Invited to The Parliamentary Review

[keemaklan]

Hi,

My Fathers company has been invited to write a short 1,000 word review into "the challenges you have faced, how you have responded to them and your hopes for the future" regarding his business (Cosmetics)

Chaired by Lord Pickles, former Conservative Communities Secretary, and Lord Blunkett, former Labour Home Secretary, The Parliamentary Review is a series of independent publications, which aims to share best practice among policy makers and business leaders.

What the letter doesn't state however, is that for entry into The Parliamentary Review, and to be invited to the Gala at the end of it, you have to contribute £3,500!!!

Does anyone know if its worthwhile contributing or shall I just throw the letter in the bin and tell them to do one?

Fox

[Rollin]

Bin

[Dick Dastardly]

I had a letter recently too so looked into it. It's a con and Pickles and Blunkett should hang their heads in shame.

[essayer]

Rollin said:

Bin

[khushy]

1. pointless #binit #moveon

[keemaklan]

Thanks.

I thought as much, but appreciate the reassurance.

Fox

[DSLiverpool]

Ego boosting cash draining politician shaming, only good for telling your mum your in it.

[StevieBee]

Absolutely bin.

This is no different to those publications that purport to be supporting local schools / fire service or whatever...but more expensive.

[Sixpackpert]

Bin, we got an 'invite' a few years back and binned it.

If you do it, be careful what you type. One company in our sector was in it a few years back. The article proudly stated that they make a £1.9 million post tax profit. They are still having arguments with customers when it comes round to trying to get price increases through!

[djone101]

I got one of these a week or so ago - after the initial "oooh that's nice" I did some digging and established as has been said - but this isn't mentioned in the letter - that they want a contribution of £3,500 or so.

What angers me is that they very much sell it on the "Parliamentary" tag - it has nothing to do with Parliament whatsoever apart from the fact that the opportunists who run it and make money from it also have a job in or around Parliament. It really is a scam designed purely to line pockets of people whose salaries we already pay for in our taxes. They have even had the temerity to send this to state funded schools expecting them to pay £1,500 to contribute - out of school funds that are already insufficient to actually run the schools in the first place.

[sgtBerbatov]

Well Eric Pickles has to do something to stay in the life he's become accustomed to, so don't think of it as £3,500 to enter. Think of it as £3,500 to keep the man in pork pies and biscuits.

[dartissimus]

Same as all the above, starts off sounding, dare I say, prestigious, but the facade falls away very quickly.

About 6 months ago, I got the letter, I must be a tired old cynic but I looked at the address and then the Companies House info.


Reminds me of the joke found elsewhere on these pages:

Police in Lagos have just broken into the flat of a man that had died. They found 27 billion pounds

Checking his computer they found out he has been trying to give it away for the last 15 years, but nobody was replying to his emails

[keemaklan]

Having looked into it a little more since my original post, I have to say I am disgusted by just how much of an actual con it is. I feel for anyone that contributes financially to line these duplicitous bar stewards pockets. Its not small change to throw down the drain.

Thankfully I didn't fall for it hook line and sinker.

Regards,

Fox

[snuffy]

I got something like that about 12 months ago from the said Mr Pickles. First of all I thought maybe it's a scam and it's nothing to do with him. Then I did some googling and it seemed okay but in the end I just binned it as it looked like more trouble than it was worth. Good job I did then.