The campaign against the new parking tax in Westminster reached a new high last night, and the TaxPayers' Alliance was there fighting for an end to stealth taxes. 1,000 protestors were expected, but well over 4,000 showed up. After speeches from me on behalf of the TPA, Peter Roberts of... Read more...
Gordon Brown has announced that he plans to prevent massive redundancy payouts and reduce increases in senior public sector salaries in 2009/10. In an effort to match the current cutbacks in private sector pay, redundancy payouts of three or four times annual salary would drop to about £7,000 and salary... Read more...
As has been discussed a little in earlier posts, back in December 2007 the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) employed the consultancy firm PriceWaterhouseCooper's (PwC) to investigate, in depth, the impact of RDAs on England's regions. Better late than never, the PwC report was finally published yesterday. In... Read more...
The Centre for Social Cohesion has released a new report (PDF) on how a number of British universities have received donations from dictatorial regimes. A range of universities including the LSE, Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Durham and Exeter have accepted significant donations, directly and indirectly, from extremist dicatorships. The total accepted is... Read more...
Rebellious businesses in Coventry have resisted paying an additional Business Improvement District (BID) levy after ‘technical delays’ have meant that many are yet to receive the various benefits and services promised to them. According to today’s Coventry Telegraph, more than 600 of the 2,600 firms on 84 industrial estates... Read more...
Today the latest list of MPs' expenses was published, much to the horror of taxpayers everywhere. The total this year came to £92.9 million overall, a 6% increase on last year and an average of just over £144,000 per Honourable Member. This list, combined with the Jacqui Smith scandal... Read more...
As the war of words escalates in the run up to the G20, London is battening down the hatches in expectation of mindless violence on the streets. Thousands of people, from many different groups and as many different countries, are due to descend on the Capital on Thursday, hijacking the... Read more...
Following the release of our Youtube viral video on the Common Agricultural Policy, Daniel Hannan, the MEP who shot to fame last week through his speech in the European Parliament criticising Gordon Brown's spending and debt habits, has been in touch. By coincidence, he made a speech on the topic... Read more...
Good news today from the Conservatives who have promised to make a priority of reversing the Government's proposed increase in National Insurance and also to control the pay of senior staff in quangos and public services. The national insurance cut is great news for ordinary families, most of whom will... Read more...
It’s hardly surprising that some NHS Trusts still face shortages in front line staff. The average Trust Chief executive - NHS managers already among the best paid public servants in the country - enjoyed a salary rise of 7.6 per cent on average last year, while offering front-line health workers... Read more...
There is a poll in the Telegraph today, showing that people don't want more public spending, after all. Despite politicians' rhetoric about boosting the economy through large-scale public sector infrastructure projects, the public know this will simply plunge us further into debt and we would be much better off (in... Read more...
This is a call to arms: next Tuesday 31st March at 5pm in Trafalgar Square, and then 6.45pm outside Westminster City Hall on Victoria Street, the TPA will be joining a mass protest against one of the most poorly thought out, unfair and misguided stealth taxes in British local government. Full... Read more...
Seven councils yesterday came under fire from the local government watchdog the Audit Commission. Criticising them for mistakes which lead to £33million of taxpayer’s money being ploughed into Icelandic banks just days before their collapse, the report ‘Risk and return: English local authorities and the Icelandic banks’, accuses councils of acting... Read more...
It has been reported yesterday that councils have used anti-terror legislation 10,000 times since 2004. And what are the heinous crimes they have uncovered? Well, it ranges from littering to unauthorised internet access. Theft of fariy lights is a big problem in certain UK regions too, apparently. This is... Read more...
Few can object to ‘innovation’ when it aims to deliver improvement. But ‘innovation’ is not a positive thing in and of itself, and questions should asked of whether the Government ‘s enthusiasm for ‘innovation’ is anything more than the latter. Up to £3billion has been allocated to the... Read more...
Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, says we’ve run out of money. Do not go pass go, because we can’t afford to give you £200. As Gordon Brown was told in the European Parliament this week: “Prime Minister, you have run out of our money”, but that... Read more...
Yesterday I was up in Knaresborough – a lovely part of the world – petitioning against local Lib Dem plans to requisition 10 per cent of councillor salaries for party political activities. We met by Blind Jack's Statue and proceeded to talk with residents... Read more...
It's often said by local councillors that the idea that there is waste in Town Halls or that council tax can be reduced is "simplistic" or foolish - it's impossible, they cry, if the TPA were councillors then you'd understand that. There's a great example out of Tower Hamlets today... Read more...
David Goodhart, Editor of Prospect magazine, has an interesting if mistaken article just out in their April edition on the subject of civil liberties, individual freedom and the database state. I'm not a habitual Prospect reader, but this one came to my attention as he makes an analogy between personal... Read more...
Stop the presses! It turns out that despite mainstream scientific consensus, dinosaurs are not extinct and in fact live in the obscure habitat of the National Executive of UNISON. Jon Rogers, a member of that body, has posted a very revealing piece on his blog about public sector pensions which draws some conclusions so... Read more...
The Times reported this morning that the pay freeze is beginning to blow into the public sector: "... nurses, midwives and other NHS staff face losing apromised pay rise in the first sign of a salary squeeze for public sectorworkers..." "Pay freezes, or at best minimal rises, are also expected... Read more...
This morning TPA supporters, members of the West London Residents Association and Guide Dogs for the Blind amassed outside Kensington and Chelsea Town Hall to present their petition against the dangerous and expensive shared space schemes at Holbein Place and the proposed development for Exhibition Road. Gordon Taylor, pictured below... Read more...
Over the past weeks, TPA supporters have been petitioning along with members of the West London Residents Association and Guide Dogs for the Blind to end the expensive, dangerous “shared surface” schemes in Kensington and Chelsea. These plans by the council have already cost £330,000 for a small... Read more...
On the ConservativeHome blog Tim Montgomerie writes that the Conservatives understand scrapping their proposed Inheritance Tax Cut and endorsing Labour's new top rate of tax won't raise much revenue. That's good news and absolutely correct. The Inheritance Tax only raises a small proportion of total revenue, less than one per... Read more...