[lettie]

Personally, I do not part with cash to anyone at my front door unless I owe it to them. Therefore, I will happily pay my window cleaner at the front door but nobody else. This is not racist but sensible, it does not mean that I am not charitable but I will not be scammed by anyone and people asking for money in any way shape or form starts to ring alarm bells in my head. I will not give bank details at the door or over the phone but I have donated to several charities so far this year. These donations have been through sponsorship, ie walks, London Marathon etc...

I do not see the refusal to give money to a beggar as racist, it is personal choice (something that we are all entitled to). We have all seen instances where throwing money at problems does not solve them, even TB has admittd this recently. I would direct door to door beggars to Maundy Grange.