An unusual event, today - good news from local government about council tax. The London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham have announced that for the third year running they will be cutting council tax by 3%. Congratulations from the TPA! Let's take a second to think about the true magnitude... Read more...
...they still can't resist nannying us. Reflecting on the PBR, it's interesting that despite all of Alistair Darling's rhetoric about how seriously he was taking this crisis and how important the VAT cut will be to business and consumers, the Government's nanny state instincts still won out when it came to tax on cigarettes,... Read more...
It's hard enough at the moment to get into the job market, let alone to progress up the ladder. My folks always told me: if you work hard and want to succeed, you'll get your rewards. Turns out, that's not always the case. In yesterday's Pre Budget Report, Alistair Darling announced measures that will not... Read more...
Shocking new figures from the TaxPayers' Alliance reveal that the borrowing plans announced in yesterday's Pre-Budget Report will run up double the debt that Britain incurred winning the First World War. Total Debt increase 1914 - 1919 (2007 value): £255,106,544,018 Total Debt planned 2008/09 - 2013/14 (PBR): £512,000,000,000 (For full... Read more...
One positive from yesterday's Pre-Budget report was the delaying of the unfair retrospective rise in Vehicle Excise Duty. The campaign the TPA spearheaded against the rising car tax has - for 2009/10 at least - saved motorists £465 million. This is a great success for the TPA and for all... Read more...
Few people outside Islington will have heard of Cllr. Andrew Cornwell, the now former cabinet member for finance on Islington council. But they should do, for here we have a councillor resigning his cabinet post because of a council’s “waste, inefficiency, spending on refreshments, conference venues, travel costs and consultants”. ... Read more...
TPA supporter Ian Taylor, a champion for giving us news on council waste, has come up with another shocking story of a Kent council using taxpayers’ money for lavish lunches. This time Canterbury City Council’s Lord Mayor has entertained 11 council worthies and the Archbishop of Canterbury. The news is... Read more...
This short briefing sets out how, even accounting for RPI inflation, the borrowing needed to win the First World War was just half the amount that was set out for the years following the 2008 Pre-Budget Report. Read more...
A man who called the police after a gang of youths overturned his girlfriends car was told to ‘ring the AA’ according to a report in today’s Express & Star. Simon White called his local station in Bloxwich after initially calling 999, but was referred to the breakdown recovery service... Read more...
On Saturday I went to the Bruges Group conference to give a speech entitled ‘big government is bad government’. When the video is uploaded this week I’ll put it on the site so you can have a look. Importantly, it was a timely conference looking at the costs of the... Read more...
Details of 387 public sector employees earning over £150,000 194 public sector employees earn more than the Prime Minister 4 people on the public payroll earned more than £1m last year Senior executives enjoyed an average remuneration increase of 10.9% from 2006-07 to 2007-08 Now in its third edition, the... Read more...
As the economic crisis tightens its grip on the budgets of individuals, families and national governments, the TaxPayers' Alliance (TPA) publishes the first comprehensive analysis of the inept regulation and poor policies that sowed the seeds for the current recession and made Britain particularly vulnerable to its effects. The report's... Read more...
Thanks to the digging of Conservative MP Grant Shapps, we can all rest assured that the government is completely failing to improve its ability to safeguard our personal information. It has been reported that over the past year, a total of 53 laptop computers as well as disk drives, memory... Read more...
The Financial Times reported, earlier this week, on the news that the Ministry of Defence is set to cut down on long term procurement projects, in favour of getting equipment needed right now to the troops on the front line. Such a shift has, in itself, some logic to it.... Read more...
The Telegraph report that Cancer Research UK have compared survival rates in the UK and other European countries and found that 6,500 lives could if levels in Britain matched the European average, 11,000 if rates here matched the best on the Continent. There is no such thing as an uncontroversial... Read more...
An interesting report by the think tank Reform, published today, presents a compelling argument about where the British economy is today, what the Government should not do, and the longer term reforms that are needed for sustained growth in the future. Now, the report argues, is the ideal time to... Read more...
Browsing through the Guardian’s job pages this week, I came across this advert. The job itself didn’t merit the title of ‘non-job of the week’, I mean, if it’s a choice between equality officers and lawyers, the decision is tough but lawyers have a use after all. But take... Read more...
Anyone would think that our local councils were trying to off-load as much cash as possible at the moment, and two stories in the regional press today serve to demonstrate exactly why the WMTPA has such a strong presence in the area. The Birmingham Post has reported that Birmingham... Read more...
Yesterday, supporters from the Staffordshire Moorlands congregated in a rather drizzly Leek for another TPA Action Day spent collecting signatures for a petition to cut local council tax and speaking to market goers about the benefits of tax cuts. Leek might only be a small town, but in just one... Read more...
The tragic case of Baby P presents us with a rare glimpse into the structures which are supposed to protect our children. In fact the case tells us something fundamental about today's government in general. Yesterday, beginning a series of new child welfare initiatives, Ed Balls (Secretary of State... Read more...
More jobs lost in the private sector this week and the government keeps on recruiting with 686 for you to choose from. If you’re still guessing where Gordon’s borrowing has gone, look no further than our non-job of the week: “Equality Officer£26,835 - £28,919 Can you help us... Read more...
Great news for taxpayers. The Conservatives have dropped their commitment to match Labour's spending plans. This is a good idea for a huge range of reasons but here are a few of the key ones: Over the last ten years British taxpayers have been ripped off. We wrote about... Read more...
Well done to TPA supporter Roger Baker! He’s scored a double hit on over-spending Suffolk county council. When we went all out to highlight and expose the £220,000 salary Andrea Hill picked up as the new chief executive of the council, the lackeys retorted that it was essential to get... Read more...
Given the Government's appalling record of data loss, leaks and IT incompetence, it is understandable that large numbers of people are suspicious of the NHS database. The latest news on the project is hardly reassuring, either. It turns out we won't have to rely on incompetence or human error to... Read more...