Charity begins at death.

[Fungus]

Some of those stories are horrific. Did they consider reporting the charity to the charities commission, the local MP etc etc? I am sure even the media and programmes such as Money Box on R4 would be interested to hear that story. Bad publicity could do the charity damage. No doubt the scumbag who pursuaded the old geezer to sign over his farm/house is now parading around all full of himself and being admired by colleagues.

Fortunately not all charities are so nasty. The RSPB do ask to be remembered in wills, but they also point out that you should look after nearest and dearest first, and only then leave something to them. I've never been harassed/pestered by them. My late mother left £5K to a charity which I thought was fine. I donate to Oxfam, but I've seriously considered cancelling donation because they are seriously pushy, with regular phone calls from pushy gits to get me to increase the contributions. It gets right up my nose, and anyway who is paying these pushy gets? Yes, my donations are paying them rather than going to the needy. I wrote to complain as I was getting pissed off. I also get huge amounts of junk mail from charities and I do wonder of Oxfam pass on my details. Gits!

IMO it is worth giving to a good cause, but avoid the nasty/pushy ones.

Fungus

[Fungus]

Agreed. Seeing the guy on the front page of local paper battered and bruised, being reported as the victim of a random attack, might be the best satisfaction they can hope for.

I say exactly the same to my parents when they talk about what to do with their money: "spend it on having a good time, you can't take it with you". The trick is to make sure you have spent it down to the threshold (£8k??) just at the point where you lose your marbles and get taken into care. There must be nothing worse than your hard-earned going to the local council to pay care workers for the priviledge of abusing you and knicking what few valuables you have left.

There's the rub. If you squander your money on having a good time, then when your marbles go, and you get carted off to a home, the council pay. If on the other hand you worked hard, never claimed benefits, and paid off a mortgage on a nice house, when you get carted off to a home, the council take your home to pay the fees. Oh and if you have a nice pension due to your foresight, they take all but a small weekly allowance.

Seems to me that the government are discouraging people from taking responsibility for their own lives, and encouraging a spend now and scrounge from the state attitude.

Fungus

[threaded]

Did you know there was a reality TV show in America called "The Will"? The premise was someone popped their clogs and then the family were filmed and interviewed as pieces of the last will and testament were read.

Weirdly enough it was pulled after the first show because of "bad taste". Never!

How come it was ever started in the first place is one of those little mysteries of TV I guess.

Never did find out who got left the farm though.

[mcquiggd]

Talking of charities, I see Greenpeace screwed up today and deducted 100 times more than they should from many peoples accounts - ah, the joys of direct debits... wonder if the interest earnt on all that dosh will cover their costs in refunds..?

[TGAOTU]

Rather strange that we've been talking about death, found out tonight that a good friend of mine fell in the canal last night and died. He was found this morning. We've just been having a couple of pints at the pub in his memory.

He was 41 years old, just payed off his mortgage and was in the process of fitting a new bathroom - I helped him carry his old bath down the stairs a few days ago, those cast-iron bastards are bloody heavy!

Ah well, here's to you whizzy!

[Lucifer Box]

Some of those stories are horrific. Did they consider reporting the charity to the charities commission, the local MP etc etc? I am sure even the media and programmes such as Money Box on R4 would be interested to hear that story. Bad publicity could do the charity damage. No doubt the scumbag who pursuaded the old geezer to sign over his farm/house is now parading around all full of himself and being admired by colleagues.

They wrote to their MP, but as the old boy's solicitor is backing up the charity worker's story, that went nowhere. I think as they have pretty much resigned themselves to getting no recourse through the legal system trying to get some publicity might help. Then again, I think they are now just sick of the whole thing and have resigned themselves to basically having to start their lives all over again at the age of 40-odd.