Yesterday I was in Bath for a meeting of the Bath and North East Somerset council Development Control Committee. We have been campaigning with local residents and supporters from ‘Response2Route’ and Save Bathampton Meadows against council plans for the Bath Rapid Transit Scheme. This scheme involves the creation... Read more...
Jim Knight, Employment Minister, has acknowledged in written answers that the government spent nearly £170,000 of taxpayers’ money, between November 2008 and May 2009, on sending out fake job applications to see if employers discriminated against foreign-sounding names. Not only is this a substantial sum for a research project,... Read more...
A report in this morning’s Telegraph outlines Ed Balls’ plans to recruit 200 social workers, aiming for specifically for teachers and lawyers to improve the profession in the wake of several scandals surrounding the deaths of children under the watch of Councils. The review in to the Baby P case... Read more...
There are over 500 jobs in government this week, as you can see from the bar on the right. Scanning the jobs that councils, quangos and other government departments advertise for has brought us some gems. The Street Football Coordinator in Moray and the blank advert to publicise a climate change... Read more...
It's day two of Sir Hugh Orde's tenure as head of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), and already he's been causing quite a stir. Whilst he seems to have some good ideas, he has absolutely the wrong approach to getting them implemented. To give a bit of... Read more...
Some of you may remember our involvement with the Independent Review Panel, set up by the Welsh Assembly, which was tasked with looking into AMs' expenses, headed by Sir Roger Jones. The review was established last summer, to deliver "a system of financial support fro Assembly Members that is fair and transparent... Read more...
Nonsense to end all nonsense at Stoke on Trent City Council, as residents at council flats in the city will now be convening to discuss the ‘door mat’ ban with elected members. It was reported a couple of weeks ago that the council had decided to ban door mats... Read more...
As debate over public spending descends into the absurd (with 0% spending rises and ministerial bullying of journalists), its easy to forget that behind all the bluster there are some real policy debates going on. Perhaps the most significant of these debates concerns education, and more specifically, the future of... Read more...
According to This is Somerset, Councillors in North Somerset have generously voted to increase their own allowances by 30%; how thoughtful of them. The rest of the country is suffering through a severe recession, worried about keeping their jobs, and these people are giving themselves increases at their constituent’s expense.... Read more...
There was a time when wagging off school and taking sickies here, there and everywhere was seen as poor form, now actually going to school everyday in the way you’re supposed to is being viewed as an achievement and richly rewarded…by the taxpayer. (BBC News) Kids at Kingstone High... Read more...
Smokers in Dundee are now being paid to give up cigarettes as part of a NHS scheme. Quitters now receive £12.50 towards their groceries each week in order to give them the encouragement they need.The taxpayer funded crusade against smokers continues. Don’t smokers already have enough incentive to quit? ... Read more...
The OECD has just published its latest Economic Survey of the United Kingdom. And it's a pretty damning verdict on 12 years of Labour government.To start with, the OECD reminds us exactly where Mr Brown's "economic miracle" came from - a huge government spending splurge, combined with easy credit.On government... Read more...
However hard one trawls the web, it's hard to find an independent analysis of RDAs that gives them a really good review. Journals dedicated to regional issues - a natural home for pro-RDA opinion one might think - struggle to present a case beyond "they're better than nothing". Most studies... Read more...
For regular passengers on the East Coast main line, the news that National Express has failed in its running of the line so badly that the Government has decided to seize control of it will come as no surprise. For the taxpayers who are now faced with yet more railway... Read more...
Some months ago it was announced that two vacancies had arisen on the East Hertfordshire council Independent Remuneration Panel (IRP). Although only a consultative body, the role of an IRP is to recommend all the pay and perks councillors can get and, therefore, have considerable power and influence. As citizens’ panels... Read more...
There are over 550 jobs in government this week, so it's quite appropriate to mention that today as it's been announced that graduate trainee jobs in the private sector are down by an average 13% this year. But never mind, the government are content on squeezing the productive, profit making sector to line... Read more...
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) gave its strongest line on the UK's fiscal problems yesterday, urging the Government to return to "credible" spending plans. In the context of Lord Mandelson's admission that the Government would not be holding a spending review before the election, the OECD's 'Economic... Read more...
In 2007-08, 41.1% of the UK's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was public spending. There had been a significant rise since spending bottomed out in 1999. But, that is nothing compared to what is projected to happen over the next few years. The Centre for Economics and Business Research have used... Read more...
Two stories caught my eye this morning that should send taxpayers' blood boiling. First into the trough was Kent County Council who pushed up their allowances by a shocking 8% last week! The opposition, to their credit, tried to delay the increase by proposing a public consultation. As the... Read more...
Our last Town Hall Rich List revealed that Birmingham City Council Chief Executive, Stephen Hughes, enjoyed a very healthy 18.2% pay increase between 2006/7 and 2007/8 and last week the Birmingham Post reported that he’s now a member of the “£200,000+ per year club”. So how exactly has Mr.... Read more...
The Guardian reports today that the Government is to end its centralised control of schools, abandoning one of New Labour's most significant education reforms. Details are still sketchy, as this news - like that about school mergers earlier this week - comes from DCSF leaks, not an actual bill. (A... Read more...
First Westminster, now the BBC. The burgeoning desire for public spending transparency shifted its focus to another big beast of state funding this week, and the revelations have courted outrage, albeit not as vehement as that directed at our politicians. Again, the claims vary from the grand to the frivolous... Read more...
Prospect has a good piece by David Halpern this month, urging the Government to begin the painful but absolutely unavoidable process of cutting public expenditure....see here. "...we must overcome our longstanding lack of interest in evaluating whatworks: the quiet scandal of public policy where billions are spent butnot unspent if... Read more...
It seems that David Tredinnick, the Bosworth MP best known for his part in the cash for questions scandal, has possibly outdone the moats and the duck houses in the ridiculous expenses claims stakes. He has claimed for software and training to make him proficient in...astrology. Yes, astrology: the... Read more...