Welcome to the second Good Grift Watch update, promised when I launched Good Grift Watch on this blog in June, and funded – in my dreams! – by my very own crowdfunder. This update covers July 2023. Update #1, covering June 2023, is here.

July 2023 in brief:

• GLP’s LGB Alliance case dismissed by the First-tier Tribunal
• GLP’s Surrey Hills case dismissed by the High Court
• GLP’s Trans healthcare appeal dismissed by the Court of Appeal
• Three new crowdfunders launched by the GLP
• No update to Louise Raw’s crowdfunder in support of legal action against Jeremy Clarkson and The Sun newspaper
• GLP’s crowdfunded income in July: £87,126
• GLP’s crowdfunded income in 2023/24 to date (6/12 months): £300,745

Chart of the month:

The GLP’s LGB Alliance case

On 6 July, the First-tier Tribunal (General Regulatory Chamber) dismissed the appeal brought by Mermaids and the GLP against the April 2021 decision of the Charity Commission to grant charitable status to the LGB Alliance, for which the GLP crowdfunded £83,692. Ruling that “the law does not permit Mermaids to challenge the decision made by the Charity Commission”, the Tribunal noted that “Mermaids has no legal right to operate free of criticism” and that “charitable status does not come with any guarantees of funding nor any freedom from criticism or debate”.

As well as this very good explainer of the ruling by Michael Foran of the University of Glasgow School of Law, there is good commentary by Sonia Sodha of the Observer, by Bev Jackson of the LGB Alliance, and by barrister Barbara Rich.

The GLP’s Surrey Hills case

On 20 July, the GLP revealed that the High Court has dismissed their application for Statutory Planning Review of the Government’s June 2022 decision to grant UK Oil and Gas permission to start exploratory drilling for hydrocarbons near Dunsfold village, for which the GLP crowdfunded £45,260. [Update: On 2 August, the GLP re-opened the Surrey Hills crowdfunder, which they had closed on 4 July, and on 3 August they announced they are seeking permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal.]

The GLP’s Trans healthcare case

On 31 July – the last day of the 2022/23 legal year – the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal against the High Court’s January 2023 judgment in the GLP’s Trans healthcare case. By their own account, the GLP spent £168,000 more on the High Court claim than the £49,608 they originally crowdfunded for the case. They then crowdfunded a further £60,075 for the appeal to the Court of Appeal, which they indicated would cost £60,000. So, in total, they spent some £277,000 of crowdfunded and direct donations on this case, only to lose in both the High Court and the Court of Appeal.

Responding to the dismissal of the appeal, the GLP said they are “incredibly disappointed” but “continue to stand alongside the transgender community”. The appeal crowdfunder has not been updated, and remains open.

Updated table of court outcomes in GLP cases since 1 October 2021 (i.e. the start of the 2021/22 legal year):

New GLP crowdfunders

On 7 July, the GLP launched a new, in-house crowdfunder – their 60th since March 2017 – with a target of £15,000 (later raised to £20,000, and then to £25,000), in support of new legal action with Friends of the Earth and ClientEarth against the Government’s Net Zero strategy. In 2022, the GLP crowdfunded £41,525 for legal action with Friends of the Earth and ClientEarth that resulted, in July 2022, in the High Court ordering the Government to clarify how it will meet its Net Zero targets. This led to the Government publishing a new Net Zero strategy – the Carbon Budget Delivery Plan – in March 2023.

The new legal challenge focuses on “the Government’s failure to include a proper assessment of the delivery risks associated with the policies and proposals in the Carbon Budget Delivery Plan”. Donations to the crowdfunder totalled almost £13,000 within 24 hours, but have flatlined since 14 July.

On 12 July, the GLP launched a new, in-house crowdfunder, with a target of £15,000, in support of proposed legal action with the Gemini Project against the Home Office in relation to a report on drink spiking that, under section 71 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing & Courts Act 2022, the Government was due to publish by 28 April 2023.

The GLP and Gemini Project suggest that the Government’s failure to publish the report by this deadline is “a breach of statutory duty and therefore by definition unlawful conduct”. However, it is evident from the Home Office minister’s Answer to a Parliamentary Question in late April that the report is in the pipeline, and accordingly that there is no particular reason to fear that it will not be published in due course. Donations to the crowdfunder totalled £2,000 within 24 hours, but – despite heavy promotion of the crowdfunder by the GLP on social media – have flatlined since 16 July. [Update: on 1 August, the GLP announced that the Home Office has committed to publishing the report in “the Autumn”, and on 2 August they closed the crowdfunder.]

On 20 July, just one hour after revealing the High Court defeat in their Surrey Hills case, the GLP launched a new, in-house crowdfunder, with a target of £40,000, to “fund specialist lawyers to examine how” to challenge a proposed NHS data contract with “a Trump-supporting billionaire’s spy-tech firm”. Donations to the crowdfunder totalled £19,000 within 24 hours, and reached £30,000 on 24 July, but the proposed litigation strategy is unclear.

In 2023 to date, the GLP has launched ten new crowdfunders, one more than in the whole of 2022.

Louise Raw’s Jeremy Clarkson case

There has been no update to the crowdfunder launched by Dr Louise Raw in December 2022 in support of potential legal action against Jeremy Clarkson and The Sun, despite the press regulator IPSO having concluded its consideration of complaints about Clarkson’s article on 30 June. IPSO upheld a complaint that Clarkson’s article “contained a pejorative and prejudicial reference to [Meghan Markle’s] sex”, but did not uphold complaints that “the article was inaccurate, harassed [Markle], and included discriminatory references to her on the grounds of race”.

When the crowdfunder was last updated, on 22 May, Dr Raw stated that her legal team would “write a letter before claim to The Sun and Clarkson” if the IPSO ruling is “positive”, or “consider a Judicial Review [of IPSO]” if the ruling is “negative”.

The GLP’s crowdfunded income in 2023/24

During the month of July, the GLP received donations totalling £87,126 via 12 crowdfunders. This compares with a monthly average of some £155K in 2021/22. The vast majority (96%) of this £87,126 was donated via five crowdfunders: NHS data (£33,987), Net Zero 2 (£17,895), Sewage Dumping (£17,169), Trans healthcare appeal (£8,665), and General Medical Council (£5,665).

In 2023/24 to date (i.e. in the six months since 1 February 2023), the GLP have launched nine new crowdfunders and received donations totalling £300,745 via 17 crowdfunders. This compares with a total of some £1.86 million in 2021/22, and some £661K in 2022/23. The great majority (77%) of this £300,745 was donated via six crowdfunders: Trans Healthcare Appeal (£60,075), Climate Change Protesters (£41,796), Asylum Seeking Children (£36,298), Sewage Dumping (£35,685), NHS data (£33,987), and Voter ID (£22,858).

As of 1 August, the GLP has 12 open crowdfunders (four on Crowdjustice, eight in-house).

Upcoming events

Judgment is awaited in the GLP’s Sewage Dumping case, which was heard by the High Court on 5-6 July, and in their Manchester Ship Canal case, which was heard by the Supreme Court in early March. And the GLP’s annual report and accounts for 2022/23 could be published at any time – last year, they published their annual report and accounts for 2021/22 in late May.

Updated Table of Failure and Futility (TOFF)

This table shows the sum raised by and outcome to date of the GLP’s 62 crowdfunders since March 2017. Dark orange = court defeat; light orange = other negative/unproductive outcome; dark green = court win; light green = other positive outcome; grey = in progress/unresolved/other.