Unauthorised door-to-door collections for ‘charity’ are getting out of control in some parts of Birmingham. I have a particular gripe about them because many years ago, I handed a pound over to a cold caller claiming to be collecting for a Mosque. An hour later, I saw the same person coming out of a bookmaker. Now of course it is perfectly possible that he did not mingle the charity collections with his personal money used for placing bets, but somehow I doubt it.
The point is bigger than my solitary experience of many years ago. Unauthorised door to door collections are wrong, plain and simple. And not only because they are irritating and a nuisance for people. There is no way of knowing if someone is genuine. In a sense, it is also emotional blackmail. If someone knocks your door and tells you in an emotive tone that he is collecting for a refuge for poor orphans somewhere in Pakistan (and most collectors in our area are Pakistani), what do you do?
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