The Government have failed to improve the education system via the unimaginative means of large dollops of taxpayer cash. We documented the extent of their failure in the report (PDF, Chapter 1) we launched before this year's budget. That is bad news for taxpayers, whose money has been wasted, and... Read more...
David Cameron's pledge that the Conservatives will prioritise cutting the tax burden, in a speech this morning, is great news. It suggests that the Conservatives are taking seriously the need to the end the Great British Taxpayer Rip-off we identified in a report (PDF) last weekend: "With the rising cost... Read more...
The Victorians used to fill them with water Our recent Taxpayer Rip-off report tried to pull together some stats on public service cuts. It proved to be quite tricky because for obvious reasons, the government doesn't tend to publish them. But from schools, to healthcare, to policing, to... Read more...
The TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA) presents the full list of the UK’s vast quango industry, a detailed run-down of the staff and cost of the 1,162 bodies, boards and agencies that make up Britain’s Unseen Government. Read more...
Chris Dillow, at his Stumbling and Mumbling blog, sets out why a left-winger such as himself should like the education provided by private schools: "It's education in the sense of "educere" - drawing out whatever latent talents a student has. If someone doesn't have the aptitude for academe, they are... Read more...
Today’s Express and Star reports that residents of a Staffordshire residential home deemed ‘not fit for purpose’ have been moved out to a luxury care home at a cost of £1,000-per-person-per-week. Staffordshire County Council shied away from revealing just how many former residents of Billbrook House are now... Read more...
It's great news that the High Court have thrown out the case brought at the taxpayers' expense by the House of Commons authorities to try to keep details of MPs' expenses secret. Having fought the case for years, the Commons authorities decided to try to overturn a ruling of the... Read more...
West Midlands Police are set to cost taxpayers £100,000 in a payout to Channel 4 after accusing them of misleading the public and ‘heavily editing’ their documentary, Dispatches: Undercover Mosque. The story is reported in various national newspapers as well as on the front page of Today’s Birmingham Post.... Read more...
The headlines in the paper should read: ‘Multimillionaire claims taxpayer money for house renovation’. It was revealed yesterday that the multimillionare leader of the Liberal Democrats – Nick Clegg, the MP for Sheffield Hallam – claimed just over £7,000 of parliamentary expenses to renovate his Sheffield home, installing new... Read more...
One of the measures announced in the draft Queens Speech by the Prime Minister yesterday should leave taxpayers seething with rage. The announcement of a ‘Sentencing Commission’ to set “prison sentences…depending on the amount of space in jails” shows the government have lost the plot on crime and cynically move... Read more...
The BBC reports that one of the Government's proposals, in their pre-Queens Speech, is to add a measure of patient satisfaction and healthcare outcomes to the funding formula for hospitals. The details are being kept from the great unwashed at the moment but, suffice it to say, this is a... Read more...
Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime. It sounded good at the time, no? Read our non-job of the week at Southwark Council and see if the sentiment exists in local government: “Family Intervention Project Keyworker £22,638- £27,723 Fixed term contract until March 2011 ... Read more...
Last month the French finance minister Christine Lagarde cheerfully announced France’s intention to push for corporate tax harmonisation when it chairs the EU for six months from July. Since then the EU Commission and pro European politicians have toned it down to make sure businessmen don’t urge for a “no”... Read more...
Tramps, hoodlums and the various other categories of loiterer who clutter both Chamberlain and Victoria Square in central Birmingham must be bracing themselves for the return of their BBC Big Screen television that was removed from Chamberlain Square eight months ago. Read more...
On Friday those interested in forming the Wolverhampton TaxPayers’ Alliance gathered at Bantock House to discuss how a campaign for lower taxes and less government waste might be received in the local area. The meeting had a great turn-out with residents keen to voice their views about the pressures... Read more...
TPA Organiser for South West Surrey – Peter Webb – was yet again quoted in the Surrey Advertiser last week, commenting on our 10% Challenge to councils. He scored another hit with a letter about the NHS, fitting in nicely with our Better Government campaign. You can read the... Read more...
The News of the World ran an expose yesterday on MEPs taking advantage of their allowances. It's common knowledge that MEPs, faced with even less scrutiny than MPs in Westminster, have a sizeable gravy train at their disposal. What was really shocking about the story, other than the sheer amount... Read more...
You can download and print off our free 'Wish You Were Here' recruitment leaflet by clicking below and downloading the PDF to your computer. Click here to download the leaflet: Download tpa_a5_postcard_07.pdf Read more...
If you take the Sunday Times, you’d have noticed senior TPA Campaigner Steve Peers and his family in the Money section being interviewed on the damage government stealth taxes are doing to families all over the country. You can read Steve's comments in the article here. This... Read more...
The Independent on Sunday had a shocking report yesterday on an internal MoD document revealing the truly awful conditions our Armed Forces are forced to endure. It has emerged that not only are our soldiers housed in disgraceful slum conditions and sent to war with insufficient or unsuitable equipment, now... Read more...
Rising taxes, soaring charges, service cuts. It’s…THE GREAT BRITISH TAXPAYER RIP-OFF Download the full report (PDF) In a new report, the TaxPayers’ Alliance outlines the way that over the last decade British taxpayers have faced a huge increase in their tax bills, but at the same time, they’ve been made... Read more...
As we laid out when revealing the Cost of Crime in London last month, the TPA believes strongly in the principle and the practical benefits of giving people as much information as possible about the (mal)functioning of our public services. Crime mapping, widely used to great effect in the USA,... Read more...
There is a must-read article from Patrick O’Flynn in today’s Daily Express that reinforces our arguments in favour of small government and that there is a point at which government must realise it has to get out of civil society. O'Flynn writes that rather than admitting he was wrong... Read more...
With a spread in the local press about the launch and a brand new website now in place, it’s no wonder the new Worcester branch of the TaxPayers’ Alliance is already going from strength to strength! Since being introduced on the 21st April, the founding activists of this new... Read more...