I can hardly comment on them. I do not know whether any complaint has been made about them to the Charity Commissioners. If complaints have been made, I am sure that they will be investigated in the same way as those against Oxfam.

As I was saying, the commission's ethos is undoubtedly to smooth over any problems. The fact that once a formal inquiry is launched the commissioners will not make the results public unless the charity being investigated gives them explicit permission to do so is also an unacceptable state of affairs. That paradoxical situation results in the very people to whom the commission is ultimately answerable—the general public— having no access to the commission's most important workings and findings. That situation is clearly compounded by the average length of a formal inquiry, which is about two years.

In 1987 the Woodfield report was commissioned by the Home Office to examine the efficiency of the Charity Commission. However, the report focused almost exclusively on cases of fraud and financial mismanagement, paying little or no attention to the growing political abuse of taxpayers' money. The law covering the political activities of charities is explicit and unambiguous. The commission states: Political activity—like the elephant—is difficult to describe but easy to recognise. In relation to charities politics does not only mean 'party politics' but political activity as defined by the High Courts in many cases over the years-that is: seeking to influence government policy (local or central, at home or abroad); or advocating changes in the law or the retention of the existing law.