A new report (PDF) from the TaxPayers' Alliance (TPA) reveals the high costs being imposed on British and European consumers by the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). The ETS is intended to reduce carbon emissions across Europe by increasing the cost of energy for households, businesses and other organisations.... Read more...
It is reported today that now we have seen some strong recommendations coming out of the Kelly Inquiry, 'Peers expenses will be reduced'. Although granted not by much. The daily allowance will go from a current maximum £174 to around £140, although a final decision has not been made on this. Perhaps... Read more...
The EU has just launched the latest stage of its anti-tobacco campaign, a ludicrous and undoubtedly costly cartoon series aimed at children. "Helpers" continues the patronising and nannying trend of the EU's campaign on the issue so far, with an added dash of childhood propaganda. Helpers follows three characters... Read more...
A film backed by taxpayers via Screen West Midlands may not be screened in Birmingham on the advice of West Midlands Police according to today’s Birmingham Post. The movie ‘1 Day’, shot on the streets of Handsworth, looks at gang culture in the city and will go on general... Read more...
Almost 500 government jobs are featured on the Guardian jobs site this week, with a particular rise in the number of positions advertised in local government. Not sure ‘spoilt for choice’ is really the right term, with a Benefit Maximisation and Take Up Manager in Liverpool in the running... Read more...
(As the Eastern Daily Press reports today) Norfolk's Conservative county councillors yesterday voted en masse to block a move to discuss the allowances of its 'twin-hatters'. Following the council election in June, 50 members of Norfolk's 84 seat County Council are twin-hatters, councillors who sit in both in the county... Read more...
Ofsted are coming - we're doomed! Autocratic regimes always employ legions of government inspectors. Their job is to tour round the various outposts of the centralised state and put the fear of God into local bureaucrats - to remind them who's boss.It was back in 1836 that Nikolai Gogol wrote... Read more...
According to the Express & Star, Sandwell Council street wardens are certainly justifying their salaries having issued more than 6 times as many on-the-spot fines as their counterparts in the neighbouring borough of Dudley, making the council a tidy £165,000 if paid in full. Proactive council employees in West... Read more...
This Wednesday a debate will come before Parliament which affords an usual opportunity to further the cause of transparency in all public spending. If you can spare a couple of minutes, please follow these instructions on contacting your MP to urge them to support the motion. Essentially, back in... Read more...
The Administrative Burdens Reduction Programme was launched by the Government in 2005. Aiming to reduce the annual cost to business of complying with administrative regulations, the programme set the tough target of reducing the burden by 25 per cent by 2010. The NAO has kept a close eye on the... Read more...
This week we released a report on relative spending for road and rail, in which we said that road should be prioritised within a rapidly disappearing transport budget. Roads carry more passengers per pound than rail. Our research highlights that although spending on road and rail is roughly equal- £8.2... Read more...
Our local councils can be pretty incessant in their attempts to ‘wow’ us, but self-congratulatory newsletters and needless awards schemes for staff? Is this really what we pay our council tax for? A Worcestershire based supporter emailed the WMTPA to complain about the county council flooding out their bi-annual... Read more...
Tonight, the BNP will appear on BBC 2's Question Time for the first time. The row about whether Nick Griffin should be allowed to take part has been dragging on for weeks, and everyone has had their say: Unite Against Fascism, free speech campaigners, the BNP, Peter Hain, Jack Straw,... Read more...
The Royal Mail is facing increased competition and a long term decline in one of their core businesses, delivering letters, as people switch to e-mail. Big demand for parcel services from online stores was the silver lining to that cloud. But, the company is losing key contracts from firms like Amazon. ... Read more...
Birmingham City Council are certainly being hauled over the coals by the Birmingham Post this week. Yesterday, the paper revealed that BCC’s Business Transformation Project is looking at a £10m shortfall on its projected savings, and now in today’s edition we read that council chiefs have spent £1.4m of taxpayers’... Read more...
In the BBC report today on our new study on transport spending one of the more prominent groups opposing our views is "Greengauge21, which promotes the development of a high-speed rail network in the UK". That isn't a campaign we've come across before, so I took a look at their website... Read more...
New research produced jointly by the Drivers' Alliance and the TaxPayers' Alliance reveals that despite the huge amounts of tax paid by motorists, public spending on rail outnumbers spending on roads by a factor of ten to one when actual usage is taken into account. This demonstrates that whilst the... Read more...
And they thought things were bad then... The last time we calculated the real national debt - including all those off-balance sheet Enron items - we got to a figure of £1.8 trillion. But that was last year, and things have moved on since then.Now Brooks Newmark has updated the... Read more...
The Daily Mail yesterday reported the continuing defiance of Barnet councillor Christopher Harris who, despite spending the last three months on an extended holiday in Australia, continues to claim his monthly allowance. Cllr Harris’ behaviour has drawn criticism from colleagues and constituents alike, but he remains unrepentant and ludicrously insists... Read more...
This week has seen the MPs' expenses row rumble on, with Sir Thomas Legg, a civil servant charged with the unenviable task of reviewing invidividual MPs' expense claims, wrting letters to each MP with a brief assessment of their claims and in some cases asking for repayment. The interesting... Read more...
We’ve talked before about the difficulty in mapping the policy process in certain Government departments. The MOD is often seen as the hegemon of complexity but the sheer confusion at work in other departments makes British government a true multi-polar world. A world in which Defra must be considered a... Read more...
Pretty dismal news for the NHS in the West Midlands, as standards in local hospitals ‘deteriorate dramatically’ according to the front page of today’s Birmingham Post. The paper reveals that annual performance ratings by the national watchdog the Care Quality Commission appear to show that whilst financial management is... Read more...
The think tank Reform have unveiled the shortlist for this year's Reformer of the Year award. There are various worthies (and a couple of unworthies) on the list, but two in particular stand out: Heather Brooke and Douglas Carswell MP. In fact, they're both so good I'm simply going... Read more...
In October, after relentless pressure to toughen up Incapacity Benefit, the Government introduced a new ‘Employment and Support Allowance’. Over the last year applicants have been undergoing the new medical assessments, and the DWP yesterday released the results. Nearly two thirds of applicants have so far failed in their claim,... Read more...