Controversial Mermaids given £400,000 part-funded by taxpayers

[IwantToRetire]

The <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.is/o/yrn0l/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/13/government-funded-charity-supports-abolition-of-borders/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Paul Hamlyn Foundation, which received £1.4 million from the Government between 2020 and 2023, gave <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.is/o/yrn0l/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/27/trans-lobby-group-mermaids-helped-nhs-treatment-children/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mermaids £283,000 in three donations between 2017 and 2023.

The Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, which has received £300,000 from the taxpayer, gave £120,000 to Mermaids in 2021.

Mermaids was also given a direct payment of £15,000 by the<a class="break-all" href="https://archive.is/o/yrn0l/www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3602896/Therell-be-no-more-money-for-Labour.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Department for Culture, Media and Sport in 2020.

One Tory MP said taxpayers would be “shocked” to find out that their money had been either directly or indirectly used to fund a charity that wants to embed “damaging ideology” in society.

Start of an article so worth reading to get all the information not just the bits I've copied. Its in the Telegraph https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/06/mermaids-taxpayer-funded-trans-children-damaging-ideology

Can also be read in full at https://archive.is/yrn0l

(Not sure any of this is new. Or are they just getting fired up because of how Trump and Musk are storm trooping through federal payments in the US?!)

I think some of the information from the article came from Mermaids Annual Return for 23/24 which was uploaded onto the Charity Commission website in the last week.

The accounts make interesting reading. As of April last year they seem to have been in dire straits. Their income for 23/24 almost halved compared with the previous year and they've used up what were once healthy reserves.

Sorry I can't link to the accounts as my phone is misbehaving.

The Charity should have been allowed to fail-
Suzie Green who's vehicle it mainly was left and she was seen to have undue influence over the dicredited Tavistock clinic, she lost the moral case over puberty blockers and even the slow witted political class got on board after the Cass report came out.
It also suffered a scandal to do with a trustee having links with paedophile groups.
So why are the Government funding it? Let it sink, good riddance.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63137873

Despite all the mounting evidence the Labour Government are clearly going to continue ignoring it and continue to fund this batshittery for as long as they are in power.

There must be some sort of process in place where the electorate can object to the way the government spends it's money, without having to wait for another election to come around.

Would Lisa Nandy have a hand in this (the £15k)? These shysters should not be getting a penny of public funds. You'd think that went without saying.

🤷 it's what was voted for when labour got in, I'd be more surprised if it didn't continue.

It's exactly what they said they world do.

Although the government funding listed is from 2020?

Why are people blaming labour when this all happened under the tories? Things have changed since 2023.

Ah, so maybe the funding dates back to the Theresa May (?) era?

As I said in OP I dont think any of it is new, but maybe the Telegraph has changed the slant by emphasising that some of what appears to be money from charities is effectively re-distribution of Government money.

Boris Johnson was PM 2019-22, then briefly Truss followed by Sunnak.

It's kind of the go to response. But Labour have form. But so have the other main parties.

The £283 000 grant from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation funds Mango, an activism and advocacy initiative for young trans people.

https://mermaidsuk.org.uk/young-people/mango/

I wonder how many of the coffin carrying, locust releasing, building climbing youth group, Trans Kids Deserve Better, got their training from that programme?

My guess is all of them.