Once-proud charity’s lost moral compass

HOW far Oxfam has fallen since the highminded days of its foundation. Created by Quakers in 1942 to alleviate famine in wartorn Europe, its conduct and reputation were once regarded as unimpeachable.

Not so today. Sexual exploitation by staff of vulnerable girls in Haiti and Chad, claims of anti- Semitism and allegations of harassment of volunteers in Oxfam shops have dragged its name through the mud.

Now it also stands accused of ‘demonising older women’ – JK Rowling in particular – in a video to coincide with Pride month, a celebration of LGBTQ communities.

It features what appears to be a grotesque caricature of the author wearing a badge that reads ‘TERF’ (trans- exclusionary radical feminist), a term for women who believe men cannot change biological sex and should not enter female-only spaces.

While most of the world agrees with this view, Oxfam clearly doesn’t and is prepared to scorn women’s right to free expression in the name of identity politics.

This raises two obvious questions. Why is an organisation that should be concerned with feeding and providing clean water to the world’s poor and dispossessed taking up cudgels in a toxic culture war?

And why would it risk alienating so many women who might otherwise be generous and enthusiastic donors?

Perhaps because it has assumed the moral high ground for so long that it can’t see – or chooses to ignore – ethical and intellectual failings so apparent to everyone else.

Oxfam has mislaid its compass. Without some serious soul-searching and an urgent reset, this once proud charity may soon be lost for good.