VAT ROW OVER HAITI SINGLE

After the earthquake in Haiti three months ago, which killed around 230,000 people, Simon Cowell and a team of singers produced a single "Everybody Hurts" to raise disaster relief funds. Fantastic thing to do!

The Prime Minister said that VAT would be waived on the single. Fantastic thing to do!



It wouldn’t quite be true to say he was telling lies, but he was certainly bending the truth. The Treasury has warned the Dept of International Development that they will have to pay for the lost revenue. Its budget will have the VAT deducted from it.

This means that money otherwise destined to fulfill its purpose of aiding some of the poorest people in the world will be diverted to the Treasury. Aid groups have, quite reasonably, accused the Government of penny-pinching.

Malcolm Bruce, chairman of the International Development Committee, said Brown had been disingenuous and deceitful in claiming the VAT would not be claimed by the Treasury. "Anyone going out to buy this single would have thought it was adding value to the campaign and the very fact of cancelling VAT was designed to increase the numbers buying it," he said.

The Treasury has confirmed that the equivalent of the VAT would be taken out of DfID’s budget. This means that all the money raised from "Everybody Hurts" will go to the Haiti relief effort. Then they did what they always do when they get caught out. They blamed someone else. In this case the EU. A spokesman for the Treasury said that they couldn’t, under EU law, exempt things from VAT. It has to be collected – in this case from the DfID budget."

So why did Mr Brown promise that no VAT would be payable on the single? Did he not know, after all these years as Chancellor what the EU law was on the matter of VAT? Did he think that people buying it would be happy that their generosity was taking money away from people in countries like Malawi?

Now Downing Street has intervened to cool the row. It appears that Dfid will indeed reimburse the initial cost of the VAT for the single but has an agreement with the Treasury that they will provide additional end of year financing to cover that cost. Talk about a waste of time!!

Sounds like Brown wanted to make a big gesture and that, like most of what he does, it has fallen flat on its butt and left him looking mean and stupid and opportunistic.

COULD THE AMERICAN HEALTH BILL YET FAIL?

I’m lucky; I have my own personal Alistair Cooke.

My good mate Danny just sent me an email with his usual collection of news stories from the other side of the Atlantic. Always interesting and at the same time amusing, Danny manages to mix serious stuff with trivia. I had a good laugh over the irony that George Bush, who had made such a complete mess of organising the disaster relief in New Orleans after the Katrina Hurricane, had been jointly appointed with Bill Clinton to oversee the co-ordination of American aid to Haiti. Of course the post may be largely 'for show', with Secretary Clinton having already visited Port au Prince, but Presidents Clinton and Bush with their huge influence certainly show the world, and Haiti, that America is involved at the very highest levels, and who knows how many of the "haves and the have mores" will part with money for President DubYa!

A much more worrying issue followed. Here it is as Danny sent it.....

“....An unbelievable story is unfolding in Massachusetts. Teddy Kennedy's Senate seat is being contested there in a by-election next Tuesday. And the polls now say it's a toss-up. The Republicans may actually get it.

BEYOND BELIEF....the Kennedy seat IN MASSACHUSETTS....going REPUBLICAN???!!!!

And if it goes Republican, the Democrats will only have 59 seats in the Senate. This would almost surely kill the health bill when it comes back out of the conference committee for final vote of the two houses of Congress. The vote will be 41-59 in the Senate and a Republican filibuster will kill it. And imagine what this would mean for any future Obama administration bills in the Senate. So all eyes are on Massachusetts this coming Tuesday....”

It is hard to believe that after all the work that President Obama and the Administration leaders in the House and the Senate have put into this bill, which would extend health care to the working poor in the world’s richest country, that it could all be lost because of the death of one of its greatest proponents.

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Horrific Earthquake Hits Some of World's Poorest People

“But from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.”

That was the phrase that came to me when I heard this morning about the horrific earthquake in one of the world’s poorest countries. Thousands are feared dead after a massive quake with a magnitude of 7.0 hit Haiti. The US Geological Survey said that the epicentre of the earthquake was 10 miles from Port-au-Prince, which has a population of 2.5 million. A tsunami alert for the Caribbean region was issued immediately after the earthquake struck at 9.53 pm GMT. Minutes after the initial tremor, there were two aftershocks, measuring 5.9 and 5.5.

Communications were widely disrupted, making it difficult to get a clear picture of the damage as violent aftershocks shook the country, destroying the flimsy buildings. The United Nations headquarters and the World Bank were among scores of buildings that were toppled, including the presidential palace, government buildings and a cathedral. An hotel popular with tourists collapsed burying up to 200 people, while roads and bridges also lay in ruins.

The international relief charity Food for the Poor reported that the whole city was in darkness and that thousands of people were sitting in the streets with nowhere to go.

An earthquake expert at the University of Southern California said that the earthquake’s size and proximity to the capital had probably caused widespread casualties.

I heard on the news this morning that the UK has a team of fire fighters ready to fly out to Haiti as soon as it can be arranged, but with communications wrecked, it is difficult to know when that will be.

Many British Charities have launched appeals for money to help: Save the Children has made £50,000 available immediately from its funds. The Red Cross has set up an appeal at http://www.redcross.org.uk/donatesection.asp?id=102168 or telephone 08450 535353. It’s good that we feel that we can help people far less fortunate than ourselves.

I was interested in some of the comments on the Daily Mail’s story. Louise in Mid Glamorgan said: “Yes, that’s very interesting but we’re a bit tied up with our own problems at the moment”. Tom, MKUK replied: “A bit of world news not your cup of tea Louise? I hope you can overcome your terrible plight and make it through the snow to Waitrose for supplies soon. I’m sure the people of Haiti will be praying for you in your hour of need.”


If you want to see examples of the good and the bad in us, a visit there is worthwhile.

Update:

Donations can be made on the High Street, by calling into any bank or post office and quoting Freepay 1449, or at branches of any of the DEC's member charities. The DEC is composed of 13 major UK aid agencies: Action Aid, British Red Cross, CAFOD, Care International UK, Christian Aid, Concern Worldwide, Help the Aged, Islamic Relief, Merlin, Oxfam, Save the Children, Tearfund and World Vision.