Shaun Bailey's secret job

The Guardian Society section has covered (Black and blue) the black Tory candidate for Hammersmith  in London. Being a black 35 yr old inner city Tory makes for great press. Being David Cameron's 'urban talisman' makes him newsworthy.

He says, 'When you do a job like mine and the community work I do, you start to see lots of people in pain and living badly. You see well meaning people around them trying to help, but what they do is they support them so much they take over their lives.'

As for the job, 'He heads a charity, My Generation, that runs employment, training and diversion projects, using finance from a charitable trust and private donations'. The charity, My Generation, is regularly referenced in all public statements about Shaun. It is referenced by Shaun, he uses it to illustrate that he is fit to become an MP, that he knows what he's talking about because he runs this charity.

I wanted to see what this charity said publically about its work and about its views of the world. I found the line about 'using finance from a charitable trust and private donations' a bit strange. Why mention that, don't all charities use private donations.

So I Googled it, as you do. And what do I get? Nothing. The My Generation charity not only has no website or public existence online, it doesn't seem to have ever been talked about, except to name it as Shaun Bailey's employer.

So off to the Charity Commission's website, where a quick search establishes that it does exist. It is charity 1114167 and you can read about it here. But it does get curiouser and curiouser.

The charity was registered in May 2006, less than a year ago. But when it was formed it was called The Policy Alliance. It has since changed its name. But why was it called The Policy Alliance last year, what policy, what alliance?

The listed address is a firm of accountants, NIREN BLAKE. This may of course be normal practice. The Charity Correspondent is listed as CHARLES NIREN BLAKE, which seems to be a composite name, i.e not a real person.

The listed  phone number and email address are those of Niren Blake.

The Website address is listed as www.policyalliance.org.uk but this address leads nowhere, and a quick check establishes that it has never been registered.

No accounts have been filed. Which just leaves us the Trustees, who are Mrs Laetitia Gunn, Miss Karin Norman and Mr Charles Jeffrey Niren. Mrs Gunn is another prospective Tory candidate. Ms Norman is from the world of finance and we assume that Mr Niren is a partner in Niren Blake.

This is just a strange situation. Everyone references Shaun Bailey's My Generation charity, and indeed such a charity seems to exist, though it is barely a year old. But where is it, what does it do, who else works for it, who funds it, how long has Mr Bailey worked for it - you can't ask these questions as there is no public face of the charity.

Even on Shaun Bailey's own website there is no information, though I guess it is a political site (and somewhat out of date).

Strangely, the ItzCaribbean website says: "SHAUN BAILEY runs a community initiative that helps disaffected and drug-addicted young people on the North Kensington estates. Shaun’s work is supported in part by voluntary donations.        To make a contribution, please send a cheque made payable to the Shaun Bailey’s Youth Fund, c/o The Centre for Policy Studies, 57 Tufton Street, London SW1P 3QL"

So my plea to Shaun is, give us the background. You want to be an MP, you can't keep this stuff secret. Anyway, it sounds great, you should be shouting it from the rooftops. Put something in the public domain and I'l shut up about it.

Shaun Bailey's website

HFConwatch blog on Shaun Bailey's missing charity

The Bristow Blog on Bailey

Conservative Home blog quotes "I am the director of a charity called MyGeneration which is involved in youth and family work. The charity runs a job club, football club and other special projects like organising educational trips."

 

Comments

[dragbert@mac.com]

so perhaps he can explain the missing £16K then

[Ivan]

Well, there was no website when I wrote the entry. Nice to see he was on the "Moral Maize" - I relaly like that ethically correct corn!

[Tony Blair]

Hey knumbskull here is the website. Do your research in future!
http://www.mygeneration.org.uk/staff.htm

[anon]

Charles Niren is a partner at Niren Blake. He is my accountant - so he really does exist.