1. The board of Nexcus, the American organisation which seized control of Barnabas Aid in April 2024, appointed Colin Bloom as interim International CEO for three months. 2. Last Friday (5 July) the Nexcus board announced that Colin Bloom has now been given a five-year fixed-term contract as International CEO.
2. Colin Bloom’s career to date has been primarily as a politician with the Conservative Party (sometimes called the ‘nasty party’).
3. He owns a British company called Vetting.com whose business is to dig into people’s pasts.
4. He also acheived some fame in 2023 when he published a report commissioned by Boris Johnson, who was British Prime Minister at the time, about how the government should engage with faith groups, but the report was strongly criticised by British Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims.
5. Some people think Mr Bloom is showing the same traits in his leadership of Nexcus. He is charming to A if he need’s A’s vote or support but bullies B. What he says to C is the opposite of what he says to D. Those who oppose him tend to find themselves targeted with accusations of various kinds.
6. I have been told that he has deployed staff to dig into the past, looking for pretexts for making accusations against those he wants out of Barnabas Aid.
7. Bloom’s Barnabas Aid has been compared to a cult, with an atmosphere of intimidation and mistrust in the Barnabas Aid office. Communication between the Founders and the staff is forbidden. The entire staff body of the office in Pewsey, UK, were locked in a room for half a morning on 23 April, then escorted from the premises and kept out for two weeks.
8. Bloom’s Barnabas Aid is a white man’s Barnabas Aid – for such are all the members of the Nexcus board. Two months ago they voted off the remaining non-white and female members of the board. Soon afterwards they appointed Colin Bloom, another white man, to the board.
9. Four members of the Nexcus board are currently facing a grievance complaint from an Indian staff member for racist harassment. They undermined his authority and ousted him from his position as interim CEO, putting Colin Bloom in his place.
10. Neither Bloom nor any other members of the board will act on the pleas of Barnabas Aid’s Malaysian entity for recognition and a place on the Nexcus board. https://search.app/oLFfcRVcFFZzbTE66
11. Bloom’s vision for Nexcus reminds me of a colonial land-grab. He has already seized control of buildings and land belonging to other Christian charities and seems to be making preparations to repeat this with further charities, as well as controlling their staff and money.