From the Financial Times: "A pioneering £700m-a-year government scheme to buy surgical treatment centres and diagnostic services from the private sector is set to be more than halved by ministers. The decision – expected later this week – will not only mark another retreat from the use of the private... Read more...
The Telegraph reports a study by researchers at Lancaster University that claims to show that the £3 billion spent on education reforms such as specialist schools has been wasted. "By comparing results between schools, the researchers found the Excellence in Cities and specialist schools programmes boosted grades over the period... Read more...
Q. If you were in charge of any ministry which one would it be and why? I would like to be the last Minister for Europe. Q. What are the three most successful policies you can think of in the post-war era? Privatisation and the “right to buy” council homes. ... Read more...
Last week we blogged on how the EU has not signed off its own accounts for well over a decade and had sacked former accountant Marta Andreasen for saying the EU was rife with “slush funds and fraud”. On urging our activists to ask their MEP’s why the EU... Read more...
The helicopter force of Apache gunships and Chinook transports that the British Army relies upon for support and mobility is apparently falling to pieces. Half of the Apache gunships were grounded over summer and one third of the Chinooks withdrawn from service as not "fit for purpose". These can... Read more...
This year’s Public Sector Rich List includes a list of the top ten ‘Rewards for Failure’. But it’s not enough just to show how failure has been rewarded with taxpayers’ money; British taxpayers also have a right to complain. Even where people have left their job – as Rose Gibb... Read more...
Another day, another depressing headline. Yet another international league that Britain is at the bottom of: "UK children aged 11 to 16 have the lowest international awareness among their age group in 10 countries, a British Council survey says." The British Council receives £195,352,000 per year in government funding supposedly... Read more...
They stopped the Asylum Centre, but we still had to pay In the news this week-Non-existent asylum centres cost £35m- "Botched plans to detain thousands of asylum seekers in the depths of the countryside have wasted £35 million of taxpayers' money. Officials at the Home Office have also been... Read more...
In November 2006 the TaxPayers' Alliance produced the first ever list of the richest people in the public sector. The second edition of the annual Public Sector Rich List presents a list of the 300 most highly paid people in the public sector – people receiving remuneration packages of at... Read more...
Regeneration via the built environment From Caligula to Hitler to Caeusescu to John Prescott, deluded Big Government autocrats have always loved bulldozing other people's homes to erect their Thousand Year monuments.A key part of Prescott's plan was called Housing Market Renewal, the grandiose project to rebuild the North and parts... Read more...
In any campaign it's important to look not only at individual successes and the immediate future but to also consider the bigger picture. In the TPA's case that means asking whether victories on individual taxes and specific issues of waste and inefficiency are altering the overall tone of the tax... Read more...
Marta Andreasen, the former chief accountant of the European Union, has lost her claim against the EU for wrongful dismissal. She was sacked after alleging that EU book-keeping was riddled with “slush funds and fraud” and disclosing that there was a £130million discrepancy between two sets of EU accounts which,... Read more...
The idea of allowing communities to form co-operative schools, proposed by the Conservatives yesterday in Manchester, has a lot to recommend it. It would get politicians out of the management of education in many areas if the idea was taken-up on the same scale as in Sweden and Spain. Those... Read more...
Policy Exchange have released a report (PDF) examing the effectiveness of expensive regeneration schemes designed to create a renaissance in poor inner cities. Their research team's findings offer a fascinating insight into how the divide between successful suburb and poor inner city has actually grown over time: "On GVA, the... Read more...
The Telegraph reports new government plans for slow readers to stay behind after school for "back-to-basics lessons in how to recognise words and extra time practising silent reading to bring them up to scratch". It is tempting to argue for or against this as a policy in isolation. Will... Read more...
Today at the pumps The back story Just take a moment to make sure you understand what's going on here.Since Labour came to power, the average pump price of unleaded petrol has increased from 55.8p per litre to 100.06p, a rise of 44.3p (79%).Of that extra 44.3p, no less than... Read more...
Peter Webb is branch organiser for the South West Surrey Branch of the TaxPayers' Alliance including STAG (the Surrey Tax Action Group). Here he explains how he got involved in activism and offers some good tips as to how other activists can get involved and hold their authorities to account:... Read more...
With the new practice of trailing the Queen's Speech in advance, and testing the water on various proposals, people could perhaps be forgiven for not getting as excited as is traditional about the Bills laid out yesterday. After all, the issues are all fairly recognisable and much-debated already, agree with... Read more...
It’s that time again, the weekly painful trawl through the pages of the Guardian Society jobs section to find yet more cringe-worthy jobs you couldn’t make up but ones that you certainly are paying for. We look this week to North Norfolk District Council, spending your money on a ‘County... Read more...
It’s been an exciting two days for the TPA grassroots campaign. Yesterday activists from Hatfield, St. Albans and Stevenage got together for another meeting to organise yet more campaign activities in Hertfordshire. They have already handed out well over 400 leaflets in a month, with more on their way. If... Read more...
Yesterday’s Shropshire Star reported some profligate spending of the most ridiculous kind by Shropshire County Council. The council, who tender out contracts to taxi firms taking local children to and from school, have been paying for a taxi to travel around 600 miles per week in order to take... Read more...
Comrades- we will build ten million more Labour has spent billions of our cash on increasing the quantity of state education.In 2006-07 it spent £74bn, more than double the £36.4bn spent ten years ago (a 60% increase in real terms). And that leaves out of account the much greater debts... Read more...
Oh Deer… This is an actual job from the Scottish ‘Government’: “Deer Officer £21,292 - £28,520 This post is responsible for delivering Deer Commission for Scotland (DCS) work across the Central Belt, the Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, and Fife, and for helping to develop new policy,... Read more...
One of the main reasons taxpayers are opposed to identity cards is the sheer cost of them and the potential spiralling cost to administer a scheme that may well not work as well as the politicians foresee. Is it any wonder we suspect the costs will grow when the... Read more...