Quangocrat alert! Quangocrat alert! Yes, the non-job of the week has yet another six-figure taxpayer-funded salary, one of the 700+ jobs in government on offer this week. Here you can read our non-job of the week from Leicester City Council: “Chief Executive, Economic Development CompanyThe post up to £124k... Read more...
New poll: Public want tax cuts and no more green taxes New research: Average family faces £668,000 lifetime tax bill - up 6% - and poor families suffer 13% tax rise The TaxPayers' Alliance (TPA) today publishes stark new polling and research evidence that, with the credit crunch... Read more...
This week the regional and national media pounced on a story that truly reflects the reckless and inappropriate attitude of some of the people who have access to public money. According to yesterday’s The Sentinel, at a time when many people are having to forsake family holidays and trips... Read more...
At the Conservative and Labour conferences I spoke at events on the subject of food miles. The idea that consumers should pay great attention to the distance food has travelled from the producer to their plate. Food miles are one of those concepts that can sound important to some politicians... Read more...
George Osborne’s policy commitment to freeze Council Tax for two years is welcome. It’s a start, in the very least, to reducing Council Tax for Britain’s families. Yet in the Evening Standard yesterday, a chain-gang of councils marched out to reject any Council Tax freeze, claiming it would lead to... Read more...
There is always a huge amount going at the party conferences, and this year's Tory conference in Birmingham (where I'm blogging from) is no different. Certainly for the TPA we've had a whirlwind of leafleting, networking and promoting the tax cuts message. In between the main conference events and... Read more...
The TaxPayers' Alliance (TPA) welcomed George Osborne's plans fora council tax freeze, and invited the Shadow Chancellor to take up theTPA's numerous proposals on how savings can be made. Matthew Elliott Chief Executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: ... Read more...
Sometimes you get the impression that some people have got so used to wasting other people's money that they can't see anything else it could be used for. An irate letter in yesterday's Middlesbourgh Evening Gazette from Cllr David McLuckie, Chairman of the Cleveland Police Authority, is a case in... Read more...
In this, the middle of conference season, the TaxPayers’ Alliance has already made appearances at the UKIP Party Conference and the Labour Party Conference. They will be stirring up the dust again this coming week with several speaking engagements at the Conservative Party Conference. With this much on the schedule,... Read more...
TPA supporter Ian Taylor has handed me a couple of press clippings exposing an incredibly blasé attitude to taxpayers' money from Shepway Council leaders. They recently spent £2,000 of taxpayers money on a civic lunch for Council dignitaries, businessmen and 100 Mayors at ‘The Grand Hotel’ (how fitting) – enough... Read more...
The Uttoxeter Advertiser today reported on a leaked email that revealed the level of squabbling and in-fighting at Uttoxeter Town Council. In the email town clerk Barry Holland said that he felt a full council meeting two weeks ago represented the ‘death of democracy’ at the authority, with “certain... Read more...
TPA supporter Michael van Clarke gives his view on the credit crunch: Few people seem to fully appreciate the catastrophic damage 12 years of Gordon Brown have wreaked on our society. By 2010 Gordon’s debt bombshell will put the total UK housing market in negative equity. The Broken... Read more...
British taxpayers are in serious jeopardy of a once-in-one-thousand-year stuffing. With Mr Brown in Washington to discuss the crisis with President Bush this very day, the Simple Shopper - the same Shopper who can't even be trusted to buy Post-It notes - is now lining himself up to buy a... Read more...
The Aldersgate Group - a coalition of some green groups, quangos and a smattering of MPs and businesses - are circulating an open letter to Gordon Brown calling for the rapid introduction of mandatory carbon reporting. Their press release can be found here (DOC). This misguided and burdensome regulation... Read more...
Not a good place for serious debate Last night your correspondent gave up on the BBC hysteria of Mssrs Webb and Peston, and instead surfed the US News channels. He wanted to find out what's really going on with US Treasury Secretary Paulson's $700bn TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program). Unfortunately,... Read more...
He forgot to mention this one Yesterday, the Prime Minister listed the key achievements of the Labour government. Well, he actually told us how Britain would have suffered had the Tories remained in power: "No paternity leave, no New Deal, no bank of England independence, no Sure Start, no devolution,... Read more...
The Birmingham Post reports today that the latest Cushman & Wakefield UK cities monitor has Birmingham remaining in third position, behind London and Manchester, in this list of the best places to locate a business. Out of the fourteen categories used for assessment, the city slipped back in six,... Read more...
With over 800 jobs in government this week, who says there’s an economic crisis? There certainly doesn’t seem to be one in government funding. As you can see on the right, there are more than enough jobs on offer for government to subsidise and pay whomping great salaries for. Add... Read more...
In these troubled economic times everyone feels the pinch. Most of us will consider ourbudgets more carefully and think twice about our spending. Channel 4 it seems is no different. Hit by falling advertising revenues, Andy Duncun - the channel's Chief Executive - told press yesterday that "our objective... Read more...
The Guardian reports on yet another disastrous Government IT project, via Tim Worstall: "Ministers have admitted that nearly 200,000 school and college students are still waiting for study grants three weeks into term following the collapse of a new software system. The Department for Children, Schools and Families said there... Read more...
A few weeks ago a furore broke out over the Camden Councillor who moved to Arizona to study for a PhD. Due to the outrage that he was still pocketing a £700 a month allowance, he’s subsequently tendered his resignation to the Council. Consider that taxpayers one, councillors aboard the... Read more...
Charting a crisis So once again, it's taxpayers to the rescue. The bill will be big and will have several chunky elements: Debt - governments are taking on a stack of debt from floundering banks; in the US the transfer is adding hundreds of billions to taxpayer debt; here in... Read more...
Anyone reading the Express this morning is more than likely to choke on their cornflakes at the sight of the £900 extra we’ll have to pay in tax to cover Brown’s impending borrowing and spending spree. Trying to buy his way out of trouble, Brown is heading for another... Read more...
Yesterday, some of the Worcester TaxPayers’ Alliance took to the streets of the historic city to petition all councils in the Worcestershire area for a council tax cuts in 2009. Read more...