Some background about the Young Britons' Foundation and associates.

In the current flare of details coming out about the  Tatler Tory bullying affair, one group more than others has been scrambling for cover, and that is the Young Britons' Foundation.  Mark Clarke is reported to have been its Outreach Director, ( and several other figures  closely connected  have popped up in the various stories.  India Brummitt was  the YBF's  Operations Director.  Alexandra Patterson  had Public speaking training and TV training at the Young Britons’ Foundation Summer Conference in Washington DC Washington DC

 Now all the main people connected to  the YBF are distancing themselves as much as possible. Twitter feeds have been cancelled , any mentions of Clarke are being wiped from  feeds of people who had merely met him, facebook pages are being shut down and erased. The YBF initially  removed any mention of Clarke being on its staff, and having received an award, then went over to  removing access to parts of its site, and has now limited itself at least temporarily to a single page discussing the cancellation of an upcoming training weekend, and tries to deflect any blame for bullying to the  BBC.

The YBF was formed in 2003 and introduced to the world at a conference of the Young America's Foundation in Washington, D.C.  and according to it's since taken down  history was originally funded by  a group comprising Kevin Fallon,  John & Laura Midgeley,  Paul Osborn, Paul Shea,  Tom Scott, Chris Walsh and  Sarkis Zeronian. However  they were soon to attract funding from  amongst others The John William Pope Foundation   This foundation  is one of the biggest funders of Right leaning pressure groups in its state, and pushes against any influence of the left in University education.   From then there is very little sign  of any financial activity publicly available for the next seven years, although we know there must be some as the YBF was running along conducting training courses..

The next time they come to notice publicly taht can be found is in  2010 when the YBF were the Eighth biggest non-party electoral campaigner  spending  £134,860 on an advertising campaign  which consisted of printing 800,000 posters to be put through doors in LibDem/Con marginal seats, and full page adverst in  News International newspapers. The adverts appear to have been arranged  through Media  Intelligence Partners, a conservative  PR and advertising agency, we know this as that was where the resulting job invoices were sent.   This was the only campaigning that the YBF did according to its  paperwork registered with the electoral commission, and so any  declared election donations must have been towards this. 

Media Intelligence Partners is owned by Nick Wood, formerly Press Secretary and Media Director for Conservative Party leaders Ian Duncan-Smith and William Hague. and at the time  this happened  Christian May, a former YBF director of Operations, and now editor of City AM was an account manager there. it may be that he is the obvious connection between the two organisations.

A formal complaint was put in to the police about the YBFs advertising campaign reportedly  by at least one returning officer  as The Liberal democrats thought that the YBF were not properly registered with the Electoral Commission as a third party campaign, however this came to nothing when it emerged that the correct registration papers had been submitted by the  group. Although the formal process had not been completed, it was perfectly legal for the YBF to campaign as soon as the paperwork was in. No further action appears to have been taken, maybe because the Lib Dems were firmly ensconced in the coalition and didn't want to upset the neighbours. so didn't push for anything.

Looking further at electoral commission records, a  single contributor who is registered gave the YBF   a pound short on £55,000   now looking at the address mentioned in the  electoral commission, you'd think that College street is a nice leafy solicitors and doctors type of place. But when you go and look, it's actually an industrial estate that faces out onto the main railway line.  it seems an unlikely place to have had £55,000 spare  to throw away on a political campaign., especially in the  early years straight after the financial crash when things for most businesses were tight.

The Donal Blaney organisational Maze

If we look at the  Bottom of the YBF webpage we see the following  text

The Young Britons' Foundation and YBF are trading names of Cherish Freedom, a company incorporated in England & Wales under company registration number 08355124 and whose registered office is at Griffin Law, 60 Churchill Square, Kings Hill, West Malling, Kent ME19 4YU. 

a quick check of companies house and we  find that the single director is  Mr Terence William Donal Blaney  the company secretary is Griffin Law, a company with one director, a Mr Terence William Donal Blaney 

Political scrapbook noted the Cherish Freedom trust receiving Charitable status last year and noted that at the time

Both ‘Conservative Way Forward’ and ‘Young Britons Foundation’ are trading names of his company Cherish Freedom Ltd. 

According to the registration lodged with the Charities Commission, Cherish Freedom Ltd is a  trustee of the charity Cherish Freedom trust whos aims are

"(i) To advance education by promoting public knowledge and understanding of the history of the 20th Century and more recent history, particularly in relation to the life and work of the Rt. Hon. The Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven LG, OM, FRS,..."

It is a wonder that the charity commissioners allowed the registration of a firm that is so closely connected to an incredibly similarly named firm to the back end of two overtly political organisations, the YBF and CWF, one of which had in effect  spent over £130,000 attacking a political party during a general election. Surely by this act alone Cherish freedom should disqualify itself from being considered by the charity commissioners, and thus not receive the tax free status it has gained by its classification.

Looking further there is a US Cherish Freedom organisation, the Cherish Freedom Foundation, run from an office in  Alexandria Virginia. here are itsdetails  According to the tax forms included the company president is one T.W Donal Blaney.

To connect the two companies together,  the YBF's webpage advertising its US trips talks here about how they will 

" experience American culture by going to see a Washington Nationals baseball match, attend a cigar reception hosted by YBF supporters,"  

Now the treasurer of  the Cherish Freedom Foundation (the US version) is one William J McCarthy and his  companies webpage  has a news section about the  " 4th Annual Cigars, Beer and Pizza Party for Young Britons’ Foundation"  WJM associates specialises in direct marketing, fundraising and advertising primarily for conservative causes. It is noticeable that the Cherish Freedom Foundation also claims links to the Margret Thatcher center, indeed through the Centers website  you can donate through either of the Trust or the Foundation, depending which section of the world you are in for tax purposes.

 In June this year  Blaney appears to have split CWF and YBF so that they each have their own separate back end company . YBF has stayed as part of  the  Cherish Freedom arm, but Conservative way Forward  has now become the trading name of Conservative Campaign Organisation Limited, a new company set up with two directors. Donal Blaney and Paul Abbott.Paul Abbott is Grant Shapps' former chief of staff and was one of the first people to say that he had complained about Mark Clarke.

It would be interesting to find out how the money travels between the several companies, and if it is possible that money raised by the US foundation could be spent by the YBF in projects like  the Election poster and advertising campaign.

A final corporate detail, at the same time that Blaney and Abbott were setting up  Conservative Campaign Organisation Limited,  Mark Clarke was setting up a company called Transatlantic Educational Alliance Ltd with Matthew Richardson who is Party Secretary of UKIP and  Executive Director of the YBF. The two companies were set up within a couple of weeks of each other.  Was there an organised handover of the YBF due to take place from Blaney to Clarke and Richardson?  or was it more a Putsch? Clarke and Richardsons new company seems to compete directly with the YBF  if there was any conflict it would be hard to explain the  Chummy photo on the  steps of the supreme court taken in August

With the Clarke situation falling apart Transatlantic Educational Alliance, Richardson and Clarkes company is in the process of ceasing to be.

Could it be that the whole situation has come about through petty corporate politics and backstabbing? and will it unwind taking the entire Blaney Thatcherite organisation with it? It is hard to see how the money can keep flowing into the Thatcher Center while investigations  into some of the surrounding people are ongoing. And with a charity like this, once trust is gone you have nothing.