John Allen was an 86-year-old war hero who survived many extraordinary brushes with death, but was mown down by a cyclist a few weeks ago in Bath and died shortly afterwards. At the age of 19 in World War Two, Allen’s RAF aircraft was shot down over France. He survived... Read more...
After spending the last three years campaigning against its profligacy and questionable mandate, this year the new Coalition Government’s Emergency Budget announced the demise of WMTPA nemesis and regional quango, Advantage West Midlands, who will file their final accounts on 31st March 2012. But before you reach for the... Read more...
When Eric Pickles announced he was to scrap the Audit Commission earlier this year it certainly didn’t signal the end of stories of waste by the quango. The Daily Mail carries a story today about some of their spending over the last few years – revealing just a few of... Read more...
Back in the summer the cut to the road safety budget catapulted speed cameras to the forefront of the road safety debate. Many councils – Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, some areas in Northamptonshire and Somerset – axed speed cameras, deciding that they were not a top priority in a shrinking road safety... Read more...
We knew that health and international development would be protected in the build up to the Spending Review. Ring-fencing health was always more popular than ring-fencing aid, but because it has the second biggest budget behind welfare that decision inevitably places huge pressure on other departments. Not only that, the... Read more...
Keith Richards, of the Rolling Stones, from a post on the New York Times' great Freakonomics blog this afternoon: "We left England because we’d be paying 98 cents on the dollar. [This may sound like an exaggeration, but likely isn't.] We left, and they lost out. No taxes at... Read more...
John Allen was an 86-year-old war hero who survived many extraordinary brushes with death, but was mown down by a cyclist a few weeks ago in Bath and died shortly afterwards. At the age of 19 in World War Two, Allen’s RAF aircraft was shot down over France. He survived... Read more...
Over the past week commentators have been analysing how the Spending Review will impact upon public services. The Department for Communities and Local Government was hit harder than most. It is facing an overall reduction in its budget of 51 percent in real terms by 2014-15. Some commentators have stirred... Read more...
We’re finally starting to see how the new Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) will operate. The first 24 of these bodies were unveiled yesterday, with more to follow. The bodies themselves will not receive any central government funding; instead councils and local businesses will be pooling resources to form replacements to... Read more...
A further despatch from the rear, as TPA supporter John Martin blogs about Norfolk County Council’s plans to save £155m Tuesday 26th October 2010 was an important day here. It saw the much-heralded start of “Norfolk’s Big Conversation”, the name given to a consultation exercise launched by Norfolk County... Read more...
For many years, as the Taxpayers Alliance has been actively campaigning to push back the wasteful tides of spending at countless government departments, councils and quangos that exist in the UK, one relatively peaceful, rugby loving nation has stood idly by, watching the funds of the public pocket cascade into the... Read more...
There have been a few stories recently highlighting that the taxpayer funded politics we uncovered in a report last year is still going strong: Robert Halfon MP challenged the amount of taxpayers' money going to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, writing for ConservativeHome here. They get heavily involved in contentious... Read more...
Last night, I went on Channel 4 to talk about the changes to Housing Benefit. You can see the debate here: We should look after families who need somewhere to live but can't afford it. That will be easier if we reform planning regulations so more homes are... Read more...
A belated non-job of the week this week, but we’re still finding needless positions being advertised by local authorities who’re currently tasked with making significant cutbacks. On the website ‘publicsectorjobs.net’ we found that Ballymena Borough Council are looking for a ‘Part-time Assistant Community Relations Officer’ on £19,621- 21,519 pro-rata... Read more...
The Net Neutrality debate is moving fast in the US as a result of a recent clash between the Fox network and Cablevision, a cable provider. Fox and Cablevision are in dispute over fees that Cablevision pays to Fox. The argument reached new levels when Fox pulled its content feed... Read more...
Below is an article I wrote for the Hull & East Riding Mail, published on Tuesday 26 October. Last week, George Osborne announced details of the long-awaited comprehensive spending review. Over the next four years, the government will make over £80 billion of spending cuts, and although this is... Read more...
Last week we published our estimate of the Real National Debt, putting it at a very scary £7.9 trillion, or around £300,000 for every British family. Since then a number of people have dismissed our figure as misleading, and even accused us of scaremongering. So let's just run through the objections... Read more...
The Fire Brigade Union (FBU) has announced a 47 hour strike action in London starting on bonfire night. The union hopes to quash the plans to change shift patterns of 5,500 fire fighters by causing maximum impact on the public by withdrawing labour during such a key time. The... Read more...
Maurice McTigue is a New Zealander, and was a member of that country's government as they tackled their own problems of bloated government. He has recently been talking about the experience, and his speech is well worth reading in full (HTP Peter Q). It is hugely encouraging for those of us who want the... Read more...
Bath is set to feel the pain of cuts in government spending. With the city heavily dependent on public sector employment, it has 3,000 Ministry of Defence workers fearing they will all lose their jobs if the MoD withdraws from the city and relocates to Bristol. B&NES Council is expecting... Read more...
As the coalition Government embarks on a programme of essential public sector cuts their greatest opponents remain the trade unions. Trade unions are threatening strikes and, if successful, they pose the greatest threat to frontline services, not spending cuts. It is absurd that a Bill in the Commons tomorrow proposes... Read more...
In the wake of our Unnecessary Jobs report we’ve had a flurry of nominees for ‘Non-job of the week’ sent in by supporters. Thanks to those of you who got in touch to highlight some of the positions you’ve spotted in local papers or on recruitment websites – it’s great... Read more...
The spending review cuts Whitehall's annual support for local councils by 26% in real inflation adjusted terms. And that's just the headline shown in the report - once account is taken of the new social care responsibilities they've picked up, the like-for-like funding cut is almost certainly even bigger. The... Read more...
A supporter has contacted me with shocking details of how much it has cost to refurbish Rotherham Town Hall. Rotherham Council was identified in our recent report on council non-jobs as spending £317K on diversity officers. Now, after the council initially refused to reveal the costs of the refurbishment, it... Read more...