Miss Joan Edwards’ last gift to the nation

Nigel Williams, 15 August 2013

The dust is settling after the row about Miss Joan Edwards, a retired nurse and midwife who ended a life of public service by leaving her worldly goods to the nation. Ironically the words she used,

‘for the Government in their discretion to use exactly as they think fit’,

were chosen especially to save trouble. Any charity’s treasurer is aware that donations with strings attached are much more awkward and give rise to restricted and designated funds that need extra accounting. It is better to trust the whole charity so that they can extract full value out of the donation.

In Miss Edwards’ case, somewhere along the line in the process of executing the will, a distinction appears to have been missed between the government and the governing parties. A decision taken by officials appears to have been put right as a result of proper public scrutiny. A lot of credit should go to the Electoral Commission and the their regular reporting of large donations. That was how the Daily Mail picked up the story.

What is more worrying is the difference between the interests of the political parties and the interests of the country. To Zac Goldsmith MP, party money would be “squandered on electioneering” but to Miss Edwards, ‘party’ and ‘government in office’ were near enough to be synonymous. Her solicitor even checked at the time of drafting. To a former nurse, it appeared self-evident that a governing party would act solely in the nation’s interests. Whether it went to the government or to the party, it would be put to the same good use.

Within a very few days, everyone’s wishes appear to have been satisfied. Parties have used their discretion and given the money to reduce the government’s debt so that everybody benefits. There may have been other, similar donations but, given the solicitor’s concerns about the wording, these will be rare. A few people are calling for state funding of political parties but they remain a long way from proving their case. If it were easier for us to trust, like Miss Edwards, that parties were in government purely to serve the country, they would not need to spend so much getting us to vote for them.