BBC Radio Wales: TPA activist Lee Canning was interviewed about Council Tax in Wales
Tuesday 6 March 2012
Telegraph Blogs: Don’t tax wealth. Don’t tax income. Tax Consumption
There is, however, a third way. Imagine you were getting rid of the tax system as it stands and starting over (a project, as it happens, that the TaxPayers’ Alliance and the Institute of Directors are currently engaged in).
DailyRecord.co.uk: Revealed: Scottish councils spent £70m
Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “This is an incredible amount of money to be spent on taxis at a time when local authorities have to do more to save money.”
Daily Express: £7m-a-year for those ‘too fat to work’
Robert Oxley, Campaign Manager of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “The growing obesity crisis is increasing the benefits bill. Health care must focus on early prevention of obesity to prevent costs rising.”
He added: “There have to be incentives for people to live healthily enough to get back on the jobs ladder.”
Daily Express: Whining Peers in the soup over food
Emma Boon, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Peers get a huge taxpayer subsidy on meals. It’s scandalous that they complain.”
The Mirror: We want posher nosh: Pampered peers whine about their subsidised food
The Lords’ moans follow similar whining from MPs unhappy about the price of beer and the size of soup bowls, but Emma Boon of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “It’s scandalous that they are complaining when they get such a good deal.
“Taxpayers have seen the cost of feeding themselves rocket. It’s time subsidies were ended and peers lived in the real world.”
The Independent: MPs to get £15m a year to pay staff
Campaign group the TaxPayers’ Alliance said it could see no justification for increasing the staffing allowance.
Political director Jonathan Isaby said: “It is entirely right that MPs should be afforded appropriate financial and staff support in performing their important duties, but Ipsa specifically acknowledges that even now the majority of MPs are not using their full staff funding allocation.
“So taxpayers will be confused – especially at a time when there is a public sector pay freeze – as to why an increase is being proposed for the staffing budget.
“When families, businesses, councils and government departments alike are all having to make savings, we cannot see a justification for an increase in staff expenditure: MPs too must have regard to the pressures on public funds.”
ITPro: BT and TalkTalk DEA appeals denied
Dominique Lazanski, head of digital policy at the TaxPayers Alliance, said the ruling made matters a little clearer, but there remained ambiguity over implementation of the DEA.
“Though the court ruling is disappointing, BT and TalkTalk always say that they won’t website block without a court judgement or court ruling. This judgement provides more legal certainty though it isn’t ideal,” Lazanski told IT Pro.
“However, ISPs and rights holders continue to talk in round table sessions and this is continues to be a good approach. We are likely to see some legislative proposals on this issue in the Communications Bill green paper and that will, I hope, clarify a number of issues left hanging by the lack of DEA implementation.”
