You'll need plenty of £2 coins As you may have heard, ex-Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie is so incensed by the unaccountable money burning antics of his local council that he's standing for election as a councillor. His Red Mist Party pledge card reads: Cut car parking charges,... Read more...
Norfolk TPA campaigners met with senior members of Norfolk County and South Norfolk District Councils yesterday to discuss how the County and District can achieve tax cuts for hard-working families across Norfolk next year. Our senior campaigners Tony Flynn, Barbara Lockwood and Tony Callaghan met with Cllr Daniel Cox... Read more...
We've already responded to the story that two new bosses for the failing National Programme for IT are going to be appointed at a cost of nearly half a million pounds a year in salaries alone, from the Telegraph report: "Matthew Elliot, the chief executive of The TaxPayers' Alliance, said:... Read more...
An interesting new paper, written by economist Keith Marsden and published by the Centre for Policy Studies, presents further evidence of how smaller governments perform better on a range of measures than do larger governments. The paper shows how countries with low taxes and spending relative to GDP enjoy... Read more...
Two words guaranteed to strike fear into the heart of any good believer in small, efficient government! Further to our recent work with the Cut the VAT coalition on the amount of money the Treasury made from the 2007 floods, the excellent EUReferendum blog has waded in (apologies for... Read more...
An excellent Policy Exchange report out today has hammered some important nails into the coffin of taxpayer funding for political parties. We've long argued that the reason parties are struggling financially is nothing to do with the needs of the modern political industry, and all to do with the fact... Read more...
All of us here at the TaxPayers’ Alliance would like to wish all our supporters and activists a happy St. George’s Day. On this day for England, however, please also spare a thought for the Barnett Formula. Read more...
As councils up and down the country do their best to expand their middle management, bloat their own salaries and scale back frontline services, they never fail to come up with yet another non-job for us to expose. This week Liverpool City Council burns taxpayers’ money by offering this... Read more...
This government just doesn’t get poverty. Rather, it begets it. The government thinks there is child poverty and fuel poverty. Today – and next week in Parliament – the pressing issue is tax poverty. Poverty is a shortage of income for people to pay the necessities and have... Read more...
Next week Labour MP Frank Field will table an amendment to save the 10p tax band. If you’ve read a paper, watched the news or, really, just been awake at any time in the past fortnight, you’ll have heard of the gathering storm in the Labour Party about the abolition... Read more...
The TPA is a strong supporter of the Cut the VAT coalition, a wide range of organisations from the Federation of Master Builders and the Empty Homes Agency to the Countryside Alliance and National Energy Action that has grouped together to push for a cut in VAT on home improvement... Read more...
"Almost one million teenagers have failed to achieve even the lowest possible passing grade, G, in five GCSEs since Labour took power in 1997. The report by the Bow Group found that the number of pupils failing to achieve five GCSEs rose last year to 90,000 - the highest figure... Read more...
Haircuts from the Old Lady Mervyn King has taken heavy flak over his handling of the banking crisis, especially from government politicians. For months he stood virtually alone in the corridors of power arguing that the bankers had made the profits, so they should reap the losses. Thank goodness... Read more...
The Express and Star reports that Supplementary Business Rates, as recommended by the Centre for Cities, would raise £27.5million by allowing local councils to levy an extra 2p in the pound on businesses in their area. Apparently this additional money would be spent on transport, roads and housing. ... Read more...
Ed Balls, the Children and Schools Minister, announced yesterday that head teachers from successful grammar and faith schools will be ‘encouraged’ to take a more active role in the management of failing schools. This ‘encouragement’ will come in the form of new system of ‘rewards and incentives’, with the potential... Read more...
It's not just home loans that can go critical We've been trying to uncover exactly what the government has promised to the banks. But so far taxpayers have been told very little. Still, the bankers definitely know they're on a promise, as we can see from their share... Read more...
The TaxPayers' Alliance West Midlands has its own dedicated blog. Click here to view it. Read more...
The Fabian Society – a far-left ‘think’ tank – have published a report out today in an attempt to resuscitate the hated Inheritance Tax or, as we know it, the Death Tax. What is more interesting is the report attempts to initiate a campaign for an anti-taxpayers alliance. Yes, that’s... Read more...
If you’ve been wondering how I’m continuing to find quangos to add to this seemingly endless list (and believe me, there are plenty more where these came from…) then I just invite you to type ‘West Midlands’ in to Google. Read more...
Some publications can give more of an insight into the authors than the issue - and one such example is the Fabian Society's new pamphlet "Defending Inheritance Tax". Aside from defending a tax that has been overwhelmingly rejected by all strata of the British public, and proposing an even more... Read more...
The police today are complaining that their role is 'not recognised' as the Home Secretary didn't honour the results of their pay arbitration. It really says something that they are looking to the politicians for validation. The very idea of the police as public servants has been undermined by political... Read more...
"HM Revenue & Customs has been accused of "double standards" after the disclosure that its 83,000 staff do not have to submit receipts to cover claims ranging from meals to hotel accommodation and travel and are entitled to expenses without forking out any money. [...] Clive Gawthorpe, a UHY Hacker... Read more...
Braintree borough council has disgraced itself today. Their advert in this morning’s Guardian Society jobs page for a ‘Climate Change Manager’ is blank save for two sentences and the council logo. It measures 13cms x 19cms and has barely anything in it. The ad boasts that it’s ‘saved ink’ but... Read more...
Even if you haven't heard of Shire Pharmaceuticals or their ADHD drug, Adderall, which they describe as the "leading brand in the US market" you should still be very concerned at the possibility they might leave Britain due to high levels of tax, as is reported in City Am. This... Read more...