Financial engineers sort out Northern Rock The government likes to pretend the Crock rescue won't cost taxpayers a bean. Thus yesterday, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Yvette Cooper, toured the studios (eg here) telling us that the government guarantees given to Northern Rock "have not been called... Read more...
This Thursday will see Bournemouth Council vote on its pay increases we detail here. Since last Thursday we’ve been lobbying hard for the full council to reconsider this plan and we have to keep up the pressure. How can it be right that a council loses a star rating from... Read more...
Northern Rock's assets should be run down gradually, maximising value to taxpayers and minimising the scale of the potential loss. That much is clear. In this scenario, jobs at Northern Rock will have to be shed.The Government has instead decided to try to keep Northern Rock going as a profitable... Read more...
The Government offered every inducement to private sector bidders for Northern Rock. It offered a heads you win, tails we lose deal whereby the taxpayer would foot the bill if things went wrong at the bank but a new owner could walk away with big profits if things turned around... Read more...
There's been a lot of coverage given to the latest proposal from "public health expert" and Chairman of Health England Professor Julian Le Grand, namely that the smoking ban has not gone far enough and smokers should have to buy a licence to purchase tobacco in future. Even if... Read more...
Dudley Council has been exposed for spending £110,000 per-year on bottled water. The report in today’s Express and Star comes ahead of tonight’s BBC Panorama programme, naming them as one of the worst culprits.Dudley Council are now disputing the figures despite the fact they were obtained through the Freedom of... Read more...
Dear TPA supporters, Thank you to all those who lobbied Bournemouth’s councillors this past weekend over their pay deal that would see their salaries rise by 17%, the cabinet by 32% and the leader by 34%. This pay deal comes after Bournemouth council dropped a star to a 2... Read more...
In his speech to Policy Exchange on Friday, George Osborne said: Read more...
Over here Chancellor Now that our dithering "government" has finally pulled the trigger on nationalising Northern Rock, taxpayers are formally and irrevocably on the hook for up to £110bn (we don't know how much because we haven't seen any proper accounts for months). For taxpayers, there are... Read more...
...may well be HM Revenue and Customs, now that the Serious Crime Act has come into power, giving HMRC "across the board" powers to listen in on phone calls, intercept emails and letters and bug homes and cars. Powers that were previously only granted for investigating drug and firearms offences... Read more...
Two stories today, both from the Telegraph. First, we are a 'soft touch for terrorists' because of a failure to tackle unintegrated immigrant communities: "Britain has become a "soft touch" for home grown terrorists because ministers have failed to tackle immigrant communities that refuse to integrate, warns a report released... Read more...
The British economic downturn did not start with the fallout of the credit crunch. The foundation was laid in 1997, when Labour took power and started to carry out its ambitious programme. The economic growth between 1992 and 1995 was very high. Since 1997 economic growth has never again... Read more...
Tip of the iceberg We've updated BOM's estimate of the Real National Debt. That's the total debt taxpayers are actually committed to paying, as opposed to the much smaller figure Brown admits to in the official statistics. But before we start, and just for fun, let's remind... Read more...
Sometimes it's a wonder anyone bothers to vote these days. Why can't politicians stand up for what they believe in, and give it to us straight? A classic example of this is today's FT report on George Osborne's speech later today on the principles of tax reform. Mr Osborne... Read more...
Today's FT reports: UK companies face having to add billions of pounds to their pensions liabilities under plans to be unveiled by the regulator to force them to use more realistic projections of how long workers will live after they retire. The standard the Pensions Regulator is to propose next... Read more...
Another example of ludicrous managerial incompetence. Why on Earth should we trust these people with children's education, our healthcare and our money? "Bungling Whitehall officials got their Newcastles mixed up and gave £2.7 million meant for the North East city to its namesake in the Potteries. Newcastle-under-Lyme, population 74,000, was... Read more...
This time it is the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics arguing that the middle class are securing all the best school places. Is it just me or have there been a lot of these studies? There seems to be one almost every fortnight. They... Read more...
Who reading this can say they’ve had a 34% pay increase this year, or could expect one next year? If you’re the leader of Bournemouth Council, you can because you just voted for it. The decision by Bournemouth Council’s cabinet to increase their pay takes the leader’s salary to £36,000... Read more...
How hard can it be? By any normal standards it beggars belief: following the classic schoolboy geography howler the hopeless Department for Communities and Local Government has given a £2.7m grant intended for Newcastle on Tyne to Newcastle-under-Lyne instead. The two being a mere 186 miles apart. ... Read more...
Today’s The Sentinel revealed a big central Government blunder that saw Newcastle-Under-Lyme Borough Council receiving the grant meant for Newcastle-Upon-Tyne! Newcastle-Under-Lyme, with a population of just 73,944 compared to the larger city’s 259,536, received a whopping £2.5million grant and seemingly didn’t question it despite the fact it should have... Read more...
Today’s non-job of the week is a tale of two job adverts. The first is our non-job of the week, yet another example of misused and misplaced scarce resources. The next is a job within a charity which you will read about later. But first, reading these non-jobs every... Read more...
"Schoolchildren will be taken to the opera and theatre under plans to offer all teenagers at least five hours of culture a week." Whether or not an hour of culture a week, as proposed by Andy Burnham and Ed Balls, is really a good idea for students is a question... Read more...
Peter Franklin argues against the dynamic case for tax cuts, suggesting that if there is a Laffer Curve we are on the wrong side of it to get increased revenue when we cut taxes. What needs to be remembered about the Laffer Curve is that it is an abstraction... Read more...
You may recall that back in December we singled out publicity budgets as one area of council spending packed with savings just waiting to be made. The average council spends almost £1 million on publicity, with huge amounts going on local newspaper adverts and those glossy propaganda newsletters that everyone... Read more...