The National Director of Clinical Quality and Efficiency of the NHS, Professor Tim Briggs, today stated that the NHS must put its house in order before seeking more money from the government. Professor Briggs told the Times (£): 'I do not think at the moment we deserve more money until... Read more...
Policy Exchange's new report, Farming Tomorrow, has many excellent suggestions for the reform of the UK's agricultural sector. The report, written by Warwick Lightfoot, has a plethora of sensible policies, including: Unilaterally phasing out tariffs A phasing out of production subsidies and income support New powers for the Food Safety... Read more...
This project is deeply unpopular and has managed to garner opposition to it from across the political spectrum. As recently as January this year, the Treasury Select Committee raised concerns about HS2's lack of economic rationale. This was the latest in a long line of critical reports from public bodies.... Read more...
The vice chancellor of the University of the West of Scotland, Craig Mahoney, has today bemoaned his salary of £227,000 as insufficient. The reason? He lacks a grace-and-favour home for entertaining. Vice chancellors, the chief executives of universities, are some of the best remunerated public officials in the country. The... Read more...
We were out campaigning today at Euston Station, the first stop on the HS2 line (if it's ever built!). We got an incredible response from the public, who were shocked by the cost, dismayed about the environmental impact and worried about the disruption it will cause their commute. If you... Read more...
Pictures from our action day in Guildford have been uploaded onto our Facebook page. Click this link here to view them. Below is a copy of our leaflet from the day. Read more...
This morning the BBC released information regarding the salaries of their highest earning employees including the likes of Gary Lineker and Claudia Winkleman. We welcome this move towards greater transparency in the public sector, and some of the figures that have come out from this publication are rather alarming. For... Read more...
A report by the National Audit Office released this week has highlighted key deficiencies with our system of distributing foreign aid. Britain currently adheres to the UN target to spend 0.7 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI) on foreign aid. Formal commitment to this target was entrenched into Parliamentary Statute... Read more...
The recent fiasco over the government’s overpriced acquisition of F-35B Lightning II Joint Combat Fighter is yet more reason for a shake-up of military procurement. In response to the latest report in the Times, our chief executive John O'Connell said: “The first duty of the government is to keep its citizens... Read more...
A very successful day in Leicester. People around the city centre were very responsive and incredibly supportive. It is always warming to see that taxpayers actually do care about efficient public spending and lowering the tax burden. A big shout out to our volunteers: Taylor, Tom and Matt for making... Read more...
A report published by Sir Michael Marmot of University College London raises fear regarding life expectancy in the UK. According to Sir Michael, life expectancy (which has been rising for centuries), has ‘stalled’ since the start of the coalition government in 2010. Marmot blames this in part on the government’s... Read more...
Thank you to all our volunteers who came out to Gloucester this Saturday! We talked about council tax increases, Town Hall pay and the ongoing problem of the County Council's £500 million incinerator fiasco. If you would like a campaign day in your area, contact our Campaign Manager James... Read more...
As debate over the public sector pay cap - not only concerning whether, but how to lift it - hots up, the chancellor, Phillip Hammond, is reportedly under pressure to cancel planned corporation tax cuts from within his own party. Nobody begrudges hard-working public sector staff a well-earned pay rise... Read more...
Announced in last weeks Queen's Speech was the extension of the current planned route of HS2. As part of the debate on the Queen's Speech in the House of Lords, Lord Framlington urged the government to scrap the project in the following speech. "My Lords, I make no apology for... Read more...
The British Medical Association (BMA) has held its Annual Representative Meeting in Bournemouth today, where it has called for spending on the NHS to rise to match that of other leading EU economies. What sort of a rise? Its economists have produced a figure of 10.4 per cent of GDP... Read more...
HMRC has today published figures on income tax liabilities, showing a number of interesting patterns, the most significant of which being income tax burden distribution – that is, how big a share of the total income tax take is paid by the top and bottom earners. Naturally, a degree of... Read more...
It is incredibly naïve to think that ‘the banks’ are something which can simply be raided for resources with no effect on how they behave or consequences for the wider economy. Nowhere does this ring as true as with the financial transactions tax (FTT) which has been included in the... Read more...
The government recently published its major housing white paper, Fixing our broken housing market. The paper concerns the huge problems in our housing and land markets, causing higher rents and prices which lead to higher welfare spending and higher taxes. We reviewed the paper and produced a response, which we sent to the... Read more...
The tedious process of rival politicians telling each other that their spending plans are either “uncosted” or “unfunded” kicked into gear this morning. The Conservatives claimed Labour plans amount to a £45 billion “bombshell” only for Labour to hit back, saying the plans were “fully costed”. It’s a similar tactic... Read more...
Nigel Holder is a management consultant, quondam RAF fighter pilot and a supporter of the TaxPayers' Alliance. Just because there is a public interest in funding a service from tax revenue, it does not follow that the state should operate and run that service. Where the state controls a service it... Read more...
Our Chief Executive, John O'Connell, co-signed a letter with Benny Peiser of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, Mark Littlewood of the Institute of Economic Affairs and David Green of Civitas calling for a better way to cut fuel bills. It was published in this morning's Daily Telegraph (£). SIR... Read more...
The influential Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Select Committee has today endorsed a number of our recommendations in their report on financial disclosure in the public sector. The report, entitled Accounting for Democracy, extensively cites our submission, recommending a major overhaul of the way public bodies present their accounts, in... Read more...
Theresa May’s decision to call a snap election does not just give her the opportunity to gain a working majority. It frees her from the manifesto commitments made by David Cameron in 2015, and gives her the opportunity to set out an agenda of her own. But what should that... Read more...
Election season is now upon us, and one pledge rumoured to be a key feature of the Conservative party manifesto is a cap - the details of which still unclear - on energy tariffs. If this sounds familiar, it’s because back in 2013 Ed Miliband, then-leader of the Labour Party,... Read more...