FULL LIST OF THE 818 COUNCIL EMPLOYEES EARNING OVER £100,000 PUBLISHED INDIVIDUAL DETAILS OF NAMES, JOBS AND FULL REMUNERATION PACKAGES FOR SENIOR OFFICIALS AT HUNDREDS OF COUNCILS Download the full report (PDF, 1.3MB) The TaxPayers' Alliance presents the second annual Town Hall Rich List, which reveals details... Read more...
Some fascinating statistics from Michael Gove MP setting out how too many children are let down by our education system: Click here (PDF) for a larger version. Politicians have proved unable to deliver an effective education system. We need to free education from political control and... Read more...
Apparently (via Tim Worstall) the least competent people are also the least likely to know they are incompetent - they lack self-monitoring skills: "One reason that the ignorant also tend to be the blissfully self-assured, the researchers believe, is that the skills required for competence often are the same skills... Read more...
The Department for Communities and Local Government has issued its ridiculous defence of this year’s Council Tax increases, much along the lines of “it’s the least worst rise in 11 years”, which is as much of a paradox as ‘helpful botulism’ or ‘medicinal anthrax’. You’ll read in today’s and... Read more...
Today the Department of Communities and Local Government will announce Council Tax increases set to land on doormats all over the UK. It’s doubled in ten years and will soar beyond the official inflation figure of 2.5% this year. People are being sent to prison for being unable or refusing... Read more...
A few months ago Mike Denham wondered, on the Burning Our Money blog, whether the new eco-towns would be "The Crap Towns Of Tomorrow". After all, the last generation of government sponsored new towns hardly matched up to the initial, idealistic visions. Even the relatively successful schemes like Harlow are... Read more...
After a three year battle by the redoubtable Heather Brooke of Your Right to Know and a number of other investigative journalists, the Commons authorities have found themselves backed into a bit of a corner over MPs' second home expenses. Sadly it seems the Commission doesn't know when to quit... Read more...
Finance is fantastically profitable... so why are taxpayers bailing it out? Taxpayers on both sides of the Atlantic should be depressed by yesterday's decision by the US authorities to revise their Bear Stearns bail-out terms. Instead of lending JP Morgan $30bn against the collateral of Bear assets, US taxpayers... Read more...
Local Government reform has always been a bit of a minefield. The current patchwork of unitaries, counties, metropolitans, towns and districts, many of which elect councillors at varied and bemusing intervals is testament to the sheer number and poor record of repeated attempts to alter Britain's local governance. It... Read more...
The Telegraph reports that ten hospitals have mortality rates far above the 'expected' level: "The baseline for England is set at 100 and a lower figure indicates fewer patients died than expected, and a higher one means more patients died. The latest Good Hospital Guide, compiled by Dr Foster Research,... Read more...
Some 'Victorian' schools were in pretty good shape The Observer reports that schools aren't being kept in shape: "Schoolchildren are being taught in 'Victorian' conditions in buildings that have leaking roofs, broken windows and slippery floors, according to research by a major teaching union. Almost half of all... Read more...
Hiding away in today’s Metro is an advert for an, all to frequent, non-job - one that’ll leave you with little reason to doubt why the 2012 Olympics is going to be over-budget. Instead of just getting the job done, building the Olympic park and ensuring there’s track to... Read more...
Taxpayers are teetering on the brink of picking up some huge bills to bail out the banks. Somehow we have to make sure it doesn't happen. Read more...
Suffolk County Council is coming under mounting pressure to vote against giving its chief executive a massive £70,000 pay increase. You can read the story here. What’s important is the ruling Tories are starting to recognise the amount of discontent this lavish waste of taxpayers’ money is causing. So... Read more...
From the BBC: "However, specialists say that flying into a foreign city for an operation means that patients are not properly assessed prior to surgery - and not given the right support afterwards. The majority of the 299 people polled by Which? said they were very satisfied with their treatment,... Read more...
When criticising big government, we often use the term “nanny state” to mean the government ordering us around like a nineteenth century nanny. Like all other aspects of government modernisation, even the term “nanny state” has to take new meaning as Islington Council demonstrates this week with our non-job of... Read more...
Each week I hope to be able to bring you a new quango board to illustrate the proliferation of these unelected agencies in our region, and to expose those ‘professional board members’ who are paid for with our money and are increasingly powerful. Read more...
Sandwell Council are at it again. Our supporter drove through the Borough just this morning only to be assaulted by the latest issue from their publicity department. 'Have Your Say!' it proclaims, advertising for Sandwell residents to attend 'Building Schools for the Future' consultations. So where and when are... Read more...
If only we could all manage our tax bills like rich rock stars Did you know that 13% of UK adults face an effective marginal tax rate in excess of 70%? That is, for every additional £1 of income they get, the government will take at least 70p.... Read more...
An excellent article by Tim Montgomerie, editor of ConservativeHome, in the Guardian contains this priceless quote: "The consensus on tax within the political establishment isn't matched by the population at large. The same YouGov poll (pdf) that found strong support for David Cameron's Conservatives found even greater support for tax... Read more...
Buying cheap is the easy bit We've blogged the fantasy Gershon "efficiency" programme many times (see all previous blogs gathered here). As you will recall, this was Brown's 2004 Budget headline to save £20bn pa by improving public sector efficiency by 2007-08. Most of the subsequent "savings"... Read more...
Sandler's the one on the right Given the dire circumstances, Ron Sandler's plan to dismantle Northern Rock is the best taxpayers can expect. He plans to shrink the operation drastically, halving the asset base in three years, repaying the Bank of England loans, and cutting staff by... Read more...
The latest Ipsos-Mori poll on trust in different professions was released yesterday. Once again, politicians do poorly. 76 per cent of the public now don't trust politicians to tell the truth. Surely politicians can't enjoy being trusted significantly less than used car salesmen? If they want to improve things... Read more...
Not a bear to follow What can British taxpayers learn from the Bear's collapse into the arms of JP Morgan? First, let's note the similarity with our own Crock. Here was a bank that was no longer able to borrow from other banks and wholesale lenders,... Read more...