Labour's war on charities

Here's a nasty story from the Manchester Evening News. It seems that the Labour-dominated city council intend to crack down on charity workers, specifically the type who hang around places like Market Street and Piccadilly, asking people for permission to set up direct debits for regular donations. The MEN unflatteringly describes these guys as “charity muggers” or “chuggers”. Apparently shoppers have complained about feeling “harassed” and “intimidated” by them.

Sorry, but if you feel intimidated by a charity worker, you really need to grow a backbone. Unlike real muggers, they're not going to stick a knife in your ribs and demand money with menaces. And unlike Manchester City Council, they have no legal power to take your money from you without your permission. If you're approached by a charity worker in the street, and you either don't want to donate money or you can't afford to, a polite “no” will normally do – and if some misguided charity worker tries to give you the hard sell, all you need to do is calmly walk away.

So what's the problem?

North West Meet Up, 5th September

It's that time of the month again. It hardly seems any time at all since the last regional meet up, but it's been a very active month (certainly for me personally, hence the light blogging).

This month's meet up is at our usual Manchester watering hole, the Kro2 Bar on Oxford Road (near the BBC). There should be a lot to talk about as we now have several prospective candidates for next year's local elections and we're aiming to establish a more formal organisation for the North West branch.

As usual, this meet up isn't just open to Libertarian Party members, everyone's welcome, just turn up and introduce yourself if you'd like to find out a bit more about what the Libertarian Party's about and what we aim to achieve. We're a friendly group, especially once we've got past the first couple of beers.