The Guardian are still allowing Jeremy Leggett space to lobby on behalf of his industry - those renewable companies making big profits on the back of the Renewables Obligation that pushes up energy prices. His new article is about peak oil. First, he accuses oil firms of profiteering because... Read more...
Today the Financial Times reports on the poor performance of the Renewables Obligation in encouraging wind farms: "The amount of new wind capacity added in 2007 was less than three-quarters of that built the year before." This is despite subsidies that make wind farms massively profitable: "Under the current regime,... Read more...
Here is something for our Kent supporters from Dr. Sean Gabb who has passed on this interesting opportunity from Kent. The "Kent on Sunday" newspaper has arranged a question and answer session with Gordon Brown. Apparently, Mr Brown has promised to answer any questions the people of Kent may... Read more...
The Healthcare Commission have today released a study (PDF) summarising some of the lessons they've learned from studying failing NHS Trusts. There are three broad themes that should be of interest to anyone trying to learn policy lessons from the study: 1) Management weaknesses "We have found that the... Read more...
You can never write enough letters as a TPA activist. Our goal is to make a majority of taxpayers in this country support lower taxes, so it’s up to you to help us focus local and national political debates on our issues. Letters to newspapers, be they on local or... Read more...
The TaxPayers’ Alliance today welcomed the decision by South Norfolk District Council to freeze its Council Tax for the coming year. This should hopefully set a precedent for future councils in Norfolk to follow South Norfolk’s lead and work to trim budgets, make efficiency savings and cut taxes. As... Read more...
A new video from the CATO Institute in Washington gives an excellent explanation of the Laffer Curve, which showed that, in certain circumstances, cuts in tax rates could increase tax revenue. You can watch the video here. Read more...
ConservativeHome's ongoing campaign to persuade the Conservative Party to abandon promises to match the Government's spending plans should be applauded. The Sun today has it absolutely right on the Tory position: "TORIES blame Gordon Brown for digging a £9bn “black hole” in public finances. Every family in Britain will have... Read more...
A West Midlands TaxPayers’ Alliance supporter sent over this report detailing just how high a proportion of tax drivers are paying at the petrol pump: Tax details should be on fuel receipts THE Freight Transport Association says that customers buying petrol or diesel should be told just how... Read more...
How many times have you been told by government to ‘go green’? You must walk to work, take public transport (especially on subsidised Venezuelan oil) and recycle. Such is the self-imposed need to lecture us taxpayers to go green that government has spawned yet another taxpayer-funded industry, this time in... Read more...
Average local authority employs nine times as many people on £50,000-plus packages as ten years ago, an increase three times larger than growth in the wider economy. Average local authority spends £4 million on employing people earning over £50,000. The total bill is almost £2 billion - almost £1 in... Read more...
Wolverhampton City Council are allowing themselves to be dragged into the realms of expensive lunacy as they continue to seek the prosecution of a woman who they claim threw an apple core out of a car window. The 26 year-old mother-of-three, Kate Badger, who works as a promotions girl... Read more...
We've taken a closer look at the Office for National Statistics' new analysis of NHS productivity (first blogged here yesterday by Matt Sinclair). The Big Picture is that since Labour turned on the spending taps, value for money has collapsed. In the most recent five years studied (2001-2006), spending... Read more...
Fears are growing amongst the West Midlands business community as their East Midlands counterparts are facing a Workplace Parking Levy (WPL) on their private staff car parks in Nottingham. The tax, being introduced by Nottingham City Council on business car parks with 11 spaces or more, amounts to a... Read more...
From the Financial Times: “This is the fifth minister in this role in less than three years. The constant changing of faces and portfolios has been unhelpful to building a long-term dialogue, so it is important that we now see a period of stability,” said Lucy Findlay, head of enterprise... Read more...
The picture emerging from today's report (PDF) on health service productivity, by the Office for National Statistics, is stark: "From 2001 to 2005, productivity fell, as high growth in health care was lower than even higher growth in inputs. Even with the available adjustments for quality change in output, productivity... Read more...
Why can't politicians be trusted... Because they don’t trust you! Such is the image Simon Milton, head of the Local Government Association, gives off today. He’s paraphrased in Peter Riddell’s article in the Times this morning arguing against direct democracy and localised public services because voters could get... Read more...
This is a really tragic case. Colette Mills has not lost her case in the legal fight to be able to buy the drug Avastin - that could have doubled the chance of her breast cancer not spreading - without the NHS cutting off support for the rest of her... Read more...
The European Central Bank has, today, released a new study "Government size, composition, volatility and economic growth" (PDF) which examines the effect of big government on the rate of economic growth. It finds a substantial effect: "In particular, a percentage point increase in the share of total revenue (total expenditure)... Read more...
South West Surrey TPA Organiser and STAG Chairman Peter Webb led a delegation of taxpayers to Surrey County Hall last week to call for a freeze in Council Tax. This had been the first consultation a TaxPayers’ Alliance Branch has been invited to, however it had been the 4th for... Read more...
Over the last year the poor quality of housing provided for those in the forces, and the snails pace of improvements, has been an ongoing scandal. There are persistent worries about equipment shortages - over the weekend we heard that only one third of the helicopters vital to operations in... Read more...
No good comes of too much suckling “The kind of open-ended breastfeeding of a private institution that goes on at the moment is the worst of all possible worlds.” (para 198) Thus Professor Willem Buiter explained to the Treasury Select Committee how the hopeless... Read more...
Here in the UK we are all familiar with the way that Government departments, quangos, health trusts, Health and Safety bureaucrats and numerous others spend large amounts of money propagandising and heckling the public about various kinds of behaviour. From anti-smoking ads and the new campaigns... Read more...
Ministers have challenged Birmingham City Council, claiming that they could significantly cut council tax by making further efficiency savings. Today’s Birmingham Post reports that Local Government Minister John Healey has claimed that the authority could save as much as £26.7million a year, chopping the Band D bill by £92... Read more...