It has been reported yesterday that councils have used anti-terror legislation 10,000 times since 2004. And what are the heinous crimes they have uncovered? Well, it ranges from littering to unauthorised internet access. Theft of fariy lights is a big problem in certain UK regions too, apparently. This is... Read more...
Few can object to ‘innovation’ when it aims to deliver improvement. But ‘innovation’ is not a positive thing in and of itself, and questions should asked of whether the Government ‘s enthusiasm for ‘innovation’ is anything more than the latter. Up to £3billion has been allocated to the... Read more...
Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, says we’ve run out of money. Do not go pass go, because we can’t afford to give you £200. As Gordon Brown was told in the European Parliament this week: “Prime Minister, you have run out of our money”, but that... Read more...
Yesterday I was up in Knaresborough – a lovely part of the world – petitioning against local Lib Dem plans to requisition 10 per cent of councillor salaries for party political activities. We met by Blind Jack's Statue and proceeded to talk with residents... Read more...
It's often said by local councillors that the idea that there is waste in Town Halls or that council tax can be reduced is "simplistic" or foolish - it's impossible, they cry, if the TPA were councillors then you'd understand that. There's a great example out of Tower Hamlets today... Read more...
David Goodhart, Editor of Prospect magazine, has an interesting if mistaken article just out in their April edition on the subject of civil liberties, individual freedom and the database state. I'm not a habitual Prospect reader, but this one came to my attention as he makes an analogy between personal... Read more...
Stop the presses! It turns out that despite mainstream scientific consensus, dinosaurs are not extinct and in fact live in the obscure habitat of the National Executive of UNISON. Jon Rogers, a member of that body, has posted a very revealing piece on his blog about public sector pensions which draws some conclusions so... Read more...
The Times reported this morning that the pay freeze is beginning to blow into the public sector: "... nurses, midwives and other NHS staff face losing apromised pay rise in the first sign of a salary squeeze for public sectorworkers..." "Pay freezes, or at best minimal rises, are also expected... Read more...
This morning TPA supporters, members of the West London Residents Association and Guide Dogs for the Blind amassed outside Kensington and Chelsea Town Hall to present their petition against the dangerous and expensive shared space schemes at Holbein Place and the proposed development for Exhibition Road. Gordon Taylor, pictured below... Read more...
Over the past weeks, TPA supporters have been petitioning along with members of the West London Residents Association and Guide Dogs for the Blind to end the expensive, dangerous “shared surface” schemes in Kensington and Chelsea. These plans by the council have already cost £330,000 for a small... Read more...
On the ConservativeHome blog Tim Montgomerie writes that the Conservatives understand scrapping their proposed Inheritance Tax Cut and endorsing Labour's new top rate of tax won't raise much revenue. That's good news and absolutely correct. The Inheritance Tax only raises a small proportion of total revenue, less than one per... Read more...
Isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing? The Treasury team is probably indulging in a fair amount of it today, following the release of the National Audit Office’s report into the Treasury’s nationalisation Northern Rock. Although the report supports the idea that nationalisation was the best way to protect taxpayer’s money, the... Read more...
A blog on the WMTPA website in February last year criticising the greed of executives on the board of newly founded Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust - some of whom wanted to up their pay by a whopping 154% - has taken on new significance this week as Stafford Hospital... Read more...
Yesterday the director general of the BBC Mark Thompson announced cuts of £400m to its budget. The cuts are part of an ongoing restructuring and redundancy programme. The bold move involves the freezing of executives pay, reducing fees for top stars and a future 1,200 job losses. These are drastic... Read more...
There is a small piece in The Sun last week reporting that two policemen have been held in a drugs raid in Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire. Police raided 13 houses in a crack down on heroine and cocaine drugs ring activity. 10 people in total were arrested, two of them policemen. This... Read more...
The Jacqui Smith case raised a fundamental question about MPs' second homes. How do you tell which one it is? She lists her main home as the rented space in her sister's house, allowing her to charge her larger family home as a second home on Parliamentary expenses. Surely this... Read more...
It was announced yesterday that we have two million unemployed in this country. With our high tax regime – funding our big, intrusive government – naturally we don’t have the environment to attract the business to bring jobs to our shores. With fewer people to tax, therefore, how is the government... Read more...
Yesterday in Brussels, the TaxPayers’ Alliance held our pan-European launch of ‘Hate Education since Annapolis’. As you will have seen from our coverage earlier in the week, the UK version of the report hit the press on Monday. The report has been published in six languages with partner organisations... Read more...
Over at the Liberal Conspiracy website, the blogger Unity has responded to our Palestinian Hate Education since Annapolis report. Unfortunately, despite berating us for keeping the report to four pages (which we certainly won't apologise for, we're trying to influence busy people) he clearly hasn't taken the time to read it,... Read more...
Sunder Katwala, General Secretary of the Fabian Society, is still persisting in his faintly ludicrous attempt to try and define our group for us. Apparently, instead of debating issues he prefers some kind of taxonomical debate over how we should be described. The TaxPayers’ Alliance has no party preference. ... Read more...
Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council’s environmental health chiefs have been busy thinking of ways to hijack the general concern about climate change in order to raise more revenue from unassuming drivers, and today’s Shopshire Star reveals the latest proposal – on the spot fines for ‘polluting drivers’. The £60... Read more...
"Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" - The rising prison population suggests that the Government (and the Judiciary) have certainly made efforts towards the first part of this promise. Read more...
Today’s Express & Star has revealed just how much neglect of roads and pavements around the West Midlands and Black Country is costing the taxpayer, and the figures are rather alarming. Top of the list comes Sandwell Council who’ve spent no less than £31,835 dealing with claims, including almost £18k... Read more...
It may not be surprising news, but today's announcement by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) - that unemployment continues to climb relentlessly upwards - reminds us that we are far from feeling the worst of this recession. The ONS data shows that the number of officially unemployed people in... Read more...