Society Diary: Make-up, the Magna Carta and a misplaced kitchen

21 Mar 2014 Voices

Our weekly round-up of outlandish and interesting information collected from the corners of the charity sector.

Very… um… fetching

The #nomakeupselfie meme – in which women post a make-up-free picture on Twitter and donate to cancer charities – has raised £1m for Cancer Research UK in just a day, despite them having nothing to do with its origination.

Since this kicked off, we've had any number of variations on the idea. We've had dogs, cats, cows and koalas, all wearing no make-up. We've had a couple of #noclothesselfies, which is taking it a bit far. And we've had the #sellotapeselfie, which is worth looking at, but is truly bizarre.

Now blokes have decided to get in on the act and have started posting pictures of themselves with a face full of slap. You can view them on Twitter by searching for #makeupselfie. The results are a little, um, hit and miss, mind you.

Here’s Ciaran Devane, chief executive of Macmillan, getting in on the act. Society Diary is particularly envious of the dapper bow tie.

Hundreds of years ago there was a battle. Give us a tenner.

Next year is the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta, and George Osborne announced in the Budget that he plans to celebrate the fact with a £1m grant to the Magna Carta Trust. The Trust, which previously had an annual income of less than £60,000, must be feeling pretty chuffed. Apparently it’s already fielded a few phone calls from individuals with a hitherto-unprofessed admiration for the Magna Carta and its importance in the history of democracy.

Given that last year the government was fairly open-handed with its funding to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the First World War, Society Diary has hatched a new plan. Set up a charity to commemorate a famous event, wait for an anniversary, and hope for some cash.

Next year is also the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt and the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. So expect to see the Agincourt and Waterloo Trust appear on the register sometime soon, with Society Diary named in the list of trustees.

Thanks for the kitchen

The Woodland Trust is, perhaps understandably, a bit miffed - as you would be if you had an entire fitted kitchen dumped in your back garden.

The Trust spent £500,000 last year removing litter and clearing up after fly-tipping in its forests.

The stuff that the charity has had to clear away from its sites in the last year included a dead horse, a bag of pornographic magazines and the aforementioned fitted kitchen.

At just one site in Cumbria, it cleared away 97 bags of rubbish, including a car seat, a plastic chair, two mountain bikes, carpet, a drill, a hoover, a door, a pram, four buckets, a barbecue, a compost bin, a car tyre, a space hopper, a bread crate and eight musical drums.