There is an interesting post over at ConservativeHome today by Cllr Neil Reddin from the London Borough of Bromley. In it he argues that the TaxPayers' Alliance should set up a consultancy which could charge councils for advice on how to save money. It's a point worth answering, and the... Read more...
It's a rare occasion - indeed an event for the diary - today. I agree with something the Local Government Association have said. Yes, the people who normally spend their time arguing for higher council tax and more town hall bureaucrats have produced an eminently sensible piece of work. They are calling... Read more...
The latest news about Sir Fred Goodwin's pension is jaw-dropping. Not only has he apparently been allowed a multi-million pound lump sum, but Lord Myners has confessed that when he was told in advance that Goodwin's pension would be "enormous", he simply did not bother to find out the details.... Read more...
Sunder Katwala, General Secretary of the Fabian Society, thinks he has ‘outed’ us as partisans on the basis of a slide in a presentation by our Chief Executive, Matthew Elliott: “Assuming that Matthew Elliott, Chief Executive, no longer wants to defend the Taxpayers Alliance's public statements that they are... Read more...
The TaxPayers' Alliance has a clear line on Regional Development Agencies (RDAs): abolition. In the absence of any real data showing that RDAs have had a positive economic impact on England's regions (despite this being their express purpose) we concluded that much simpler, cheaper ways of incentivising business could be... Read more...
Britain gave nearly £100 million in aid to the Palestinian territories in 2007. This money supports attempts to indoctrinate the Palestinian population to support the continuation of violent conflict. New evidence that Hate Education continues to be spread in the media and children’s text books. Following the... Read more...
Sandwell councillor and TaxPayers’ Alliance supporter Tony Ward made the Express and Star today after asking some very pertinent questions of council leader and champion of The Public gallery, Bob Badham. In light of the £70million redevelopment of West Bromwich, where Sandwell Council own the freehold, Cllr Ward asked... Read more...
The issue of Parliamentary expenses and allowances will be back in the news today with the publication of the official list of ministerial interests, which sees ministers declare not only their own financial interests but also those of family members. The rumbling on of this and various other stories is... Read more...
Today, Edward Leigh MP, the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, called the failed National Offender Management Information System a "master class in sloppy project management." The project, intended as a central database for convicted offenders, is now expected to cost £513 million, more than double its estimated budget of... Read more...
Today’s Express and Star has tallied up how much Black Country councils have been spending on transport for their mayors, and the grand total comes to an astonishing £215,000. And that doesn’t even include Sandwell! Most of us will associate our town mayors with flash jags, but the article... Read more...
This week there are 526 opportunities to be in the employment of the taxpayer as you can see on the right. This week’s non-job, however, comes from Northamptonshire County Council: “Community Policy Manager£46,470 - £57,168 pa The purpose of Community Partnerships is to manage community growth, diversity and... Read more...
An excellent article in the Edinburgh Evening News earlier this month used Edinburgh’s problematic new tram system, to begin running in 2011 at a cost of £1billion, to highlight a much broader predicament. Councils are undertaking huge, complex schemes at great expense without first successfully delivering basic services. Edinburgh... Read more...
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that the UK’s compulsory retirement age does not necessarily breach age discrimination legislation (Case C-388/07 of 5 March 2009). The ECJ says that the age limit is legal if it is there for a “legitimate social policy objective” relating to employment... Read more...
The weekend saw another victory in the drive for transparency in how taxpayers' money is spent. After the Conservatives a month ago and the Labour Party a fortnight ago, the Lib Dems have completed the hat-trick by committing to publishing the details of senior public employees' pay and perks. This... Read more...
While the Treasury attempts to kick-start the British economy with interest rate cuts and quantitative easing to the tune of £75 billion, last week the Department of Health revealed plans to raise the cost of NHS prescriptions in England to £7.20 from April, while cancer patients would now be exempt... Read more...
Timms: HM Treasury doesn't have the answers Over the weekend we got news of the latest bank bailout. Taxpayers are being landed with another £260bn of toxic assets to add to the £325bn we've already taken on from RBS (see this blog). And for providing this insurance, we're not being paid a... Read more...
The Axe The Beer Tax campaign, which is opposed to the Government's excessive tax on beer, has produced a nifty Beer Taxometer that lets you calculate how much beer tax you currently pay and how much you will have to pay under the Government's planned tax rises: The punitive... Read more...
Centro, the West Midlands Public Transport Authority, truly seem to be a law unto themselves, and this week the Express & Star reported how they’re planning to use £12million of taxpayers’ cash (£5million from Centro itself and £7million from local councils) to procure land for the Midland Metro extension –... Read more...
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) reported back in January that: “Despite the Department (for Innovation, Universities and Skills) spending £5 billion between 2001 and 2007 on trying to improve the levels of literacy and numeracy, England still has an unacceptably high number of people who cannot read, write and... Read more...
It emerged last night that the Welsh Assembly Government plans to spend £42 million refurbishing its headquarters in Cathays Park. Yes, £42 million. A staggering amount of money. More than it cost to build the Synedd, or the Liberty Stadium in Swansea. And this is for refurbishment, not building... Read more...
Further to my earlier post about the greed of some local councillors, and the Councillors' Commission's shoddy call for snouts to dig deeper into the trough, I'm glad to see that one council at least is doing the right thing. According to the Local Government Chronicle, Scarborough Borough Council... Read more...
In a bid to boost trust in the police, Jacqui Smith has unveiled a new scheme whereby victims of “minor” crime can send a text message instead of calling 999. The police will reply with a non emergency number and details of your local police and community support officers. ... Read more...
The Ministry of Defence's delay in introducing eight new Chinook helicopters to troops in Afghanistan has endangered the lives of British troops, a report said today. The report, issued by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, says the delay has been a colossal disaster in nearly every way; the... Read more...
Reform of the civil service is a hardy perennial in the garden of political issues. Groups campaign for it, parties discuss it, Governments promise it. But rarely does it actually happen, beyond tinkering at the edges, and the cycle inevitably repeats itself. Yesterday Reform (cross-party think tank, and a leading... Read more...