A new petition has been launched on the Downing Street website to call for an inquiry into the huge waste of taxpayers’ money on The Public in West Bromwich. Its creator says the following; There has been so much debate about The Public that I feel everyone should... Read more...
Watching Gordon Brown dodge questions over the "Buy American" clauses in the US stimulus a few days ago, I was reminded of just how much he is gambling on the US strategy. Obviously keen not to jeopardise the progress of Obama's plan in any way, Gordon Brown - long an... Read more...
Taxpayers are buying this Having already blown billions on bank bailouts, Mr Brown is now intending to blow even more by buying a bad bank.At the risk of stating the obvious, let's just make sure we all understand what that means.The Bad Bank will be owned by taxpayers and it will buy an unknown... Read more...
There is a remarkable piece of news in the Daily Mail today, about an MP who has apparently been sued by a constituent for allegedly failing to represent him properly. Ann Keen MP was ordered by Brentford County Court to pay damages of £15,000 to a constituent who claims... Read more...
Plenty of government jobs on offer this week, folks, as you can see from the Guardian's table opposite. We'll be running these tables weekly so you can see how much the government is advertising for positions to increase the size of government. More to the point, notice how an overwhelming majority... Read more...
I had a rather odd – and rather loud – phone call earlier today from Derek Draper, who runs the LabourList blog, about the issue of large companies who are moving to other countries to take advantage of their lower tax rates.The fact that Draper should call us at all... Read more...
It was reported by the BBC today that Derek Conway has apologised "without qualification" after he was ordered to return £3,757 of taxpayers' money paid to his elder son Henry. Isn't that nice? The only thing is, even after paying this back, he still has moral debt to settle with taxpayers. ... Read more...
There has been much discussion today about the new report from the Children's Society, which claims to have found that today's children are less happy than the children of past generations. The report raises issues of parenting, education, child psychology and all sorts that I shan't cover here. On one... Read more...
Despite increasing their middle-management spend by over £11million in just one year (alongside the raft of six-figure salary directors on their payroll) it was revealed today that Birmingham City Council will spend no less than £67m on consultants and advisors this year. An article in today’s Birmingham Post reveals... Read more...
Whilst I was searching for information on my previous blog, I came to this story from the Surrey Advertiser that I just had to write about. In an obscene act of arrogance and hubris, Surrey County Council big wigs, councillors and public sector worthies will be spending £10,000 of taxpayers’... Read more...
Our Surrey TPA organizer Peter Webb was quoted last week on the astonishing case of Surrey County Council’s pension shortfall, the value of the fund declining with the fall in the markets as the recession deepens. The only problem here is that non-state sector taxpayers are not only seeing their... Read more...
Recently, the TaxPayers' Alliance released a report Council Spending Uncovered II: Middle Management Pay. In this report, we showed that local government had increased the number of jobs paying £50,000-plus per year by 22 per cent, increasing the public bill by more than 20 per cent. Take that in stride... Read more...
If you think the furore going on up in Lincolnshire is bad, just look at this story sent into us by a supporter this cold Monday morning: “ALMOST £40,000 of taxpayers’ money is being spent on rented accommodation for surf reef workers from New Zealand – even though they are... Read more...
The Times and Computer Weekly bring us an update on the government's ongoing IT fiascos. BOM readers will be familiar with all of them, but to see them added together still brings on a scream: Over-runs on the 8 largest projects now total £18.6bn - about £750 for every single British... Read more...
Our Surrey TPA branch met with County Council leaders recently to discuss the budget. Here is a report of the meeting by our organiser Peter Webb: A Surrey TaxPayers Alliance delegation led by Peter Webb met County Councillors and Officials at County Hall on 28th January, alongside Business and Voluntary... Read more...
New TPA report shows how BERR is now little more than a £1 billion a year political platform The UK is now less business-friendly it was a year ago Only 4% of small businesses used one of BERR's 3,000 business support programmes in 2006 If RDAs were scrapped too, taxpayers... Read more...
Many people, including me, are getting heartily sick of the Government's health nannying. Don't do this, don't do that, binge on as many Goji berries as possible etc etc ad nauseam. The underlying fallacy of their patronising approach seems to be an utterly flawed assumption that it is possible to... Read more...
The TPA and Global Vision have just held a great protest to publicise the findings of our new report on the disaster that has been the EU's Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). Under the slogan "For cod's sake, stop the EU fish disaster!" TPA supporters joined with famous botanist and environmental... Read more...
This week’s non-job handed into us by a supporter comes from Sandwell Council: “Director of Strategy & Community Engagement£66,765 You will provide strategic and creative leadership on business planning, policy development and research and lead on a range of areas critical to the delivery of a holistic regeneration... Read more...
The European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) has been a complete mess (Open Europe, PDF) since it was created in 2005. While it has cost NHS hospitals a fortune oil companies have made profits out of the scheme. Countries were allowed to set their own limits and then sell any spare credits, most... Read more...
During Terry Leahy's time at Tesco, it has done extraordinarily well. Yesterday, in the Telegraph, he wrote a powerful case for the market and competition: "Competition has, as Adam Smith observed, converted "the private interests of and passions of men" into consequences "most agreeable to the interests of the... Read more...
The Government have announced plans to assist the British car industry, the Times reports that car chiefs say they need more. Unfortunately, not so long ago they were announcing plans to put in place crippling new taxes on already overtaxed motorists, particularly on the owners of larger cars. Those larger cars are... Read more...
This news, reported in the Times, is a complete indictment of the Keynesian stimulus Alistair Darling unveiled at the Pre-Budget Report. It also highlights the huge costs of ruinous policy choices in the last decade - from high corporate taxes to regulations that make energy more expensive - that have hurt other industries and left Britain overly reliant on... Read more...
Here's the Arts Council statement, courtesy of The Stirrer website: The National Council of Arts Council England met yesterday (27 January 2009) to consider a request for additional funding for the Public Gallery Ltd and The Public building. After lengthy consideration of a business plan and independent assessments of... Read more...