In our time the WMTPA have had a fair few run-ins with Sandwell Council, from The Public (that major white elephant they’ve continued to support with our cash) to a plethora of press stories highlighting their frivolous use of taxpayers’ money. Now Cllr Steve Eling was to present next year’s... Read more...
Campaign for Better Transport (CBT) has today released a report with the major revelation that traffic levels rise when new roads are built. They argue that spending on roads is a major “gamble” because the Highways Agency has, on occasion, inaccurately predicted their road schemes’ effects on traffic, noise and... Read more...
Yesterday the West Midlands Police Authority gave business owners the opportunity to see how their tax pounds are being used as they held their business crime conference in Birmingham. The WMTPA went along on behalf of local taxpayers. West Midlands Business Crime Conference 2010 It’s a shame that events... Read more...
Yesterday George Osborne promised he would start cutting public spending on Day One: “The message could not be clearer – if you find yourself on the wrong road, you take the first available exit instead of carrying on. With the date of the general election increasingly likely to be after the... Read more...
For quite a while it's seemed that the Government have been running out of ideas, but they have really excelled themselves today. The BBC are reporting that Peter Mandelson's BIS Department have commissioned a report which imagines a list of "jobs of the future" - at least one of which seems... Read more...
A few weeks ago I wrote about a new campaign to rebuild British democracy (see here). Power2010's aim is to get all candidates - incumbent and challenger alike - to sign up to five popular reforms that would strengthen and improve the way our parliament and elections work, re-establishing the... Read more...
Yesterday, the credit rating agency Moodys opined that Greece and Portugal face a "slow death" caused by "bleeding" from the rapidly escalating cost of servicing their huge government debts: "The risk of a 'sudden death' is negligible, but the likelihood of a 'slow death'...is high." How will this slow... Read more...
Well cometh the New Year, cometh the new non-jobs, and it’s fair to say that the Society Guardian is showcasing a fair few now we’re in to 2010. A variety of surplus communications managers, community liaison officers, diversity professionals and modern-day pigeon-scarers adorn the paper and website as the... Read more...
I wrote a blog back in October about the Mayor’s Transport Strategy and the furore it caused culminating in the Evening Standard headline “Londoners face a £1 a mile toll”. That headline claim was quickly denied by Boris Johnson: “There is absolutely no scheme in the Mayor’s Transport Strategy to... Read more...
Back in the autumn, Sir Christopher Kelly's inquiry into MP's expenses went well. There was a broad public consultation that got a large response. The public made their views extremely clear. As a result, a hefty block ofexcellent recommendations was delivered to Parliament - see here- and party leaders publicly... Read more...
We have long argued that the public don't want to be mollycoddled or given soft messaging on public spending. They know how tough things are, they have made big cutbacks in their own household budgets, and the last thing they want is for politicians to pretend everything is great. Indeed... Read more...
Following the thorough and expansive work of Sir Christopher Kelly's inquiry into MP's expenses last year (including a broad and well participated public consultation), you would be forgiven for thinking that some resolution to the whole issue had already been found. A hefty block of recommendations was delivered to Parliament,... Read more...
The Times today leads with a report on how many of the nation's schools face punishment for the heinous crime of - get this - prudent financial planning. Our concerns over such an action are obvious - it utterly deters efficient spending, and dissuades schools from sensible economic management -... Read more...
"The basic point is that the Agency does not know enough about what it is getting for the taxpayers’ money it spends on maintenance across its whole network. Without a better understanding of the costs of network-wide activities – such as resurfacing – it cannot hope to drive those costs... Read more...
Well, it's the second day of the unofficial 2010 election campaign and already it appears that the Conservatives have pledged to create a new quango. In a speech today to the Oxford Farming Conference, Shadow Environment Secretary Nick Herbert is pledging to create a "Supermarket Ombudsman". Sigh. So much for a... Read more...
New Year - New Resolve Christmas and New Year over, it's time to tackle that fiscal hangover. If the Conservatives win the election, George Osborne's first make-or-break budget is now less than 6 months away. And it's time we had a much clearer explanation of precisely how he is proposing to deliver the... Read more...
The BBC is reporting that the police are taking more cases against MPs and Peers to the Crown Prosecution Service: "Two more politicians face possible prosecution over their expenses after police passed on files to the Crown Prosecution Service. The Metropolitan Police has now passed files on six people from... Read more...
When there's a policy failure, a tragedy or disaster the default setting for government departments is to establish a semi-autonomous public body (SAPB) to deal with it. The inquiry into the Nimrod crash has bred the Military Aviation Authority. The tragic Soham murders saw the savagely unpopular Independent Safeguarding Authority... Read more...
The Sutton Trust is calling today for changes to the conventional school day. Following research into the amount of homework and other extra curricular activities undertakenby children of graduate parents compared with those from less educatedhomes, the Trust has concluded that an extended school day, from 7:30 to 5pm, is... Read more...
Semi-autonomous public bodies (the UK’s ubiquitous ‘quangos’) are now responsible for a significant proportion of the Government’s work. Major public services – such as health, education and criminal justice– are dominated by them, while sectors such as art, sport and agriculture have become dependent on the financial support which they... Read more...
Good news from the Department for Communities and Local Government today: New rules to compel local authorities to fully disclose the pay andperks of top posts and name those earning more than £150,000 were setin law today announced Communities Secretary John Denham. Around475 local authority bodies will now legally... Read more...
Trevor Eames of the Solihull Ratepayers' Association writes on the latest hazard for parents on the school run... Solihull Council was highlighted recently for raising £549,286 from Parking Penalties last year. (Source Taxpayers' Alliance Survey).This is expected to increase substantially in the current year as loopholes are being tightened... Read more...
Just a day after The Sentinel reported that political leaders pushed for inflation-busting council tax rises in order to combat service cut-backs we learn that Stoke-On-Trent City Council are running a £660,000 press office and the new chief executive has claimed for £3000 in expenses in just three weeks. ... Read more...
"Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth [yesterday] announced the creation of a new military airworthiness authority to ensure aviation safety standards are of the highest order at all times." (Government News Distribution Service) The loss of 14 armed forces personnel in the Nimrod disaster of 2006 was a national tragedy. A review... Read more...