7.4 million people have failed to gain access to an NHS dentist in the last 2 years. A worrying trend has grown with people resorting to DIY surgery in an attempt to avoid costly private dentistry, including pulling teeth using pliers. Currently 35% of adults are struggling to get the... Read more...
Yesterday I went down to Swanage in Dorset to do a bit of campaigning with our South West supporters. Mike Hobson, our local spokesman, had gathered together half a dozen TPA supporters to help us campaign along the sea-front and the nearby marketplace. ... Read more...
Today, the TaxPayers' Alliance presents their new, online Green Tax Calculator which allows users to calculate, using their personal travel habits, household bills, and even specific make of car, the amount they are paying for green taxes and regulations. In particular, the calculator sheds light on the hidden price... Read more...
"It's so unFAIR!" There's an interesting blog which I've only just come across written by the new Head of Media at the EU Commission's office in London. It gives a revealing insight into the frankly arrogant view of the media often taken by the EU institutions. It turns... Read more...
Michael Gove, Shadow Secretary for Children, School and Families, writes a spirited piece in the Telegraph today, laying out why Ed Balls must take responsibility for the Government's numerous educational blunders: Ed Balls is to blame for the sixth form funding shambles Shielding himself from accountability behind a web of... Read more...
Regular readers will have noticed our campaign with the West London Residents Association and Guide Dogs for the Blind against the dangerous and expensive shared surface schemes in Kensington and Chelsea. You can read about the issue here and here. Our worst fears about the shared surface scheme very... Read more...
It strikes me that the rumours doing the rounds that someone, somewhere has somehow got their hands on a full copy of every MP's expenses claims and is touting it around the market for £300,000 are a perfect opportunity to teach our politicians about the principles of supply and demand.... Read more...
Thick gloves required We've blogged public sector pay many times, including the issue of those portly moggies snuggled up in Town Halls and quangos throughout the land. This week the TaxPayers' Alliance published the latest Town Hall Rich List. Despite our slumping economy, the number of council officials earning more than... Read more...
A few weeks ago a WMTPA supporter found their eyes drawn by two jobs advertised in the 'Birmingham Post' by an organisation called 'Social Enterprise West' Midlands, and needless to say that trusty AWM logo was lurking in the corner confirming this to be yet another taxpayer-funded quango that had... Read more...
This week on the Guardian website, we’ve found 515 jobs in local government on offer. You can see on the right the pay grades they offer, with only 2 over £100,000. It shows, week after week for you to see, that the pay and perks in the public sector have... Read more...
Yesterday, the TaxPayers' Alliance released the Town Hall Rich List 2009 and findings including the some 1,000 people earn at least £100,000 per year. In response to this report, the Chief Executive of the Local Government, John Ransford, defended high public sector salaries by saying that they are the way to attract the brightest and the... Read more...
Some of you may remember that back in March we held the pan-European launch of our Hate Education since Annapolis report, which we published in conjunction with 6 other think tanks and taxpayer groups across Europe. Our partner organisations have been doing a great job of pushing this issue... Read more...
From our Town Hall Rich List you’ll find a number of councils who didn’t comply fully with the Freedom of Information requests we sent them. You’ll see from the report here that on pages 135-137 we’ve listed the councils who obstructed our requests or just flatly refused to give the... Read more...
Yesterday it was observed that the DCSF seems pathologically unable to engage with criticism, even to rebut it with a sound defence. Largely preoccupied with putting out self-congratulatory missives, the most it will stir itself to are simplistic dismissal's; "..we don't acknowledge there's a problem so this criticism is unfounded". In... Read more...
Unless we cut spending, taxes will soar For anyone paying UK taxes, yesterday's report on the public finances from the Institute for Fiscal Studies is an alarming read. According to the IFS, unless there are some serious spending cuts, to have any hope of getting our national finances back on... Read more...
For anyone who gets their education news from the website of the Department for Children, Schools and Families, last week must have seemed like another cracker. Official results once again showed school improvement; the number of 11 year olds achieving Level 4 (the standard considered necessary to have any chance... Read more...
On Saturday I made the trip into London for the Campaign for an Independent Britain conference to promote our EU campaign – the Great EU Rip Off. It was a very interesting day with some illuminating speakers. Sir Teddy Taylor, who has long fought against the EU... Read more...
1,022 people in town halls now earn more than £100,000 a year. Up 27% from 818 last year. At least 16 people in local authorities earn more than the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, who earns £194,250 including his MP’s salary. Over 115 people in town halls are... Read more...
Shambolic Stoke-on-Trent City Council are now having to hire in a specialist corporate fraud team to monitor the council’s dealings with outside organisations and businesses, according to today’s The Sentinel. As we’ve often suspected, this council couldn’t run a whelk stall, and the paper claims these ‘fraud busters’ have... Read more...
Following Tuesday's massive protest against Westminster City Council's new stealth tax on motorbikes and scooters, the No To The Bike Parking Tax campaign have produced an excellent video, featuring the speeches in Trafalgar Square, the mass drive down Whitehall and the carnival atmosphere outside Westminster City Hall. If you keep... Read more...
Yesterday afternoon we got the final communique. Has The London Summit been a success? Have British taxpayers got good value for the huge expense and aggravation associated with hosting and securing the G20? The first thing to note is that this plan won't do much about the crisis currently affecting... Read more...
Government IT projects and failure are now so synonymous that it will come as no shock that the Commons Defence Select Committee has panned the implementation of the ‘Joint Personnel Administration’ (JPA) programme. Implemented by the Ministry of Defence in 2006 – at a cost of over £260 million –... Read more...
As Dan Hannan said, in the video we’ve all seen by now, you can’t go squeezing the productive part of the economy to swell the unproductive sector. That’s exactly what’s happening week in and week out with our non-job report. Each week you can see on the right the number... Read more...
An article in today’s Express & Star proves that it’s not just MPs abusing their expenses and claiming more than they’re due – our elected representatives in local government are at it too, as one Wolverhampton councillor is found to be claiming his full £26k allowance despite not having attended... Read more...