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Bono and Hugo helping kiddies
We might have given the impression that we believe Bono only sniffs around the edges of the currently powerful, but that simply isn't true at all. He also likes to massage those who may find themselves in a position of power sometime in the future, although we're sure it's purely altruism that has persuaded him to donate a guitar to Hugo Swire's charity auction. The auction goes to the aid of a children's hospice:
The auction will be part of a barn dance in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, and Bono’s used axe is expected to fetch about £100,000.
It really is inexplicable to us that we live in a country where people have a hundred grand to buy a second-hand guitar, and yet children's hospices have to rely on charity auctions to function.
Perhaps if a few less people took U2's party line that everybody should be "tax-efficient", then hospices could be properly funded.
5 comments:
Oh, for heaven's sake -- let completely ignore that he did something nice to help fund this and just snark instead. Have you helped fund any hospices lately? Or is that all the government's job while we sit around criticizing people?
Yes, i'm sure Simon has also donated his guitar and it would go for £100k or so too.
I hate the argument that as celebs do more than us mere plebs we have no right to criticise. Should we get on the phone to Sting and Madonna and organise another charity bash? Oh, that's right we can't. Do we have world leaders' private numbers? No. Would any donation we gave make the news?
Look, bono, like most big name pop stars, will get his guitars for free - in fact suppliers will queue up to give him a freebie to get the cheap publicity that goes with the star using their product. The giveaway means nothing to him (it's not like it's a hat after all...)
And the worth of a guitar to him is much less than the positive publicity he needs right now after his public humiliation at the hands of the G8 and his tax evasion. Seems like it's working on some people, though.
D:
How much do you have to donate to hospices before you are allowed to comment on the scandal that terminally ill children have to rely on charity auctions to have a place to die with the maximum amount of dignity and the minimum amount of discomfort, at the same time as someone will hand over £100,000 for a guitar that was briefly owned by someone famous?
And, yes, the provision of such a fundamental piece of healthcare is the government's role.
Hang on, you think that allowing people a smaller disposable income by being less tax efficient will somehow help the cause of hospices that rely on charitable donations after tax?
Come again?
Good lord, if you're understudying Machiavelli then we're in trouble if he ever gets flu. No, what we need is for everyone to pay an equitable rate of tax, and for the health service to have the money to fund children's hospices.
But then you appear to be of the belief that low tax rates for the rich means higher charitable donations - sadly, that's not the case at all.
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