Isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing? The Treasury team is probably indulging in a fair amount of it today, following the release of the National Audit Office’s report into the Treasury’s nationalisation Northern Rock. Although the report supports the idea that nationalisation was the best way to protect taxpayer’s money, the... Read more...
A blog on the WMTPA website in February last year criticising the greed of executives on the board of newly founded Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust - some of whom wanted to up their pay by a whopping 154% - has taken on new significance this week as Stafford Hospital... Read more...
Yesterday the director general of the BBC Mark Thompson announced cuts of £400m to its budget. The cuts are part of an ongoing restructuring and redundancy programme. The bold move involves the freezing of executives pay, reducing fees for top stars and a future 1,200 job losses. These are drastic... Read more...
There is a small piece in The Sun last week reporting that two policemen have been held in a drugs raid in Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire. Police raided 13 houses in a crack down on heroine and cocaine drugs ring activity. 10 people in total were arrested, two of them policemen. This... Read more...
The Jacqui Smith case raised a fundamental question about MPs' second homes. How do you tell which one it is? She lists her main home as the rented space in her sister's house, allowing her to charge her larger family home as a second home on Parliamentary expenses. Surely this... Read more...
It was announced yesterday that we have two million unemployed in this country. With our high tax regime – funding our big, intrusive government – naturally we don’t have the environment to attract the business to bring jobs to our shores. With fewer people to tax, therefore, how is the government... Read more...
Yesterday in Brussels, the TaxPayers’ Alliance held our pan-European launch of ‘Hate Education since Annapolis’. As you will have seen from our coverage earlier in the week, the UK version of the report hit the press on Monday. The report has been published in six languages with partner organisations... Read more...
Over at the Liberal Conspiracy website, the blogger Unity has responded to our Palestinian Hate Education since Annapolis report. Unfortunately, despite berating us for keeping the report to four pages (which we certainly won't apologise for, we're trying to influence busy people) he clearly hasn't taken the time to read it,... Read more...
Sunder Katwala, General Secretary of the Fabian Society, is still persisting in his faintly ludicrous attempt to try and define our group for us. Apparently, instead of debating issues he prefers some kind of taxonomical debate over how we should be described. The TaxPayers’ Alliance has no party preference. ... Read more...
Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council’s environmental health chiefs have been busy thinking of ways to hijack the general concern about climate change in order to raise more revenue from unassuming drivers, and today’s Shopshire Star reveals the latest proposal – on the spot fines for ‘polluting drivers’. The £60... Read more...
"Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" - The rising prison population suggests that the Government (and the Judiciary) have certainly made efforts towards the first part of this promise. Read more...
Today’s Express & Star has revealed just how much neglect of roads and pavements around the West Midlands and Black Country is costing the taxpayer, and the figures are rather alarming. Top of the list comes Sandwell Council who’ve spent no less than £31,835 dealing with claims, including almost £18k... Read more...
It may not be surprising news, but today's announcement by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) - that unemployment continues to climb relentlessly upwards - reminds us that we are far from feeling the worst of this recession. The ONS data shows that the number of officially unemployed people in... Read more...
There is an interesting post over at ConservativeHome today by Cllr Neil Reddin from the London Borough of Bromley. In it he argues that the TaxPayers' Alliance should set up a consultancy which could charge councils for advice on how to save money. It's a point worth answering, and the... Read more...
It's a rare occasion - indeed an event for the diary - today. I agree with something the Local Government Association have said. Yes, the people who normally spend their time arguing for higher council tax and more town hall bureaucrats have produced an eminently sensible piece of work. They are calling... Read more...
The latest news about Sir Fred Goodwin's pension is jaw-dropping. Not only has he apparently been allowed a multi-million pound lump sum, but Lord Myners has confessed that when he was told in advance that Goodwin's pension would be "enormous", he simply did not bother to find out the details.... Read more...
Sunder Katwala, General Secretary of the Fabian Society, thinks he has ‘outed’ us as partisans on the basis of a slide in a presentation by our Chief Executive, Matthew Elliott: “Assuming that Matthew Elliott, Chief Executive, no longer wants to defend the Taxpayers Alliance's public statements that they are... Read more...
The TaxPayers' Alliance has a clear line on Regional Development Agencies (RDAs): abolition. In the absence of any real data showing that RDAs have had a positive economic impact on England's regions (despite this being their express purpose) we concluded that much simpler, cheaper ways of incentivising business could be... Read more...
Britain gave nearly £100 million in aid to the Palestinian territories in 2007. This money supports attempts to indoctrinate the Palestinian population to support the continuation of violent conflict. New evidence that Hate Education continues to be spread in the media and children’s text books. Following the... Read more...
Sandwell councillor and TaxPayers’ Alliance supporter Tony Ward made the Express and Star today after asking some very pertinent questions of council leader and champion of The Public gallery, Bob Badham. In light of the £70million redevelopment of West Bromwich, where Sandwell Council own the freehold, Cllr Ward asked... Read more...
The issue of Parliamentary expenses and allowances will be back in the news today with the publication of the official list of ministerial interests, which sees ministers declare not only their own financial interests but also those of family members. The rumbling on of this and various other stories is... Read more...
Today, Edward Leigh MP, the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, called the failed National Offender Management Information System a "master class in sloppy project management." The project, intended as a central database for convicted offenders, is now expected to cost £513 million, more than double its estimated budget of... Read more...
Today’s Express and Star has tallied up how much Black Country councils have been spending on transport for their mayors, and the grand total comes to an astonishing £215,000. And that doesn’t even include Sandwell! Most of us will associate our town mayors with flash jags, but the article... Read more...
This week there are 526 opportunities to be in the employment of the taxpayer as you can see on the right. This week’s non-job, however, comes from Northamptonshire County Council: “Community Policy Manager£46,470 - £57,168 pa The purpose of Community Partnerships is to manage community growth, diversity and... Read more...