The Charity Commission’s decision that the Atlantic Bridge’s UK charity must ‘cease its current activities immediately’ and break away from US non-profit the Atlantic Bridge Inc, is a major setback to those who would import US-style conservatism to the UK.

Officially founded by defence secretary Liam Fox and boasting three more cabinet minsters on its advisory board (William Hague, George Osborne and Michael Gove), the Atlantic Bridge was managed as an outpost of the American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC was exposed in 1998 when the US tobacco industry was forced to release thousands of internal documents as part of a multi-billion dollar settlement of dozens of lawsuits. These documents show that the tobacco industry used ALEC to lobby US legislators.

ALEC continues to be funded by the tobacco industry, but today is also supported by elements of the oil industry keen to promote climate change denial and of the pharmaceutical industry keen to block US health reforms. US members of the Atlantic Bridge led last summer’s high profile attacks on the NHS.

In a bizarre ruling, the Charity Commission has decided that the objectives of the Atlantic Bridge, as described in its governing documents, are charitable but that none of its activities have furthered those objectives. That is to say it is a charity on paper only and all its current work must stop. The charity now has a year to break away from its US arm and create a new programme of entirely different activities. This means no more oxymoronic Margaret Thatcher Medals of Freedom and no more dinners in LA with Fox News personalities.

There are many gaps in the commission’s short report. For example, one set of Atlantic Bridge accounts clearly states that donors to the UK charity may receive a benefit from the US charity; the commission is silent on this arrangement. Over the years for which accounts are available, the Atlantic Bridge spent £239,920 in pursuit of its non-charitable activities. The commission does not reveal how much (if any) of this charity money has been recovered.

The commission has a statutory obligation to ‘increase public trust and confidence in charities’, but has struggled to balance this with its obligation to promote compliance with the law. It has gone beyond forewarning the Atlantic Bridge that it was about to report by asking journalists not to refer to its action as an inquiry, but as an ‘engagement’. This was part of media strategy designed to protect the Atlantic Bridge’s reputation (and the reputations of all those cabinet ministers). So far, the commission has been most effective.

The commission has been inconsistent. It rightly, and famously, opened a statutory inquiry into the Labour leaning Smith Institute. That organisation had got many things wrong but the commission did find that, unlike Atlantic Bridge, most of its activities were charitable. The Smith Institute was subjected to a full inquiry and given just six months to reform.

All this means that this sorry episode is far from over. The freedom of information act is being deployed to get a better understanding of the nature of the Charity Commission’s ‘engagement’ with Atlantic Bridge and its attitude to recovering any misspent charity money.

More excitingly, a barrister from Matrix Chambers has advised that there may be several grounds on which to seek a judicial review and potential backers of that action are being canvassed (if you, or anyone you know, might be interested in supporting this, do get in touch).
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‘The Commission has made clear to the trustees their legal and regulatory responsibilities and that the Charity’s current activities must cease immediately.’
– Charity Commission Regulatory Case Report: The Atlantic Bridge

Regular readers will be well aware of my one man campaign against the Atlantic Bridge, a charity established by defence secretary Dr Liam Fox to promote the ‘special relationship as exemplified by the Reagan-Thatcher partnership’ that includes on its advisory council William Hague, George Osborne, Michael Gove, Chris Grayling, and other senior Conservatives.

The Charity Commission published its report earlier today. The good news is that the Atlantic Bridge was found guilty of being party political. It also failed the public benefit test because its work was found to be insufficiently educational (promotes a pre-determined point-of-view) and its events are not sufficiently open to the public. Despite this it retains it charitable status. Its punishment is to be given twelve months to get its act together.

That’s a great outcome for Liam Fox who registered the Atlantic Bridge as a charity in 2003 and has made no attempt to hide its political affiliations. The Atlantic Bridge achieved charitable status by claiming to be an educational trust, but in place of education has sponsored predominantly private events at which senior Conservatives – including present cabinet ministers – and their US allies may bond behind closed doors.

Throughout this period, it has enjoyed tax exempt status and so its activities have been subsidised by the taxpayer.

These activities have included promoting a book by William Hague, subsidising a dinner for Tory MPs with a Fox News film reviewer in LA and sponsoring trips by Tory MPs to neo-Conservative think tanks in Washington DC.

The Charity Commission has now agreed to turn a blind eye to all of this, if the Atlantic Bridge agrees to comply with the law within the next 12 months. In no other arena would such a blatant disregard for the law go unpunished.
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William Hague’s office has kindly emailed to deny that it hosted the New York launch if his biography of William Wilberforce. I had asked Hague to explain why he had failed to declare the sponsorship in the House of Commons’ Register of Members Financial Interests.

Here’s how the Atlantic Bridge used to describe the event on its website:

‘The Atlantic Bridge is proud to host an evening with William Hague – the shadow foreign secretary of the British Parliament – to celebrate his latest literary achievement, a major biography of the abolitionist William Wilberforce.’

Mr Hague’s personal assistant has written that no declaration was made as no fee was paid. Yet it is clear that Hague benefitted from the promotion of his book and he would he have been best advised to declare the sponsorship.

His PA, clearly not worried that the Charity Commission is investigating allegations that the Atlantic Bridge is party political, retorts: ‘Mr Hague was in New York to undertake some engagements in connection with the publication of his book in the US and Atlantic Bridge, given its links with the Conservative Party, asked Mr Hague if he could address one of their events.’

The Atlantic Bridge operates two charities, one in the UK and one in the USA, and William Hague has refused to confirm which paid this sponsorship (although it does not appear in the UK accounts). US law forbids, ‘any person… in a position to exercise substantial influence over the affairs of the organization’ from benefiting from its largesse. William Hague is a member of the Atlantic Bridge Advisory Board.
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The Atlantic Bridge, a UK charity founded by Dr Liam Fox, has launched a new website with references to its ‘simple aim of “Strengthening the Special Relationship” exemplified by the Reagan-Thatcher partnership of the 1980s,’ removed. The pledge has also been removed from the website of its sister US charity, Atlantic Bridge Inc.

The move comes as the Charity Commission investigates a number of allegations including that the Atlantic Bridge has broken charity law by supporting a political party.

In addition, the organisation now pays lip service to the public benefit requirements of the 2006 Charities Act, claiming ‘it is axiomatic that good relations with other countries are for the public benefit’ and so, apparently, that they need offer no evidence that their work is charitable.

The Atlantic Bridge spends its money, much of which would otherwise be collected as tax, helping senior Conservatives and their US allies get together. They certainly need some support. When US senator Jon Kyl came to London to see Henry Kissinger receive the oxymoronic Thatcher Medal of Freedom, the Atlantic Bridge paid out around £1,450 on his hotel room alone.

The Charity Commission has issued guidance specific to the Atlantic Bridge over at least three letters and one face-to-face meeting. But the commission argues it is in the public interest to keep this guidance secret, a move that fuels suspicions that the regulator is bending over backwards to protect senior Conservatives connected to the Atlantic Bridge, including William Hague, George Obsborne, Chris Grayling and Michael Gove.
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A US non-profit (the UK equivalent would be a charity), spending US$2,471.70 on one nights’ accommodation for a US senator might ordinarily raise some eyebrows but, to be fair, this non-profit is the Atlantic Bridge, Inc., which has been established as a travel club for senior members of the British Conservative Party and their US allies.

To be clear, that US$2,471.70 (about £1,450 at the time) was for Senator Jon Kyl’s hotel room only. There’s no travel in that total; his airfare, also met the US charity, was US$4,405.63 (£2,650) and a further US$100 (£60) went on food (perhaps he was saving himself for that night’s fund raising dinner).

Senator Jon Kyl is a particularly good friend of the Conservatives and was in London to see Henry Kissinger receive the oxymoronic Margaret Thatcher Medal of Freedom. A similar event with Rudolph Giuliani in 2007 raised £53,037 with an event auction raising a further £40,000 (US$185,265 in total). The cheap seats at this event were £400 (US$650), with priority seating available at an extra £350 (US$580).

As the Honorary US chair of the Atlantic Bridge, Senator Jon Kyl is one of the people these charities (the Atlantic Bridge consists of a UK and a US charity) have been established to support. Their role is to divert money that would otherwise be collected as tax to supporting the Thatcherite wing of the British Conservative Party. They ensure that instead of helping pay for healthcare, education, national debt or equipping troops in Afghanistan, this money instead ensures that people like Sen. Jon Kyl have somewhere nice to stay while on their jollies.

Interestingly, Sen. Jon Kyl’s hotel bill did catch the eye of the Senate Select Committee on Ethics. But Sen. Jon Kyl was able to fob them off. He blamed the well-known Tory Party fundraiser Sallie Hendry and claimed that the fundraiser was actually an educational event.

Given our MPs’ current reputation, the suspicion must be that the only educating going on was Sen. Jon Kyl receiving a master class in how to maximise one’s expenses.
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I’ve been a quiet blogger of late, but those of you who have taken an interest in the Charity Commission’s investigation of the Atlantic Bridge need not assume that I’ve let things go. You may recall that this organisation consists of at least two entities – a UK-based charity and a US-based charity – dedicated to ‘the simple aim of “Strengthening the Special Relationship” exemplified by the Reagan-Thatcher partnership of the 1980s.’

The Atlantic Bridge diverts money that would otherwise be collected as tax — and help pay for health, education, national debt or equipping troops in Afghanistan — to support the Thatcherite wing of the British Conservative Party and its US allies; US allies drawn from that country’s pro-tobacco, anti-healthcare and anti-environmentalist lobbies.

November saw the UK charity submit its annual report to the Charity Commission, which normally publishes such documents on its website. At time of writing it’s still not landed there and the commission was very reluctant indeed to let me have a copy (even though the Charities Act obliges the commission to make it available for public inspection). In the end they caved in, but not before I’d received a copy from another source.

Indeed, the Charity Commission has been incredibly soft on the Atlantic Bridge. When Andrew Lloyd Webber borrowed art from a charity in his name he was rightly slapped down because you are not allowed to benefit from any charities you have established or manage (and Lloyd Webber is hardly a charity case). But when Tory MP Liam Fox established a charity to subsidise the cost of flying himself, other senior Tories and their US allies back and forth across the Atlantic nothing happened. And when William Hague, a member of the Atlantic Bridge advisory board, got help with cost of his US book launch, nobody seemed bothered (although it’s most likely lucky US taxpayers helped out with that one).

Anyway. For the period of these accounts, the Atlantic Bridge spent more than £80,000 on just three substantial events, two of which were in partnership with the American Legislative Exchange Council.

ALEC was exposed in 1998 when the US tobacco industry made a multi-billion dollar settlement of dozens of lawsuits which included releasing thousands of internal documents. These documents prove beyond doubt that the tobacco industry used ALEC to launder favours and donations to US legislators.

Incredibly, ALEC survived to continue this work — it continues to receive funding from tobacco — but today it is at least as well known for opposing healthcare and for its anti-environmentalism. It is well funded by the oil and pharmaceutical industries, including Pfizer who have directly supported the Atlantic Bridge.

Dr Liam Fox MP established the Atlantic Bridge as a think-tank in 1997, but Fox is no intellectual and so ten years on it had still to publish a single thought. ALEC decided it was time for a relaunch and employed a Conservative Party activist to organise ‘a series of events aimed at conservative leaders from the field of politics, media, business, and academia – exposing them to innovative conservative thinking from the U.S. and Great Britain and helping them forge new transatlantic relationships.’ All subsidised by British and American taxpayers thanks to the organisation’s charitable status.

Despite all this, the Charity Commission has decided to allow the Atlantic Bridge to continue to enjoy the benefits of charitable status. The commission has merely asked the Atlantic Bridge to conform with the UK’s tough sounding laws on public benefit from this point on. If they can do that, they will be allowed to keep the many thousands of pounds, that would otherwise have been collected in taxes, that they have accrued since registering as a charity in 2003.

Yet even this is something the Atlantic Bridge has struggled with. Initially, it posted a vague statement on its website. Now it’s given up and taken the site down altogether.
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On Tuesday, Margaret Thatcher honoured Dr Henry Kissinger with her eponymous Medal of Freedomsomewhere in Knightsbridge, the exact location having been kept secret for security reasons. In return, Kissinger delivered the second Margaret Thatcher Lecture.

Baroness Thatcher, the charity’s patron, endowed the Medal of Freedom, along with a lecture in her name, to the Atlantic Bridge in 2007. It is the main event in the Atlantic Bridge calendar, with seats priced at £400 and £750. The first recipient was Rudolph Giuliani, whose meeting Thatcher was regarded as an important stage in his ill-fated campaign for US president. His talk raised more than £50,000.

Founded by Liam Fox and with shadow cabinet members George Osborne, William Hague, Chris Grayling and Michael Gove on its advisory board, the Atlantic Bridge is one of the best connected Tory think tanks and is dedicated to “the simple aim of strengthening the special relationship exemplified by the Reagan-Thatcher partnership of the 1980s.”

It also stands in the way of Cameron’s attempts to modernise the Conservative Party.

In 2006, Cameron apologised for his party’s stance on apartheid. Defending South Africa from sanctions had been a flagship policy of the Reagan-Thatcher partnership. Many hoped he would go further, owning up to other Reagan-Thatcher mistakes such as sponsoring the Taliban, Saddam Hussein and General Pinochet.

Oxymoronic at best, at worst the Margaret Thatcher Medal of Freedom is a grave insult to the victims of those regimes.

Top Tories also remain blind the corruption of the Thatcher years. It should be remembered that while many of us were giving pocket money to Live Aid, Britain’s aid budget was being used not to boost development, but to subsidise the arms trade and businesses who donated to the Conservative Party. And Thatcher went further, using overseas aid money to support the career of her arms dealer son, a man who may not enter the USA because he has been convicted of a terrorism-related offence.

Money raised by the Atlantic Bridge is used to help top Conservatives bond and plot with their allies on the Republic’s radical right. Yet this think tank, which has yet to publish a single thought, claims to be a charity and currently receives generous tax relief on donations.
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The Atlantic Bridge, a charity dedicated to ‘the simple aim of “Strengthening the Special Relationship” exemplified by the Reagan-Thatcher partnership of the 1980s,’ receives a much needed boost tomorrow evening, when Dr Henry Kissinger arrives in London to collect the oxymoronic Margaret Thatcher Medal of Freedom.

This is the organisation’s first major event since the cancellation of its Conservative Party Conference reception in the wake of a Charity Commission investigation of allegations it is too close to the Tories.

The think tank explains that Baroness Thatcher herself endowed it with her Medal of Freedom and an annual lecture in her name in 2007 and the night promises to be a significant boost to the Tory travel club’s finances. Tickets are £400 and £750 per head with no discount for tables of ten.

Despite winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for negotiating a ceasefire in the Vietnam War, Kissinger’s record on promoting freedom is limited. He is better known for his involvement in the secret bombing of Cambodia and helping Pinochet overthrow democracy in Chile amongst other things. But then Thatcher’s foreign policy record is shameful.
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When Tory shadow home secretary Chris Grayling claimed that parts of Britain looked like scenes from The Wire, many people rushed to condemn him (especially as he appeared to have not seen very much of the popular TV show). The Manchester Evening News’ David Ottewell reports he enters the Tory conference unrepentant.

For those unfamiliar, a key storyline includes politicians stealing from charities that they have themselves established. When caught they protest that they are the victims of a vicious hate campaign and that the accusations are politically motivated.

Chris Graying is a member of the Atlantic Bridge’s advisory board. It is most unlikely that he would ever steal from that organisation. He has no need to as it appears to have been established for the benefit of senior Conservatives such as himself.

We all know what The Wire’s Senator Clay Davis would say about that: ‘Shee-ee-ee-it!’ If only Clay had thought of making himself the beneficiary of his charities, he’d have saved himself some bother.
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It seems the closest the Atlantic Bridge has ever come to educating the public is hosting the launch of a book by William Hague in New York.

Officially an education and research scheme, or ‘think tank,’ hosting events like this is essential if the Atlantic Bridge is to retain its charitable status both here in the UK and in the USA.

Yet even here, the charity sails close to the wind. In the US persons, ‘in a position to exercise substantial influence over the affairs of the organization,’ may not benefit from its activities. Let’s hope that William Hague’s position on the Atlantic Bridge advisory board doesn’t upset the US Inland Revenue Service (IRS), too much. Or maybe it was the British taxpayer who subsidised this one.
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