There are many good things to take from the White Paper on NHS reform released yesterday. The general thrust behind it - patient choice and clinician led care - is a good one. For too long, politicians have bogged the system down, and healthcare staff conformed to targets set by... Read more...
In these times of austerity, sporting entertainment can be an enjoyable way to relieve the pressures of making ends meet. But I’m afraid the taxman has already got that covered. To inspire our next generation of sporting and cultural heroes, our many great national events endeavour to attract the best... Read more...
In the true TPA spirit, our supporters have clearly been keeping their eyes peeled recently for profligate spending in their local public sector. Yesterday, we featured a picture taken at a petrol pump of some dubious Business Link West Midlands advertising; today it’s an article from the Kentish Gazette, sent... Read more...
The public transport industry are out in force today telling the Telegraph that the world will end if the Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG) is abolished. The Telegraph report quotes two groups. The Campaign for Better Transport, radical anti-car campaigners who are partly funded by public transport companies and have... Read more...
One of the great things about quangocrats is that as a group they are constantly striving to go further - every time you think they have plumbed the absolute depths of stupidity, one of them excels and breaks previous records. The new Usain Bolt of quango idiocy, storming over the... Read more...
Last week the TPA launched its third report in partnership with the Drivers’ Alliance about speed cameras. The report has received some criticism from RoadPeace. They have written a response with a number of criticisms, none of which stand up to scrutiny: "As TPA only consider national casualty figures, the... Read more...
As a follow up to Islington Council’s Audit Committee report, it has been said that £55,000 in duplicate payments to council contractors is small beer for a council handling a billion pounds. But it should be noted that the internal auditor’s revelations were based on investigating a sample of just... Read more...
Today the Treasury have launched a new online Spending Challenge. They are asking for your views on what can be cut. As we said before about a similar site asking for ideas on laws to scrap, it is easy to get cynical about this sort of thing but it is... Read more...
There are big changes happening in the NHS - and on the surface of it, many of them are positive. The idea that GPs are best placed to understand local patients' needs and therefore best understand how money should be spent is a good one. This means that the bureaucratic... Read more...
£87.3m raised in speeding fines in one year Contains breakdowns for local areas A new report from the TaxPayers' Alliance (TPA) and the Drivers' Alliance (DA) collates for the first time the full figure for fines raised through speed cameras in 2008-09. The report features full data for local Safety... Read more...
“Let’s be blunt,” writes the new Local Communities Secretary Eric Pickles, “there are going to be tough choices to make in local government over the next few months.” Love him or loathe him – he’s right, these choices are inevitable. He’s pretty apt in stating that there’s “still a long... Read more...
The Spirit Level has become an important text for those advocating big increases in taxation and spending aimed at levelling out income inequalities. It suggests that the incidence of a whole range of social maladies is driven by income inequality. No less than Jonathon Porritt, head of the Sustainable Development... Read more...
It's the same all over Right across Europe public sector pensions are in crisis. For years, successive governments have made outlandish pension promises to their employees that their taxpayers were never ever going to be able to afford. And the chickens are now well and truly coming home to roost. This... Read more...
There were some amazing comments made in the Commons yesterday by Kevan Jones MP, who seems to have sunk so deep into the Westminster bubble that he has utterly forgotten what life is actually like in the real world. Amazingly, the focus of Mr Jones' ire is the fact that... Read more...
Much media coverage of Mr Osborne's prudent and necessary programme of fiscal retrenchment continues to stress the "savage" nature of the cuts. Last night's BBC Newsnight was typical, opening with footage of a huge axe poised over a school playground. The message was that abandoning Labour's multi-billion Building Schools... Read more...
Good to hear that despite talks of cut-backs in the public sector, Islington Council continues to advertise for jobs that stretch the bounds of necessity. According to their website, Islington’s Equality Performance Officer will have responsibility for delivering “commitments to promote the equality of opportunity and reduce the inequality faced... Read more...
The BBC has got hold of an interesting Freedom of Information response today - on taxpayer-funded iPhone applications. Essentially, they discovered a number of apps, ranging from £10,000 to £40,000 in cost, that have a weird and wonderful range of functions. Of course, having a weird and wonderful range of... Read more...
There is great news in the Financial Times this morning (via ConservativeHome): "The government is to launch a drive for regional pay in the civil service in a move set to antagonise further its directly employed workforce already facing threats to redundancy and pension terms, and a two-year pay freeze... Read more...
Yesterday the RAC Foundation released a report that said charging motorists for each mile they drive is inevitable if congestion is going to be tackled. The report coincides with the release of an Ipsos Mori poll for the RAC foundation, which found that 58 per cent of drivers agreed that... Read more...
It was reported recently in the Birmingham Post that between 2006 and 2009 Birmingham City Council hired ‘Z-List’ Celebrities to promote their events at the cost of over £50,000. With the authority expected to axe 10,000 jobs over the next five years, already having cut 2,000 jobs last year, it... Read more...
The BBC is funded by a combination of the licence fee, its commercial income and various government grants, particularly from the Foreign Office. Its total income in 2009-10 was just under £4.8 billion. That is a lot of money to play with and the vast majority of it comes not... Read more...
So there are some workers in the NHS who like targets: Managers. A survey has shown that the majority of Managers asked thought targets should remain in place, with some leaving comments on how they 'stimulated productivity' and how removing them would mean staff would 'do what is easiest'. Funny... Read more...
Just two months ago the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) was riding high on its win in the High Court, which ruled the previous government acted unlawfully when it introduced a new redundancy scheme. Labour attempted to draw up plans to cut £500 million a year from the Civil... Read more...
The reason why big government needs to be cut down to size was clearly demonstrated at this week’s meeting of the Islington audit committee. They just can’t handle taxpayer’s money with the respect it deserves. Observers were shocked to hear that £55,000 of taxpayer’s money was wasted by paying invoices... Read more...