Ian Allsop attempts to recall recent events, only to encounter mixed results.

As you get older, your memory starts to play tricks on you. Mine has been like Dynamo on a pranking spree. Or for those of a different age demographic, the Great Soprendo. Yes, it seems I can easily remember obscure conjurors from the distant past – just not what I had for dinner last month.

Linking neatly, I was at a black tie dinner last month and cannot for the life of me recall who organised it, let alone the food. Anyway, the company was good and the wine it was a-flowing. I was also challenged to try and repeat words from the menu and after-dinner speech in this month’s column.

I am way above such tomfoolery. And how on earth am I supposed to get the phrase “cocotte potatoes” into 800 words on topical charity sector issues? Except I just have. YEEESSSSS. One down, two to go. One of the others could be trickier as I didn’t even know what it meant, and I am as macerated as the next man.

The other thing I do remember from the dinner organised by an organisation I still can’t was that in the opening remarks, the sector’s year was compared with the Queen’s annus horribilis. I ticked the low points off mentally. The fundraising meltdown. Kids Company. A Conservative government with the stabilisers off. The chief executive salary scandal. The Comic Relief ethical investment fuss. The Cup Trust. Except, I then realised that those last three were two years ago.

I don’t think it has been a worse year than others. When you are operating in the areas charities do, it is never going to be cosy. And if you think the dripfeed of UK fundraising malpractice tales is bad, wait until we find out what the Russians have been up to. A state-sponsored programme to chemically boost the physique of chuggers I shouldn’t wonder, making them harder to say no to.

I don’t have any evidence to hand so I don’t know if the fundraising problems have had a material effect on donations but let’s just say they haven’t (or more sensibly, that it is too early to tell). It certainly didn’t dent BBC Children in Need’s returns.

This does not mean complacency should be the default setting. However, there is a risk that by rushing in to fix the areas where there are issues (and there are things that need addressing), the squabbling over regulation will draw more attention to them and drown out the many positive messages.

Which makes it more important than ever that charities don’t retreat into their collective shells and play it safe for fear of doing the wrong thing. As a wiser man than me said, at a dinner whose organiser I cannot recollect, we need “risk with cogent control”.

Outbreak of sanity

While the sector cannot (and should not want to) rely on government handouts and unfettered support (we have seen where that gets you), it would be nice to feel that those in power at least recognised its importance in filling in many gaps, and facilitated rather than hindered its ability to take those risks, cogently. Therefore it was refreshing to hear a high-profile Tory government figure recently come out with a shedload of common sense.

Sir John Major, who is slowly becoming a surprise contender for venerable elder statesman (which probably says a lot about the current competition, and future applicants), used NCVO’s annual Hinton lecture to deliver a speech littered with sound observation. For example, he called for a properly funded Charity Commission, which has slowly been macerated by the juices of austerity.

Things have got so bad there that a headline I saw recently revealed that the “Charity Commission does not recognise chairs”. They cannot even afford furniture. They are literally reviewing accounts and weeding out bad governance while standing on their feet all day. You should see Paula Sussex’s bunions.

However, my favourite line from Major’s speech was “giving is not a given”. A quick Google brought up one prior citation – in a 2010 blog post about Paris, moaning about face à face rue collecteurs. I would be surprised if Major or his speechwriters were regular readers of Paris Update so I will, ahem, give him that one. People never correctly attribute quotes anyway, especially as time moves on. After all, as you get older your memory starts to play tricks on you.

Ian Allsop is a freelance editor and journalist, and regular contributor to Charity Finance.