The TaxPayers' Alliance - Home

Tuesday February 9

Blogs

4.00pm, Economics 101
Matthew Sinclair
Who cares who owns the port of Dover?

Charlie Elphicke, the Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Dover, has done some great work in the past. He wrote an excellent short report for the CPS last July for example, that showed how under this Government the rich are being paid more benefits and the poor are paying more tax... - Read More

3.40pm, West Midlands
Fiona McEvoy
Stoke "taking the easy option" and spending £8m on consultants

Stoke-on-Trent City Council have come under fire for using £8m-worth of consultants in just a year, with 33 individuals and 52 firms commissioned to provide services at the end of last December according to The Sentinel...  - Read More

10.30am, Burning Our Money
Mike Denham
Charter Cities

As long as anyone can remember, Britain's old industrial heartlands have been a disaster area. Once they'd lost their traditional industries like steel and shipbuilding, something very bad happened to them - they seemed to lose the will to live... - Read More

The Sun: Dunrantin'
Sun Online: Council defend £30k iPad spree
Daily Express: Harman to outlaw the word chairman
Express.co.uk: BBC star pay packets revealed: corporation pays £229M for 'talent'
Daily Mail: Council slammed for plans to spend £30,000 on iPads for councillors ... to save paper
Daily Mail Online: Hate preacher Abu Hamza's £280,000 house seized to pay back legal bill
Telegraph.co.uk: Council plans to spend £30,000 on iPads
Channel 4 News Online: Government reveals Google advertising spend
Police Oracle: Abu Hamza's House Seized
Hindustan Times: Brit hate preacher Abu Hamza's house seized
LittleAbout.com: Brit hate preacher Abu Hamza's house seized
Sindh Today: Brit hate preacher Abu Hamza’s house seized
WebIndia123.com: Brit hate preacher Abu Hamza's house seized

Monday February 8

Blogs

 5.30pm, Economics 101
Matthew Sinclair
Environmental audit committee floor would mean the EU Emissions Trading Scheme costing consumers nearly £17 billion a year

The Guardian reports that the Environmental Audit Committee think the carbon price in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is too low.  The price is currently around €13 /t CO2.  They want there to be a flaw under the price; at a massive €100 /t CO2.  Earlier this year, we released the first comprehensive estimates of the cost of the scheme... - Read More

3.00pm, West Midlands
Trevor Eames
Poor attendance at Birmingham consultation

Trevor Eames of the Solihull Ratepayers' Association gives us the lowdown on the Independent Public Standards Authority public consultation on MPs' expenses in Birmingham, Friday 5th February... - Read More

Daily Star: MPs quit with £30m windfall
Scottish Sun: We're going to pot
Scottish Herald: Strathclyde Police rack up £500,000 in hotel bills
London Evening Standard: Anger at art council head's £431 claim for taxi ride home
Lincolnshire Echo: Police vehicles involved in 760 crashes in three years
Plymouth Herald: Devon chief executive to take five per cent pay cut
ConservativeHome: Local Government: Mark Wallace: Kent CEO payoff "extremely disturbing"
Gulf News: Lawmakers in expenses scandal to get £30m

Over the weekend,

Sunday Times: Arts supremo Dame Liz Forgan takes £431 taxi ride home
News of the World: Greedy plonkers
Mail on Sunday: Now MPs at centre of the expenses scandal get £48,000 golden handshakes
Mail on Sunday: Taxpayers face risk of £2,500 overpayment in Inland Revenue coding fiasco
Bedfordshire on Sunday: Shocked Nadine told by inquiry ‘repay £1,000’
Sunday Mercury: Midlands council bosses spend £500,000 on translators
Guido Fawkes' Blog: Sunday Sleaze
ThisIsMoney.co.uk: 'Millions' face £2,500 tax code fiasco
The Independent: Fury as MPs charged over expenses
Daily Mirror: Four MPs charged with theft over expenses scandal
Daily Telegraph: Prison to repay inmates for TV
Daily Star: Expenses: MPs face up to seven years in jail if guilty
Daily Express: MPs' expenses: accused 4 claim to be above law
Daily Express: University chiefs coin it in as Scots students struggle
Daily Mail: Three Labour MPs and one Tory peer to be CHARGED with false accounting over expenses claims
Daily Mail: The skiing squad: How British police are picking up security tips for 2012... with a £120,000 jaunt to the Winter Olympics
The International News (Pakistan): Even in UK, Pakistan-born MP shows his talent
ICM Commercial & Business News: Four face criminal charges over expenses scandal

Sunrise Radio: TPA Campaign Director Mark Wallace urged swift trials for MPs, and firm punishment for anyone found guilty.

Friday February 5

TaxPayers’ Alliance welcomes criminal charges over expenses and urges swift trials

Matthew Elliott, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said:  

“It is excellent news that the CPS have decided to bring charges against these politicians. It is essential that MPs face justice, just like any normal person who had behaved like this. The taxpaying public wants to see justice done, and it is right that MPs aren’t able to simply wave repayment cheques and walk away from this. It has taken a long time to get to this stage, and the priority now must be for trials to be held as soon as possible. Anyone found guilty of breaking the law in their expenses claims should be punished severely for their breach of trust.”

For any further comments, or to arrange broadcast interviews please contact us on 07795 084 113.

Blogs

3.00pm, Better Government
John O'Connell
Quangos back in the news - just

Amidst all of the revelations on MPs’ expenses, taxpayer funded lobbying, and bungled swine flu preparations, some further news was buried. The Cabinet Office released its annual Public Bodies list, detailing the Government’s version of what they consider to be quangos... - Read More

2.00pm, Economics 101
Matthew Sinclair
New, higher estimate of green taxes from the ONS

In December, we reported that excessive green taxes now amount to between £10.2 billion and £23.6 billion, or between £408 and £944 per household.

The ONS have just released new estimates of the amounts charged in environmental taxes. They put the total at just over £38.5 billion. By contrast, our most recent estimate of the total charged in green taxes and regulations was £35.8 billion... - Read More

The Times: Spending on quangos rises by £10bn despite Gordon Brown’s pledge
Daily Telegraph: Police cannot attend every 999 call public would not expect them to, says chief constable
Daily Telegraph: Good day to bury bad news? Government admits spending on quangos jumps by 25 per cent
Daily Mail: Dinner in the Commons... at a price: MPs offer private rooms to firms which then paid them thousands
Daily Mail: MPs' expenses farce: Scathing report orders HALF of them to repay £1.3m but judge says 'they've done nothing wrong'
Daily Mail: It's official, the swine flu 'pandemic' is over
Daily Mail: Don't expect us to attend every 999 call
Daily Mail Online: Three Labour MPs and one Tory peer to be CHARGED with false accounting over expenses claims
Daily Express: MPs' bill for expenses goes up
Daily Express: Swine flu scandal
Daily Express: Secrets of Westminster's dining rooms
Daily Mirror: Dole cheat entitled to claim more
Mirror.co.uk: MPs and peer charged over expenses
Independent.co.uk: Three MPs and a peer charged over expenses
Independent.co.uk: Fury as MPs charged over expenses
The Scotsman: MPs claim back £11m a year for second homes
The Northern Echo: Sir Paul Kennedy upheld challenges by 44 of 75 appeals
Western Morning News: Cornish MPs to pay back £10,000
Western Morning News: The day MPs' expenses went up the pole...
Ipswich Evening Star: Council leader to be charged in expenses probe
Yorkshire Post: Brown 'angry' as three MPs and a peer charged over expenses
Metro: My force can't get to 999 calls... still, it's got a blogging police dog
Metro: £192,000 claimed in just a year
Metro: Bad day to have an early finish...
Islington Tribune: A1 20mph limit row
Glasgow Evening Times: Council spends £5000 on garden bonsai tree
Sky News Online: Swine Flu Crisis Ends - Leaving 411 Dead
Politics.co.uk: Taxpayers' Alliance: MPs must repay money immediately
Jewish Chronicle: EU 'funding Palestinian terror’

BBC Radio Scotland: TPA Campaign Director Mark Wallace urged the CPS to prosecute MPs for their expenses abuses
BBC Radio Tees: Mark Wallace said that there should be full transparency over police officers' second jobs
BBC Radio Three Counties: Mark Wallace criticised the Highways Agency for forcing people out of their houses unnecessarily
BBC Look East: Mark Wallace said the Highways Agency had behaved disgracefully and disrupted innocent people's lives
SunTalk: Mark Wallace and John Gaunt discussed the absurdity of police forces refusing to attend to 999 calls

Thursday February 4

Blogs

4.20pm, West Midlands
Fiona McEvoy
Walsall Council set to hike CT by 3.9%

Whilst the notoriously wasteful Sandwell Council attempt to keep their council tax increase to 1.4% or below (not a cut but a vast improvement no less), residents in Walsall look to be facing an enormous 3.9% rise... - Read More

9.45am, Burning Our Money
Mike Denham
But Not Yet

Everybody now agrees that public spending has to be cut significantly. But not everyone agrees on when. And despite what we may sometimes suggest on BOM, not everyone who says we can put it off is an out-and-out scoundrel... - Read More

BBC News Online: Why does taxing the rich make ordinary voters angry?
Daily Telegraph: Schools pay 'motivational speaker' £500 an hour to inspire bored pupils
Daily Express: Fiddling MPs will get away with it
Scottish Daily Express: Scottish Water accused of squandering £50million on consultants
Manchester Evening News: Benefit cheat stole less than she could have claimed
Metro: Tax rises to pay for snow chaos
Belfast Telegraph: Police force hit over 'dog blog'
Irish Independent: Police force hit over 'dog blog'
Western Morning News: Cabinet meeting 'a PR stunt'

BBC Radio Solent: TPA Deputy Research Director Ben Farrugia discussed the publication of the Legg report into MPs' expenses

Wednesday February 3

New branch launched: West Yorkshire TaxPayers' Alliance

Click here for more details, contact information, and a message from the Chairman

Blogs

2.30pm, Burning Our Money
Fiona McEvoy
Non-job of the week

No fewer than 524 public sector jobs advertised on the Guardian jobsite today, and – as with every week – there’s no certainly shortage of dubious positions... - Read More

12.00pm, European Union
Lee Rotherham
Timeo danaos et dona ferentes

Is Greece set to unravel the Euro? The dynamics of that undynamic public administration look set to have a crucial impact, but not necessarily in the way people are expecting... - Read More

Daily Telegraph: Over 27,000 televisions bought for prisoners in the past two years
Daily Express: Outrage as RBS dishes out £1.5bn in banker bonuses
Daily Express: Soft-touch jails buy 27,000 sets for inmates
Daily Mail: Off-duty police paid £100 to pick up phone
Western Morning News: MPs seek £15,000 pay rise
London Evening Standard: Letters: Be honest about spending cuts
The Northern Echo: Council refutes snow tax claims for repair of roads
Digital Spy: BBC boss defends £250k football studio

BBC Scotland: TPA Policy Analyst John O'Connell said another Government PR campaign on healthy living would be yet more unnecessary state nannying

Tuesday February 2

Blogs

3.00pm, West Midlands
Fiona McEvoy
'Significant weakness' in the accuracy of Birmingham's accounts

The end of last week gave us a pretty worrying insight into Birmingham City Council’s bookkeeping as the district auditor refused to sign-off the local authority’s 2009/10 accounts citing 'significant weaknesses' in their accuracy... - Read More

10.30am, Better Government
Jennifer Dunn
It's payback time

Back in October the TPA released the first ever report of the total raised in nationwide parking fines. The report was met with much media attention and interest from the public and this was hardly surprising; with so many drivers throughout the UK, many have inevitably been hit with a parking fine. With £328 million raised in fines in 2008-09, parking penalties are a lucrative source of income for councils throughout the UK, however one looks at it... - Read More

Daily Telegraph: Solar panels and other renewables will be installed on one in ten homes
Daily Express: EU holidays paid for by taxpayer
Daily Mail: Give MPs a £15,000 pay rise, says 'sympathetic' watchdog
Daily Mail: Government appoints ex-Lloyds boss who championed disastrous HBOS takeover as financial adviser
Guardian.co.uk: BBC's Roger Mosey defends spending on Euro 2008 studio
The Scotsman: Shamed MP to collect £60,000 for quitting
The Scotsman: Anger as Edinburgh lets rich and famous escape parking tickets
The Scotsman: Lloyds boss who quit after disastrous HBOS takeover to advise government
Aberdeen Press & Journal: Moray pays £13,000 a day to hire consultants
Express & Star: Police rewarded for taking fewer sickies
Witney Gazette: Scan photo will cost parents £5
Yorkshire Evening Post: BBC sports boss defends spending on football studio
Yorkshire Evening Post: 27,000 TVs bought for prisoners
Police Oracle: Scots Forces Hit Them In The Pocket
Jerusalem Post: EU aid funds PA incitement
World Jewish Congress: EU money funds Palestinian incitement against Israel and Jews, NGO says

BBC Radio Essex: TPA Campaign Director Mark Wallace was interviewed on the breakfast show about Essex County Council's welcome reductions in managers

Monday February 1

Blogs

2.10pm, Better Government
Ben Farrugia
An end to centralised wage bargaining?

CentreForum, a liberal minded think-tank working out of King's College London, have released an interesting paper today on public sector wage bargaining.  (To read the full report, click here)... - Read More

1.30pm, Better Government
John O'Connell
State-funded jobs boom

Tough choices. Difficult decisions. We all know the drill by now. But an enormous deficit requires a clear, detailed plan to tackle it, and thus far none of the parties have gone into nearly enough detail on how this plan might look... - Read More

9.00am, European Union
Lee Rotherham
Paddling avec les think tanks

By a remarkable symmetry, two stories have today been breaking relating to opposite ends of the same piece of policy string.

The House of Bishops’ Europe Panel is the EU grouping of the Anglican Lords Spiritual. Today’s Telegraph carries a story highlighting an unusually critical report by the group. Well, these things are contextual. But what certainly leaps out is the following passage... - Read More

The Sun: Trevor Kavanagh: Pull finger out Dave and land a few punches
Daily Telegraph: Two-thirds on disability benefits are fit to work
The Guardian: ITV could reward Adam Crozier with £14m pay and bonus package
Daily Express: Benefits Britain exposed
Daily Express: Research into fantasy jobs for the future wastes £7,500
Daily Express: MP cash 'cover up'
Daily Mail: Two-thirds on disability benefits are fit to work - costing taxpayers £500million
Daily Mail: The police who don't want to go out alone
Daily Star: Shock as £11bn wasted on benefits fakers
Oxford Times: Scan photo will cost parents £5
North Devon Journal: Anger at car park stealth tax
Human Resources: HRD pay - Paid and displayed

Over the weekend,

News of the World: £22m sickener - health tourists fleece NHS
Sunday People: We're in a shirking state
Bedfordshire on Sunday: Tax helpline closed for 40 per cent of week
Bedfordshire on Sunday: Foreign crooks remain in nick after they've served their time
Daily Express: England is where we all want to end up...
Daily Express: Expenses scandal warning for MPs
The Western Mail: £50,000 'fitness trails' for NHS staff leave critics in aspin...
Surrey Advertiser: Short-term car hire costs police £1.6m

BBC Radio 4: The TPA’s Hull and East Riding Organiser Andrew Allison was interviewed by David Runciman for a special show about inheritance tax, popular anti-politician sentiment and taxpayer activism (click to listen)

Friday January 29

Blogs

5.00pm, Burning Our Money
Mike Denham
The Limits of Credit Card Government

Greece is giving us all an object lesson in the limits of credit card government. According to this morning's FT:

"...anxiety over Greece rose in financial markets, driving Greek bond yields up to 7.25 per cent, closing on Hungary, a non-eurozone state bailed out by the EU and the IMF in 2008... - Read More

2.30pm, Campaign
Susie Squire
Good night and good luck

Today is my last day at the TaxPayers' Alliance, and without too much fanfare, there's just a few things I would like to say.

The first is a huge thank you to everyone who has made my time here at the TPA so enjoyable, interesting and fulfilling. It has been the most incredible experience to work in a place where the staff and supporters around the country work tirelessly and passionately to make a difference... - Read More

Daily Telegraph: Jeff Randall: Quangos are a luxury we don't need, and certainly can't afford
Daily Mail: BBC 'casually' spent £580,000 of licence fee a day at Glastonbury
Daily Express: Pay and expenses: greedy MPs on £450,000 a year
Telegraph.co.uk: Titchmarsh B&Q deal puts BBC in spotlight
Scottish Sun: Bird-brained
Scottish Sun: Spot fine explosion
Belfast Telegraph: £200k pay-offs for council bosses as authorities merge
London Evening Standard: Alan Titchmarsh’s B&Q deal within rules, says BBC
East Riding Mail: East Riding Council's pothole warning signs
Doncaster Free Press: Litter fines on smokers bring in record £65,000
SecurityOracle.com: Fury Over 'Terror Five' Cash Freeze
De Telegraph (Netherlands): Schotse gevangenen krijgen hersentraining
El Correo Digital (Spain): Schools to spend £10,000 on YouTube for pupils

Thursday January 28

Blogs

4.40pm, Better Government
Ben Farrugia
A complete and utter disgrace

It is difficult to write when one is totally incandescent with rage. Indeed it's probably advisable not to. But the news (reported in the Times today) that Harriet Harman and a phalanx of Parliament and democracy hating MPs are to block vital Commons reform, by means of a truly pathetic procedural trick, deserves all the rage and bile I can muster... - Read More

2.40pm, Campaign
Mark Wallace
CRU "climategate" update: the plot thickens

You may remember that back in November I reported here that we were lodging a complaint with Norfolk Police about clear and criminal breaches of the FoI Act by staff at the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit. Two months on, the story has got messier and messier... - Read More

2.00pm, Economics 101
Matthew Sinclair
DFT survey finds that the public don't support making petrol and flying more expensive to fight climate change

The Department for Transport have released a new survey, the January 2010 survey of "Public attitudes towards climate change and the impact on transport".

Much of the poll is pretty useless as it asks ridiculous questions... - Read More

1.40pm, Burning Our Money
Mike Denham
Resting on a bed of nitroglycerin in the ring of fire

The world's biggest and most influential bond manager, PIMCO, has just passed a further and even more worrying judgement on our precarious financial position (see this blog for previous warning). Bill Gross, PIMCO's top man, offers the following advice to investors... - Read More

The Sun: Slump... but MPs laziest for 30yrs
The Sun: Fury after 'terror 5' get their cash back
The Sun: Benefits bunglers pay £1m too much
Daily Mirror: MPs work a 139-day year
Daily Mail: BBC under fire for letting Alan Titchmarsh become new 'face' of B&Q
Daily Express: MPs dodge Parliament hours
Daily Express: Tears at school ban on free trips for better-off
Daily Express: £230m a year bill to house asylum seekers
Daily Express: Scandal of £800m overpaid benefits
Daily Star: £5m a week to house asylum seekers in UK
Guardian.co.uk: ITV appoints Adam Crozier as chief executive
Belfast Telegraph: £1m overpaid to benefit claimants
Plymouth Herald: Councillors slammed for Twittering during meeting
Passenger Terminal Today: Anthropologist to study Manchester for a year
Pink News: National Trans Police Association criticised over state funding

Wednesday January 27

Blogs

4.10pm, West Midlands
Fiona McEvoy
£120k on research to challenge the dummy Brummie label?

The Birmingham and Black Country accents might be distinctive and colourful but readers of the Express & Star are concerned that Aston University are spending rather too much investigating what impact of these beloved local dialects... - Read More

3.40pm, Better Government
Ben Farrugia
Aid to Malawi

Back in November 2009 we published Lost Along the Way, an investigation into the cost of DfID's spending. It found that in 2008-09, of the £5.8 billion development programme overseen by DfID, approximately £741 million (13 per cent) had been 'lost along the way' to the bureaucratic and other internal functions of DfID and its partners... - Read More

2.40pm, Economics 101
Matthew Sinclair
The growth figures

Sorry to be a bit late off the mark on this issue, I was getting some work done on a big project yesterday.  The growth figures came out and the recession is over... just.  Mark Bathgate has a great blog over at the Spectator Coffee House pointing out just what a disastrous reversal the recession has been... - Read More

1.20pm, Burning Our Money
Fiona McEvoy
Non-job of the week

Big competition for this week’s non-job, with new organisation the Child Maintenance Enforcement Commission advertising for almost £400,000 worth of jobs, many of which were specifically marketing/PR/press related and based on building the image rather than addressing issues... - Read More

The Sun: Mandy's £500k bill for cabs
Daily Express: £84,500 bonus for MOD civil servant
Daily Express: £10M-a-year bill to send illegal immigrants home
Daily Express: Sex swap police want you to fund transgender group
Scottish Daily Express: A bumby ride for sleeping policemen caught in 'Z' car
The Scotsman: Anger after MoD admits paying £84,500 bonus to top official
Surrey Advertiser: Surrey householders face 2.5% council tax rise
Worcester News: Revealed: What we pay our council bosses
The Metro: £84,500 bonus for MoD worker
Uttoxeter Advertiser: MP using YouTube to create a debate on sovereignty
London Evening Standard: MPs ride out recession with shorter hours and pay rises
San Francisco Chronicle: Mommy Files Blog: Is a 16-year-old too young for a sex change?
Deadline Press: Lothian and Borders policemen caught sleeping on duty