The average local authority employed almost 22 per cent more middle managers in 2007-08 than 2006-07. The number of staff on £50,000-plus remuneration packages has risen from 31,000 to almost 37,000 in one year. The total bill for those council staff on £50,000-plus was nearly £2.4 billion last year –... Read more...
This week’s non-job of the week comes from Liverpool City Council, you know, the one with the gaping hole in its finances and yet still spent your money on a model of a giant spider: “Assistant to the Leader of the Labour Group£24,331 - £25,940 To join a... Read more...
The good news came through at Prime Minister's Questions today that the Government is going to drop its last-ditch attempt to keep MPs' expenses secret! This is great news for taxpayers - we will be allowed to see how our elected representatives spend our money. Thank you to everyone who... Read more...
Councils deserve our gratitude today. The Government wanted a number of councils to run pilots for bin taxes but the Telegraph reports that not a single council made a bid and the scheme has been abandoned for now. Such a tax would be another burden on council taxpayers already... Read more...
Despite all the flak they took over secret MPs' expenses, the ruling of the Information Commission that went against them, the High Court ruling that crushed their weak arguments and the fact that the Commons authorities have spent months and hundreds of thousands of pounds preparing expenses details for publication,... Read more...
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Alf Hitchcock, the man in charge of Operation Blunt - the Metropolitan Police's effort to tackle knife crime - and one of the country's top police man is to retire from the MET in April. After 30 years as an officer he leaves the force to take... Read more...
We pay our taxes in good faith for many important services, including our police force, national defence, schools, healthcare etc., though we’re all very aware that worryingly large amounts are regularly siphoned off for rather more dubious causes, like MP and MEP’s expenses, bloated quangos and government non-jobs to name... Read more...
Of course we'll insure your toxic onions -why not? Watching the Brown/Darling news conference on their latest massive bank bailout, it was interesting to see how Brown reacted to the Blank Cheque charge. He growled menacingly at ITN's Tom Bradby that he should be "very cautious" about suggesting such things.Why?If... Read more...
Day after day we awake to yet another government “initiative” to help one interest group or another through the “credit crisis” (of its own making), or to promote another idea for a crazy social engineering agenda, or just more nannying. The list of heists from taxpayers for “chosen ones”... Read more...
This time last year Coventry City Council were advertising for a ‘Crime Reduction Co-ordinator’ on a pretty hefty salary – this year it appears we have a different story with their ‘Neighbourhood Wardens’ facing the chop in order to recoup £173,000. But this decision hasn’t gone uncriticised, not least by... Read more...
Sir Digby Jones was in the Government for a year, as part of Gordon Brown's attempt to create a "government of all the talents". He came away with quite a strong impression that the Civil Service isn't up to scratch: "Ex-trade minister Lord Digby Jones says he was "amazed"... Read more...
The competition for most poorly timed campaign of 2009 is already heating up, despite us only being two weeks in. Reuters is reporting that Willem Buiter, former Bank of England bigwig, has today launched a new campaign to persuade Britain to join the euro. The fundamental plank of Buiter's campaign... Read more...
It was reported yesterday that a woman who was robbed and beaten by a gang of thugs had her case thrown out of court because she was "honest, utterly decent and brave." Further, The Sun reports that a man who has committed assault with a baseball bat has been let... Read more...
There's one of those classic news stories today that raises your eyebrows and then explains itself all in one sentence. The kind that starts off "that's politically interesting" and ends up feeling slightly more predictable than "dog bites postman". This time, it's all to do with Eric Pickles' laudable proposals... Read more...
This week’s non-job, again sent to us by a supporter, comes from Surrey County Council: “REMA Ethnic and Language Minority Support - Senior Specialist£33,652 - £36,114 You will be working in a specified area of Surrey and will have responsibility for ensuring the day-to-day management of a group... Read more...
Defaults on previous government loan scheme Amid all yesterday's talk of headless chickens and the traditional green shoots,the likely costs of the government's new company loan schemes got a bit overlooked. The biggest scheme involves taxpayers in guaranteeing £20bn of short-term bank loans to small businesses. Specifically, taxpayers are required to guarantee half of that, the rest of... Read more...
Research out this morning shows a dramatic drop in graduate recruitment, with targets for 2009 cut byan average of 17 per cent among the UK's top graduate employers (see here). Unsurprisingly it is the financial sector that has seen the biggest contraction in available jobs, with 47 per cent fewer... Read more...
Stewart Jackson MP, Conservative Shadow Minister for Communities and Local Government, has an interesting piece over on ConservativeHome today. The article provides an excellent run-down and critique of the current proposals for yet more transfer of powers to regional quangos , including the establishment of "unelected economic and transport quangos"... Read more...
In many professions, 'incentivising' a position is simply a matter of offering more cash for it. We are all so driven by financial considerations - so the logic goes - that unappealing jobs can be made attractive by just attaching more money to them. Ed Balls is a disciple of... Read more...
That degree in Disco Studies may come in useful one day The present government has hugely increased state spending on education. This year they will spend well over £80bn, comfortably more than double what they inherited in 1997. In inflation adjusted terms, spending has increased by 5% pa, much faster than... Read more...
Unveiling a new poll revealing the public's appetite for radical change in Britain's relationship with the EU, the TaxPayers' Alliance (TPA) and Global Vision (GV) today launch a new campaign to highlight the impact of the European Union on the lives and finances of British taxpayers. The campaign, which will... Read more...
It appears that schools are having trouble recruiting head teachers. Many are having to readvertise for posts that have been filled. It is suggested that few are willing to face the additional risks that come with being a head teacher in return for a relatively narrow differential in salary between... Read more...
The Times reports today that President-Elect Obama will appoint America's first Chief Performance Officer, to scour budgets line by line for inefficiencies and waste. While positions already exist in the federal government to monitor the efficacy of programs and initiatives (such as the Congressional 'Government Accountability Office' and 'Office of... Read more...
Aargh! What is it with the lunatics in our Town Halls? First Worcestershire County Council employs bureaucrats to tell people how to dish up their dinner, now Cheltenham Borough Council are giving their council staff time off to do volunteer work. To rub salt in the taxpayers wound – they’ll... Read more...