'What else shall I do with my money?' ANDREW DENHOLM SCOTTISH POLITICAL REPORTER
BY THE time the great Scots-born businessman Andrew Carnegie died in 1919, he had donated almost all his billion pound steel fortune to good causes, setting a precedent for philanthropy which has rarely been matched. Yesterday, Carnegie's extraordinary generosity was recalled as a modern day entrepreneur, reputed to be Scotland's richest man, signalled his intention to give up to £20 million a year to charity from 2006 onwards. In an interview with The Scotsman Irvine Laidlaw, 60, a Monaco-based business services tycoon who almost single-handedly bankrolls the Scottish Conservative Party, revealed that in three years time, he will sell the company which has made him an estimated £750 million fortune and turn his attentions, and financial clout, to funding charitable work. Mr Laidlaw, who was born in Keith, Moray, unveiled his grand scheme, known as the Laidlaw Youth Project, at a conference in Edinburgh with an initial donation of £1 million for charities which help disadvantaged young people leaving local authority care. There is a catch - defined by the mantra "two plus two equals five". It is this improbable equation which gives a unique insight into Mr Laidlaw's success and the likely impact he will have on the way the charities he eventually funds are run. "The sum of two people's work is worth more than they can do individually, but unfortunately that is not a view that is common in the charity world at the moment, or in government," he said. "It is an equation that works well in business and the Japanese do it best of all, but I don't see that happening here. "Everyone has their own little fiefdoms. If charities worked with others, they could make better use of the money and volunteers they have." Because of these concerns, Mr Laidlaw intends to use part of his outlay to fund charities with projects which bring together two or more organisations - whether that be in health, education, the police or government. (...) "I will continue to fund the Conservative Party because I think we need an effective opposition.You can't have a government without an opposition and you can't have an effective opposition without money. "You could almost say that if the Conservative Party were all-powerful, I might be making sure that there was an alternative opposition." Source: http://www.news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1276832003
