New hope in Christie battle

David Ottewell

April 03, 2009

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Gordon Brown

HOPES were rising today that Manchester's world-fanous Christie hospital will be able to claw back the £6.5m it lost the Icelandic banking collapse.

MPs on a powerful House of Commons committee are recommending that charities are compensated for cash that disappeared in the crash.

The move is expected to be contained in a report published at midnight tonight. It will put Gordon Brown - who has already met with Christie nurses over the issue - under huge pressure to act.

The prime minister, who has spent billions bailing out British banks, has expressed sympathy with The Christie but warned the 'central issue' was that the money was invested in another country.

The Withington cancer hospital lost the cash - mainly made up of small donations by members of the public - when the bank Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander (KSF) went bust. The bank had the highest possible security rating at the time the cash was invested. The money was earmarked for new satellite radiotherapy centres in Salford and Oldham.

Christie bosses tried to get back the money through the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, which is aimed at protecting individual investors.

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They argued the victims were individuals people who had donated to the charity fund.

But the FSCS said the hospital didn't fit the criteria.

More than 20,000 people - including shadow chancellor George Osborne and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg - have signed an M.E.N. petition calling for the cash to be refunded.

Phil Woolas, the immigration minister and Oldham East and Saddleworth MP, has called for 'common sense to prevail.'

The new report, by the all-party Treasury Committee, is expected to call on the FSCS to recompense charities.

But the M.E.N. understands it will not recommend the same treatment for the dozens of councils who had a total of £923m invested in Icelandic banks.

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They include Lancashire (£8.9m), Bolton (£6m) and Cheshire (£8.5m). Neither is the plan likely to cover organisations like Manchester Metropolitan University (£10m) or Manchester University (£5m).

The report is the first to be published by the committee as part of its wide-ranging inquiry into the banking crisis.

It will only cover the failure of the Icelandic banks. A more wide-ranging report is due out later this month.

The committee is chaired by Labour's John McFall and contains one Greater Manchester MP - Conservative Graham Brady, of Sale West and Altrincham. Eight of the 14 members are drawn from the Labour ranks. A senior Westminster source said it would be extremely difficult for Mr Brown to ignore any recommendation.

Paul Rowen, the Lib Dem MP for Rochdale who challenged Mr Brown about the Christie cash earlier this week, said: "I would hope the prime minister would act on this and that the money will be restored."

An official for the Treasury Committee declined a request to discuss the report.

Take part in our online petition here .

Cash Back for Christie campaign

20,000 back Christie fight

Research hit by lost cash

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chadwick (03/04/2009 at 09:15)

There is no doubting the good work that they do at the hospital. The question still remains why they were investing scarce donations in a foreign bank when there was a lot of media speculation for months that the Icelandic banks were on the brink. They should sue their financial advisors rather than expect someone else to pay for their bad decisions. Building socieities are already complaining about havign to pay for bank failures. What will this mean for them and what they have to pay the compensation scheme, if suddenly all charities can be covered for poor decisions.

Robert Tocker (03/04/2009 at 09:48)

I dont know why Brown is waiting so long to help,or is he waiting to get close to the election and then help, hoping to gain votes.Brown should act now.This government gives massive amounts in foreign aid,so let help our own first.Christies is the best and deserves all the aid it can get.

Tall Mike (03/04/2009 at 11:35)

Publi raising money-Christie's gambles money and loses it-government gives it money so public paid twice.

Stupid.

Someone I know is running the London Marathon and I refused to sponsor her because I know that they have millions sloshing about so don't need my measily £20. Her response 'what if you got cancer'. We;ll close relaitives have died of it and I ran a marathon myself for it.

People run for all kinds of charities and the 'what if you got it' is not valid. What am I supposed to do give £20 to MS, Cancer, Lifeboats, Famine, Red Cross, Mine Clearance, Cerebal Palsy, Hospices just in case I get affected by one of these things?

Where do you stop?

Christies should have appreciated the efforts that people went to to raise these millions i.e. 10k run, collecting outside supermarkets etc. They shoudl have stashed it in a safe account, not tried to pay the markets. They are a hospital not a hedge fund.

I hope common sense prevails. If they got their fingers burnt once and get away with it they will do it gain. Just like the banks.

Jay B, oldham (03/04/2009 at 11:43)

I dont know why Brown is waiting so long to help - Robert Trocker

because he's a messer! he dithers about pretending to be a superhero saving the world when he cannot even save his own country.

he says one thing and does another! its about time he went!

Esso Blue, , Manchester. (03/04/2009 at 12:30)

Everything is in place nearly now to try and bring recovery to the economy, I think Gordon has done a great job at the G20 and I think everyone should vote Labour at the next General Election.

If there is one thing I would say about this fiscal stimulus, Gordon should have gone round to the banks and given them his fiscal fist in the head as a stimulus.

I think things are looking up and one way or the other I am very optimistic of Christies getting their money.

Mad Welsh Scotsman, Cadishead (03/04/2009 at 13:05)

Tall Mike: My main thought here is that the public should not have had to give in the first place for cancer research, taxpayers already pay and instead of giving millions to other countries, charity begins at home. Scientists are constantly making breakthrough's in treatment and prevention and this government along with other countries with research facilities should be funding further development.

Someone will correct me on this I'm sure but in the fifies, various countries tested enough Nuclear weapons to rip the earth apart, what damage has that done to our protective sphere stopping solar radiation or leaving a residue radiation trapped in the atmosphere, which I believe may be contributing to the rise in cancer sufferers lately, plus of course other atmospheric polutants such as exhaust fumes etc

Muammar al-Gaddafi, Swimming with Donkeys (03/04/2009 at 17:05)

As Alan Greenspan says 'Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the "hidden" confiscation of wealth'.

So spend away everybody, on anything you feel deserves it! Like credit it feels free for a while.

Black Flag (03/04/2009 at 17:26)

Mad Welsh Scotsman: "My main thought here is that the public should not have had to give in the first place for cancer research"

Why not? Research isn't a finite cost that the government can meet fully. The more money that gets spent, the more research can be done. I'd say it makes more sense to fund research through donation than through tax so that each individual can decide which cause is most important to them.

Timberman, MANCHESTER (03/04/2009 at 17:28)

The Christie fell into the old trap of chasing the high interest but as always if it looks to good to be true then it usually is and they got their fingers burnt like a lot of others. The longer Brown waits the less chance there is of The Christie getting anything back, he seems to forget things, shame.
Timberman

alison norman (03/04/2009 at 17:40)

I work at the Christie, thanks to everyone who supports us. The money was not invested off shore chasing high interest, the KSF bank was registered with the FSA and was a British bank known in the past for its work with charities which is why we have been collaborating with other charity groups.We would not say that Abbey National is not British because its owned by a Spanish bank.

Andanotherthing, Mcr (03/04/2009 at 18:51)

Black flag.

A sound comment. The government have told us for years what they, we can not afford, and so they should. All at once we have billions to buy c**p .

ergo (03/04/2009 at 18:56)

If we had never had a health service we would all have more money to pay for our treatment,or charity to help others.The NHS has proved a bottomless pit,and people's health has deteriorated because they expect treatment whatever they do.I worked in a dangerous industry I still have a urine test every year to check for bladder cancer. I knew many who died,because the company paid them 6d an hour extra before the war to handle the dangerous jobs, but brave doctors especially at Salford Royal found the chemicals,which were banned,and the company introduced welfare facilities.Compare that with the scandalous treatment of asbestos workers and the profits made out of miners by the union and corrupt solicitors.We have gone backwards left behind by other countries. I had better treatment for angina in Australia than here.But at Christies thank to all the charity work my treatment was excellent.

-Soothsayer+ (03/04/2009 at 23:41)

Mad Welsh Scotsman - Good point. From some of the books I've read it would appear that because governments have put profit at the top of their agenda they have raped the world and thus have affected the health of the people. Humans are entwined with Mother Nature, we need Mother Nature for us to be able to exist. So what do they do to Mother Nature?

Pollute the seas, our source of water, the place where fish live which we then eat. Water is the essence of life.

Pollute the air with noxious gasses from a plethora of factories that service our demand for an endless supply of the latest goods and so we can live an easy, slothful life.

Punch holes in the ozone layer with numerous satellite launches and shuttle missions to exploit our solar system, leading to dangerous levels of radiation entering through our protective barrier, the ozone layer.

Destroy the lungs of our planet, the rain forest. We need oxygen to live. Instead we turn the rain forest into grazing ground for cattle so we can all eat burgers. Cattle produce methane (and thus the greenhouse affect), burgers are methane grenades, humans the walk around pumping out their flatulence, producing more methane.

We work our soil to death to produce food then throw it all away. We use herbicides and pesticides to grow our food faster leading to under nourished food.

You can only admire the efficiency with which we destroy our planet ... and deplore the effect it is having now and in the future. In my opinion, it is the abuse of Mother Nature that has lead to all these illnesses.

It's time for a new start and new initiatives. The above will take time to fix. But let's start with a moral one. We're giving money to the proponent of greed, bankers. Gordon should redress the balance and compensate the kind donations made by the people who may be affected by this greed. It makes perfect sense, somewhere down the line we're going to need money for The Christie as and when the population grows. Compensating The Christie now will simply save the government money in the future .... and make thousands happy in the process!

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