who are killed[ii], the millions made sick or homeless, families torn apart, those killed or imprisoned for refusing to fight or resisting war[iii]

‽ Eleanor Barton and the women of the Co-operative Women’s Guild who had lost husbands, fathers, sons, brothers and friends, were apparently worried at the growing militarisation of remembrance events by 1933 and who sought to renew a commitment “to that ‘Never Again’ spirit that was strong in 1918 but seems to grow weaker as years go by”, who wore the white poppy[iv]

And after the bugle had fallen silent and the lamppost poppies had been taken down (and people had wondered if they and the cable ties could actually be recycled or whether there was room to store them for another year), ‽istis found the Charity Commission website and started to search, noting the very varied proportionate expenditure (across the c.160,000 charities in England and Wales) by ‘income generation and governance’ and by ‘charitable spending’[v]; and ‽istis knew that quite possibly, perhaps, maybe this needed further exploration…    


© Pistis   

---

[i] From the Royal British Legion webpage: https://www.britishlegion.org.uk/about-us/who-we-are  and the Charity Commission description

[ii] For example see a comparison of apparent civilian and military deaths across the Allied and Axis countries in WWII: https://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/world-war-two/civilian-casualties-of-world-war-two/ and the Peace Pledge Union claim that ‘today over 90% of people killed in warfare are civilians’ https://ppu.org.uk/remembrance-white-poppies

[iii] https://www.ppu.org.uk/remembrance-white-poppies

[iv] https://ppu.org.uk/remembrance/white-poppies-frequently-asked-questions

[v] E.g:

·         The Royal British Legion: Income generation and governance: 25%; Charitable spending: 75%

·         SSAFA: Income generation and governance: 6%; Charitable spending: 92%

·         Combat Stress: Income generation and governance: 14%; Charitable spending: 84%

·         Help for Heroes: Income generation and governance: 30%; Charitable spending: 70%

·         Invictus Games Foundation: Income generation and governance: 8%; Charitable spending: 72%