Barbara Lockwood, a longstanding TPA campaigner and Council Tax protester, was in court yesterday charged with non-payment of half her Council Tax bill. Barbara maintains that her Council Tax has soared well above her ability to pay and as a result she’ll only pay for what she is getting from... Read more...
A lesson in how grand government schemes almost invariably fail to produce the desired results may once again have to be painfully learned. That's the conclusion of a new report by Ned Cazalet, an independent life assurance analyst, with, according to the FT, "a record of correctly forecasting industry trends".... Read more...
For some reason, the TPA seems to end up responding to an abnormally large number of stories about waste or other costly ideas dreamed up by Essex County Council - and today is no exception. I don't know if they're better (or should I say worse?) at thinking up ways... Read more...
Richard Balfe's call for the Conservatives to maintain the Union Modernisation Fund is utter foolishness: "When the Government set up the multimillion-pound modernisation fund three years ago for unions to draw upon, the Tories criticised the fund as a payback to the Labour Party’s main source of funding. But they... Read more...
A worrying story in today's FT reports that the 185 top wealth-creating companies in the UK paid 12 per cent of the added value they created in taxes last year, compared with 6 per cent in Germany and 8 per cent in France and Switzerland. This finding comes from the... Read more...
Despite the fact that today’s Express & Star reports a row of seemingly monumental proportions at Wolverhampton City Council over the utterly piddling matter of what time their monthly scrutiny board meetings take place (should it be at 5pm or 5.30pm? Who cares, get on with the job!), presumably all... Read more...
The Guardian reports that more parents now aspire for their children to go to university: "The proportion of parents who would send their children to a private school if they could afford it has increased by nine percentage points in the past four years, according to research commissioned by independent... Read more...
On the back of Stephen Glover's article in the Daily Mail, Tim Montgomerie at ConservativeHome has an interesting piece about changing the way our politicians interact with the state. He cites Maude's Law, which lays down that good policy is 10% brainwave, 10% idea development and 80% implementation This is... Read more...
I attended Tony Blair’s testimony to the International Development Select Committee this morning. He had come to give a disposition on Gaza as the Quartets representative. I entered the room surrounded by assorted representatives of NGOs such as Oxfam and some self appointed human rights monitors. Not the sort of... Read more...
Jacqui Smith believes jihadists are vulnerable sensitive individuals. Smith believes they need counselling, and that it should be provided by the state. That means you, the taxpayer, will pay for it. This is a continuation of the ‘Islamist as victim’ theme that the Government is prone to indulging. However we... Read more...
Stephen Glover, writing for the Mail, laments the grip of inexperienced politicians on our public services: "The irony is that the professional politician, fixated on power and on a limited but guaranteed financial reward, often turns out not to be a professional at all, but a bumbling amateur who struggles... Read more...
The new, activist-run Worcester TaxPayers’ Alliance have made a splash with their very first story about Worcestershire County Council. The release, about how the county council increased their spending on staff by £44.6M between 1997 and 2007, was the number one headline on this morning’s BBC Radio Hereford &... Read more...
"Poor managers are to be sacked without receiving large payouts and replaced by staff from profit-making companies who would be paid with public money. The NHS will retain ownership of hospital buildings and services but the private firm will "take over" the day to day running of the hospital. Ministers... Read more...
The non-job of the week, from Trafford Council: “Communications and Engagement Officer£33,291 - £35,852 Trafford Council, in Greater Manchester, wants to listen to its communities. Come and help us! We’re looking for an experienced Communications and Engagement Officer to manage the communications unit, based at Trafford Town... Read more...
No avoiding the truth A few days ago, Fujitsu finally decided to walk from the disastrous NHS supercomputer. As BOM readers will recall, fellow main contractor Accenture already walked nearly two years ago. In effect, two major software suppliers have concluded the project can't... Read more...
Still sitting in the shed We've blogged the MOD Chinook fiasco many times. In brief, in 2001 the RAF took delivery of 8 Chinook helicopters at a cost of £259m. But the special purpose bespoke avionics the MOD in its wisdom had ordered were so dysfunctional they couldn't... Read more...
This seems like a pretty good idea to me: If MPs keep giving up powers to Europe they should be paid less So says Peter Lilley MP in a Ten Minute Rule Bill he's presenting to Parliament today. It's true - our Parliament has given the EU control of migration,... Read more...
South West Surrey TPA organiser Peter Webb gives us his branch's update from their May Campaign, including: Mass lobbying of Surrey County Councillors; Attending Councillor meetings to hold them to account; Numerous letters published in the Surrey Advertiser. (See below for a selection of clippings) If... Read more...
The Telegraph reports on a new study by Reform which demonstrates that academic standards in maths have been falling in recent decades: "GCSEs are "considerably" easier than tests sat 50 years ago as questions are simplified to make them more relevant to modern teenagers, it said. Reform, an independent think... Read more...
It’s a great week to be one of the big-wigs at Birmingham City Council or one of its matey quangos as a twenty strong delegation is dispatched to Chicago for the best junket since MIPIM… Less than three months after they sunned themselves in Cannes in the South of... Read more...
There's been a lot of publicity in recent days about Apethorpe Hall (a notable Elizabethan house whose name strongly suggests the resident butler should be a monkey), and English Heritage's forays into property development. Essentially, the Government bought the house with a compulsory purchase order for £3.18 million, English Heritage... Read more...
German businesses have long suffered from high taxes, with the country's payroll tax system among the most burdensome in the world. But, in a novel move, the BDA employers' federation is planning to sue the government to force it to lower rates. From today's FT: "The BDA is targeting the... Read more...
It is reported in the Telegraph today that Conservative MEP Giles Chichester paid almost half-a-million-pounds from his EU expense account in the last ten years to his own family firm. The funds came from his £160,000-a-year staffing allowance paid out to all Members of the European Parliament. In the... Read more...
The European Parliament's commitment to farce continues unabated.The Sunday Times revealed yesterday that a dedicated train service to ferry MEPs from Brussels to Strasbourg will be launched next month, whipping the 732 Euro parliamentarians at high speed between these two centres of EU politics. Each trip will cost the taxpayer... Read more...