One of the policies that is expected from the coalition is a massive hike in Capital Gains Tax. It will go from 18 per cent to 40 per cent. Allister Heath, Editor at City AM, puts this in context: "It is also disappointing, though not surprising, that capital gains tax... Read more...
There is a significant section, in the document setting out the new coalition's programme, about environmental policy. There is one bit of good news, they are going to scale back Home Information Pack regulation. But the overwhelming direction of the changes they propose is to make the green rip-off established... Read more...
Over £650 billion has been spent on the NHS in the last 7 years. For that sort of money, we should have an unrivalled healthcare system. But we don't. A lot of the money is wasted, the result of which is poor productivity. This is expensive: the King's Fund estimate... Read more...
The Identity and Passport Service, who are responsible for the ID cards programme, obviously got a very quick ministerial phone call or email yesterday. They swiftly posted up this statement: Both Parties that now form the new Government stated in their manifestos that they will cancel Identity Cards and the... Read more...
John van de Laarschot, the Chief Executive of Stoke-on-Trent City Council, will be asking the cabinet to waive the usual tendering process in order to secure a multi-million pound contract for his favoured consultants to initiate a ‘transformational change programme’ at the authority. He’d like the contract, which could... Read more...
Britain has a new Government - and the first true coalition Government in over half a century. Whilst the ink is barely dry on the deal, and the full Cabinet and policy platform is yet to be announced, the first bits of information are surfacing about the tax policies they... Read more...
It’s Wednesday again and time for our weekly non-job, and this week the public sector are advertising for 359 positions on the Guardian jobs website. There are some 84 roles listed within the salary band £40,000-£50,000, and that’s where we found this week’s nomination, a vacancy posted by Warrington Borough... Read more...
The story of Sadie Boucher is one that I was almost surprised to read in the papers. The mum-of-seven, who lives in Gloucester, does not work and has never worked. She lives of around £30,000 a year in benefits and claims she was £200 a week worse off when she... Read more...
Every so often we get a call about a story that you can just tell is going to be massive. One such story is in most of the papers today - the NHS are asking Ambulance staff to rate how cool Hitler was. This barmy saga started when the West... Read more...
As Business Week report here, Morgan Stanley are recommending selling the pound against the dollar. The pound is currently worth about $1.48. Their target price is $1.35. As I explained earlier, this is driven by an unfavourable comparison with Europe and the US stabilising their position and less than promising... Read more...
In the short term, it looks like the new deal announced to support troubled eurozone economies might work. The $750 billion in loan guarantees has seen stock markets around the world and oil prices rise sharply. That is good news. But, in the long term things are still ominous because... Read more...
Apparently it's an important question. But let's hope that 'record investment' and ring-fencing the NHS budget doesn't lead to more of this: Ambulance service chiefs spent £10,000 on a questionnaire for staff which asked them to rate how 'cool' Hitler was. The survey, which appeared in a newsletter for West... Read more...
A big thank you to all supporters who attended the protest rally outside County Hall, Beverley, last Monday. I’m sorry I wasn’t there. As some of you will be aware, I was unexpectedly admitted to hospital for the holiday weekend, and a big thank you goes to Matthew Elliott and... Read more...
Back in December, a story came up that just had to be made into a blog post: Leeds University were advertising a £31,000 a year post to study lap-dancing. Susie Squire wrote about it here - after all, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to discuss strippers on the TPA blog.... Read more...
The NHS IT programme (NPfIT) is probably the most cited example of excessive waste and abysmal management in big government projects. Expected to cost more than £12 billion (with some reports suggesting the cost could go up to £20 billion), NHS Trusts are beginning to abandon it. A Trust in... Read more...
We've written today to the District Auditor of Doncaster requesting that he commence proceedings to require a number of Doncaster Councillors to repay £68,000 to taxpayers that was lost thanks to their behaviour.Doncaster has well-known troubles - most infamously it was the location of the horrific recent case where two... Read more...
While we in Britain are busy with tomorrow's election, the big news in the rest of Europe is the ongoing fiscal calamity in Greece. There are a few important points to note: 1. Joining the euro would have been a disaster for Britain In recent elections the Liberal Democrats repeatedly... Read more...
It’s non-job time again and – unfortunately – this week’s choice has been a tricky one due to the sheer number of dubious posts on offer. Stoke City Council are offering a Cultural Development Manager anything up to £44,000pa to ‘develop’, ‘promote’, ‘contribute to the quality of life’ (?!)... Read more...
The Lib Dem plans to introduce road pricing has been met with fierce criticism from 40 council leaders. They argue such a system would tax the poor off trunk roads and motorways and onto residential roads, creating “two classes of road”. The Lib Dems however said that the introduction of... Read more...
In the Dutch city of Eindhoven, citizens can now report broken street lights, potholes, graffiti etc. using an app on their iphones. Users can take a picture and locate the problem on GPS and maps and send it directly to the local authority so they can easily locate and solve... Read more...
As we saw in last night's Leaders' Debate, the three party leaders have started to talk a little bit tougher on the need for cuts, but still seem flummoxed when it comes to the detail. So, whether you're an ardent political activist, a frustrated taxpayer or a national Party Leader... Read more...
The National Institute of Economic and Social Research have released their National Institute Economic Review today. One of the articles has been reported by the BBC who focus on their recommendation of a tax rise equivalent to 6p on the basic rate of income tax. It is important to understand... Read more...
Very interesting statistics released by the Department for Transport (DfT) and reported in The Telegraph, show a dramatic drop in the number of new cars registered in the UK. Car registration fell by 6.8 per cent in 2009 compared to 2008. This was despite the Government's "cash for bangers" scheme,... Read more...
There will be cuts in public spending in the coming years but achieving them won’t be easy. A willing government will have to face down considerable opposition from public sector unions to carry out a successful programme of reductions to repair the public finances. And the unions have been preparing... Read more...