It appears that our Action Day in Leek really made an impact! Not only have we signed up some new activists as a consequence, we’ve also won some support from contributors to the local paper, the Leek Post & Times. First the day was reported with a great photo... Read more...
On Saturday I was down in Bristol to launch the Bristol branch of the TaxPayers’ Alliance which, for the time being, will also cover the South West. They will be looking closely at waste, non-jobs and mismanagement at Bristol council. One of our recent non-jobs came from Bristol where the... Read more...
Below you can read Peter Webb's November campaign diary on behalf of the Surrey branch of the TPA: CAMPAIGN DIARY - November 2008 5th: Meeting by invitation with County LibDems Chris Slyfield and Hazel Watson (Group Leader). I introduced our beliefs and purpose and offered agenda for meeting... Read more...
Yesterday I went to the Manchester’s Trafford Centre on behalf of the TPA to support the Stop the Charge campaign and to encourage Christmas shoppers in Manchester to vote ‘No’ in the congestion charge referendum. Along with Peter Roberts, Chief Executive of the Drivers’ Alliance, we manned a prominent... Read more...
On Wednesday, I asked if police could raid an Opposition front bencher's office, what hope is there for the rest of us? Very little, it seems - as illustrated by this alarming statistic from Fraser Nelson's latest piece in the Spectator: ...partly thanks to MPs’ failure to check the... Read more...
The Centre for Social Cohesion have produced an interesting rebuttal to a controversial report about campus radicalism today. Dr June Edmunds, a Cambridge academic, has produced a report saying that the Government's view of Islamist extremism on University campuses is exagerrated. The only problem is, she based her conclusion on... Read more...
Greater Manchester is currently holding a referendum on the proposed congestion charge. The TaxPayers’ Alliance has been actively campaigning against the new charge for some time. Now, Stockport council (one of the councils in the Greater Manchester area) is running a campaign encouraging people to challenge the plan, arguing that... Read more...
We should all congratulate Ian Taylor in Kent on his opinion piece in this week’s Saturday Kentish Observer, which you can see below (click to enlarge). Ian’s strategy is a simple one – he keep writing. Taking our reports, which we send round in our bulletins, he makes... Read more...
This week’s non-job comes from Newham council in London: "Parliamentary and Public Affairs OfficerAvailable at Grade PO4, salary £35,841 - £38,463 With experience of delivering parliamentary and public affairs projects/programmes, you’ll be used to lobbying senior politicians and officers to effect change. Naturally, you’ll be adept at negotiating... Read more...
The Speaker's statement today about the raiding of Damian Green MP's office by police contained some truly shocking revelations. Uppermost is the fact that apparently the Met anti-terrorism officers involved did not even have a warrant to search the office, and that they failed to fulfil their legal obligation to... Read more...
...it would look pretty different to what we have heard today. There was a fascinating programme on the radio last night (listen again here) about the problem of there simply being too much legislation. It's certainly the case that the statute book, the list of criminal offences and the... Read more...
It is always great to see unhinged enthusiasts for the nanny state being confronted by someone in charge of the facts. The Association of Chief Police Officers told the Transport Select Committee: "Production machines are readily available for use on our roads with top speeds in excess of 200mph.... Read more...
Another video on tax havens from the Centre for Freedom and Prosperity: Read more...
According to today’s Express & Star, Wolverhampton City Primary Care Trust will be recruiting 25 lifestyle coaches at a cost of £700,000 in an effort to get smokers, drinkers and the overweight to kick their bad habits. These “lifestyle trainers” will be lurking around Wolverhampton in gyms, leisure centres,... Read more...
Everybody is appalled by the death of Baby P, but we need to understand that the implications go far beyond Haringey. According to Children's Secretary Balls: "When I met with the Chief Inspector, she told me that in her judgement the failings in management, oversight and practice identified by the... Read more...
Who knows what Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, and Peter Mandelson were thinking when he decided to take up lobbying for Britain to join the Euro again. As well as being politically insane, it would be economically foolish to join the Single Currency. Mr Barroso's comments, though, contain a... Read more...
The Sentinel paper in Staffordshire has reported today that no less than £147,000 has been spent on just four ‘luxury modern bus stops’ for Burslem in Stoke in a move to regenerate the area with central Government funding. The bus stops, which were unveiled at the Christmas lights switch-on this... Read more...
Dear all, After two very energetic and enjoyable years, I am now moving on from the TPA. It has been an incredible experience working for such a dynamic campaign, and it has been very pleasing to play a part in the organisation’s rapid growth. We are now at a stage... Read more...
Not quite as advertised Remember all those official assurances about how our £100bn would be safe with the Crock? The huge deluge of "comfort" from our rulers and betters that the guarantees would cost us nothing?No?Well, here's a reminder (and see all previous Crock blogs gathered here): FSA - "We... Read more...
Wolverhampton City Council are trying to make cuts to the tune of £41million in order to make up the gaping deficit in its finances. This translates to at least 150 council jobs, but the tone of an article published in today’s Express & Star suggests that frontline services will suffer.... Read more...
It will be a strange week when someone other than the Government finds that education in Britain is improving. Report and after report brings researchers to the same conclusions: standards in education are collapsing, today's children are poorly prepared for later life, and that ultimately the British education system is... Read more...
British politicians could do worse than take a leaf out of the Canadian Government's book this week, who are apparently going to abolish taxpayer-funded subsidies for political parties (Hat-tip to ConHome).There are few things less edifying than the sight of political parties which have failed to inspire the public to donate... Read more...
The Financial Times reports that the BBC is currently in talks to buy Woolworths' share of a joint venture the two organisations set up in order to publish BBC DVDs. This deal is a reminder of how far the BBC has come from its core objective of producing quality programmes... Read more...
I loathe the smell of burning money in the morning. All that borrowing, going straight into the fire of local government bureaucracy. MFI may go broke this week, costing thousands of jobs, but there’s 575 new jobs in government, all paid for by the taxpayer. Our non-job this week comes... Read more...