Britain’s charity watchdog has bowed to pressure from a left-wing activist group and opened a case into the free-market Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA).
In its usual anodyne language, a Charity Commission spokesperson announced:
We can confirm that, following an internal review, we’ve opened a regulatory compliance case to assess potential regulatory concerns about the [IEA].
What the Commission doesn’t say is that the ‘potential … concerns’ stem from a campaign starting in March 2024 to close down the IEA, building up to the Good Law Project (GLP) threatening to sue the Commission for dereliction of duty—should it fail to investigate the GLP’s political opponent.
Given the GLP’s shockingly low win rate in the law courts, its continual appeals for funds, and the tendency of its leader Jolyon Maugham to beclown himself, the charity regulator would do well to ignore such threats. Instead, it has responded by promising that:
Our case will examine the trustees’ management of perceptions of potential political bias, perceptions of a potential lack of transparency around funding, and perceptions that the charity may have pre-determined policy positions which wouldn’t be in keeping with its charitable purposes to advance education.
In short, formally the Charity Commission is performing its role of investigating a charitable organisation where the trustees are seen as having violated its own constitution (i.e. its charitable aims and objectives). In practice, over one year of threats and lobbying from the GLP has heightened perceptions (largely its own) that the IEA “may have pre-determined policy positions which wouldn’t be in keeping with its charitable purposes to advance education.”
Combining all the qualities of the school snitch, a cry-bully, and a Stalinoid opportunist, the GLP is attempting lawfare to deal with its political opponents. It sees IEA activities as “the polar opposite of public benefit—and [has] already written back to the Charity Commission encouraging an even more robust response,” likely that of stripping the IEA of its charitable status. This selective lobbying, based on targeting one single think tank out of the scores in existence, is a genuine threat to free speech.
