In time for the start of the conference season, the week after next, the TaxPayers' Alliance will be releasing the must-have accessory for all hacks and political junkies - Political Trumps! Every politician has been rated on their media skills, scandal avoidance and integrity by a panel of political... Read more...
Congratulations! If you're a taxpayer you're now effectively the proud owner of Northern Rock's mortgage book.Northern Rock has been a crisis waiting to break. They have been just about the most aggressive mortgage lender: they have been lending at very high income multiples, and they have been prepared to top... Read more...
From this morning’s Metro newspaper: “Two white councillors have hit out after being excluded from a meeting because of their colour. Peter Golds and Stephanie Eaton said they were outraged at not being asked to take part in the focus group at Tower Hamlets Council in East London.... Read more...
The TPA has today scored a success in Norwich. The Norwich Evening News has printed a selection of our ‘rapid reaction’ letters to the news fed to us by TPA activist Barbara Lockwood. We thought it disgraceful that Norwich City Council spent over £300,000 of taxpayers’ money in a... Read more...
Whilst Stoke-On-Trent Council advertise for a £75,000-per-year spin doctor as reported in last week’s The Sentinel, Staffordshire County Council now continue the theme with two advertised posts of dubious value. A council run children’s centre in Burton wants a ‘Community Link Worker (Fathers)’ (£15,459 - £17,985) to help fathers... Read more...
This document sets out the problems with the "Blueprint for a Green Economy: Submission to the Shadow Cabinet" report of the Conservative Quality of Life Policy Group. It details how the report is based upon highly suspect assumptions and proposes increased taxes, increased regulation, new quangos, a curb to vital... Read more...
Is this what you want? Bosses need proper beds I hate to break this to you, but the NHS has a serious problem: there aren't enough beds to go round.As you know, the NHS aims to provide one bed for each of its administrators. That way, even when they all... Read more...
TPA supporter Richard Jones has let us know of some political-correctness-gone-mad down in Cornwall. Local resident Denis Lusby had been publishing a community magazine with news and the odd smattering of humour until the local (*drumroll*) ‘head of equality and diversity’ at Cornwall County Council urged local schools to boycott... Read more...
"Only" £100m... but hardly a snip An excellent new paper today from the IEA. It's called They Meant Well, Government Project Disasters, by Prof David Myddelton.We've not read it in detail yet, but Prof Myddelton has looked at six great disasters from the last 100 years: The R.101 airship (1922... Read more...
A TPA activist has alerted us to this shocking example of government waste inBasildon Council: "Inclusion & Diversity Manager To £43,233 plus PRP (subject to review) Ahands-on, determined manager is now required with a real understanding of the complex legislation and issues associated with equality and diversity. You will... Read more...
Last week Tower Shamlets council was exposed by the Centre for Social Cohesion for stocking its PUBLIC libraries with Islamic fundamentalist literature. Not only was taxpayer’s money spent on books by Abu Hamza, the convicted fundamentalist, but that there were disproportionately more fundamentalist texts than moderate books. So you’ve got... Read more...
Most of us know very little about high-tech ‘virtual world’ gaming, so it might come as a surprise that the local taxpayer-funded Regional Development Agency - Advantage West Midlands – has poured £3.3million into funding ‘The Serious Games Institute’ at Coventry University. The Birmingham Post reports today that the... Read more...
Spending now up to EU average... but results are not The highly respected King's Fund have just published Sir Derek Wanless's new NHS report. The media reaction hardly does it justice- it's a real shocker. The bald facts are these. Since his first report in 2002, total NHS spending has... Read more...
Our tax code is getting smaller. Well, sort of. The BBC reports that Tolley's Yellow Tax Handbook, the complete guide to UK tax law, is going to be printed in a smaller font. Back in 2001 the tax code 5,942 pages long. Oh how struggling small businesses must look... Read more...
TPA Activist Barbara Lockwood, who also runs her local campaign ‘Folk Against Council Tax’, has sent us a story about Norwich City and Norfolk County Council’s waste of half a million pounds over a battle to change Norwich City council to unitary status. Read more...
Waste Watch on defence spending Today's PAC report on defence procurement reminds us just how poor the MOD is at managing its budgets. As we've blogged before, its 20 largest weapons projects - including the MRA4 Nimrod, the Type 45 destroyer, and the Astute class sub - are running... Read more...
Informed sources think that something along the lines of the New Economics Foundation’s Happy Planet Index is going to be recommended in the Conservative Quality of Life group report this Thursday. The purpose of the Happy Planet Index is to create a measure that captures a society’s ability to... Read more...
The conference season started in a predictable fashion yesterday when Brendan Barber, General Secretary of the TUC, claimed that the “super-rich” should pay more tax. In particular, he pointed to the non-domicile loop-hole as an effective tax break worth £4 billion a year, whose closing would generate revenue to tackle... Read more...
Inconveniences, more like In the news this week: £15,000 flushed down pan- " THOUSANDS of pounds have been flushed down the pan refurbishing public toilets, residents have complained. The loos at The Cross in Royston were closed for more than a month in the summer while £15,000 of maintenance work... Read more...
Major landscape poll finds strong shift in public attitudes towards tax Council Tax is second biggest financial worry for UK families after rising utility bills Big majority think last ten years of higher public spending has been used badly 63% think Ministers lack... Read more...
Ian Johnston, the president of the Police Superintendents Association, is denouncing Whitehall crime-fighting targets as a "shambles": "He maintains that performance targets set inWhitehall are preventing senior officers from giving the public thepolicing they want. They have no credibility within the police and do nothing to improve the public's perception... Read more...
From the Telegraph today: "Almost every comprehensive in England has been turnedinto a "specialist school" - receiving thousands of pounds in extramoney every year to champion particular subjects. Under the scheme, schools specialise in technology, art, sport, languages, business, maths or science. Buta study by academics at Cambridge and Staffordshire... Read more...
Three cheers to our Liverpool Organiser Veronica Hind. She managed to get a letter in the Liverpool Daily Post speaking out in favour of our report into University non-courses. For your interest it is reprinted here: "Letter: You say - What a waste Veronica Hind 6 September 2007Liverpool Echo... Read more...