@Matt 08/01/21 13:30 **Warning ~ Long Post Alert!** 😺Hi Matt, I was wondering how long it would take for you to respond to my hook. 😉 How do I know that XR is "a very successful business enterprise"? The answer is that I actually don't know. This is because XR has cleverly/deviously labelled themselves as a 'movement' and not as a company or even a charity, therefore dodging the necessity of registering its details with Companies House or with the Charity Commission. By evading registration the 'movement' does not have to file yearly accounts and I find this very suspicious.From reading XR's own blurb and by its own admission the 'movement' has directors who are paid a salary, and its volunteers are paid expenses. I also remember the reports about protestors being paid £400 a week to cause civil disruption. Before you accuse the DM of #### stirring please see the extract below copied from an article in The Times on 9h October 2019:"Donations have been pouring into Extinction Rebellion’s bank account at the rate of £40,000 a day.The group appealed to its 100,000 supporters for money over the weekend after police raided its warehouse in Kennington, south London and seized equipment.Andrew Medhurst, a former investment banker and the group’s head of finance, said that since then the group had received £125,000 in donations. That takes the total raised by the group since it launched a year ago to more than £2.4 million, mostly from small donations.More than 100 activists are paid up to £400 a week by Extinction Rebellion but many times that number work for nothing, including retired lawyers, teachers and bankers.Big donors include Radiohead, which gave £250,000, and Climate Emergency Fund..."Even more detailed info about XR's financial affairs are from Huffpost:https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/extinction-rebellion-protests-funding_uk_5da09183e4b02c9da0495bbaXR clearly persuades/cons (whichever) a lot of people into donating huge amounts of money, which in my opinion proves that it is a "very successful business enterprise". Matt, I believe that Roger Hallam is one of the founders of Extinction Rebellion? Perhaps you can confirm if he is still one of the top players within the 'movement'? Again from XR's blurb I read that it receives its funding via a company registered as Compassionate Revolution Ltd, perhaps you can confirm this also? I ask this because when I checked the details on the Companies House website I discovered that Roger Hallam was appointed as one of CR's directors in January 2019 but he resigned from the company in September 2019. Do you know why he did this? Was it because of a conflict of interests, i.e. he couldn't be a big cheese in XR as well as a director of the company funding it? This lack of transparency is one reason why I will not be donating to XR, however the main one is although I agree with its message, I despise its tactics. My conclusion is that some people are making a lot of money from their association with XR. (Not you Matt.)
Sue Hammond ● 1909d