Consultants don't do flood defences In the news this week:Defra blows another £1.1bn on consultants- "Vital flood defence funding was cut while ministers spent a record £1 billion on management consultants... Defra spent £140million on consultants in 2002-3, reaching £290 million in 2006-7. It has spent £1.1 billion since 2002.... Read more...
Yesterday a council instructed a community-aware couple not to tend to a grass verge by their house because it prevented council staff from ‘monitoring’ when it needed to be cut. Today Oakley and Deane Parish Council have ordered residents not to feed the ducks because, and I never knew this,... Read more...
Leggett's article for Comment is Free is so idiotic it is positively painful. I'll fisk it and then quickly conclude with a little examination of his dubious byline: "When Britain and Germany raced to scale up their aircraft industries for war in the 1930s, the British competed rather well. Recovering... Read more...
How to get shameless workshy dole recipients back to work and earning their own keep is one of the oldest problems in welfare. Indeed, it was the principal driver for the Poor Law reforms of the 1830s (see this blog and James Bartholomew's outstanding Welfare State We're In for... Read more...
Still-rising levels of truancy, reported today by the Independent, are a result of the failure of an education system under political mangement. There are a few key failures at work here. 1) Children haven't learn to read Poor literacy standards mean that a child will often find the... Read more...
Around 40 TPA supporters and activists joined us last night at the Old Monk Pub for the first London area social. We had a great turnout, allowing the TPA staff to meet our activists working so hard campaigning for lower taxes and better government. It was also a good opportunity... Read more...
TPA says MPs "should be ashamed of themselves" Increase per MP calculated by TPA TPA calls on Commons authorities to follow Scottish Parliament in revealing itemised expenses Responding to the publication of MPs’ expense claims for 2006-07 today, the TaxPayers' Alliance described the rises as “extortionate”. TPA... Read more...
The TPA’s analysis of today’s expense claim figures for MPs ranks the main Parties by the average amount claimed per MP in expenses. Travel expenses are excluded given the different geographic spread of the Parties. Matthew Elliott, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: “Conservative MPs should be... Read more...
Have a read of this non-job an activist alerted us to: “Young Mayor Co-ordinator£27,800 - £34,100 pa inc. In October 2007, the young people of Newham have voted for their first ever Young Mayor. You will provide principal support to the Young Mayor, working with him to deliver... Read more...
In the wake of the TaxPayers’ Alliance inadvertently attracting media attention for their “non-job” of the week - as advertised by Sandwell Council - another job of ambiguous merit has surfaced on the Coventry City Council website… Community Lifestyle Coach £22,293 - £27,492pa A physical activity professional, you... Read more...
Can’t council bureaucrats find anything better to do than discourage social, voluntary activity helping the local community? If you’ve read the Telegraph this morning you’ll see the disappointing story involving Broxbourne Council asking Stan and Jean Chatterton to stop cleaning a grass verge near their house. In a letter... Read more...
The Telegraph reports statistics from the ONS showing that middle class professionals are outliving builders and cleaners by as much as eight years: One of the factors that the report cited as possibly affecting a person's life expectancy was interesting: "But the nature of people's jobs... Read more...
The Mail reports today that MPs are struggling to find employment on leaving work: "The study said employers have little use for former MPs - and some take more than a year to find a job. Those who do manage to find work often complain that they do not earn... Read more...
Yesterday we noted how Renfrewshire Council was spending £100,000 on desks. Today we learn that the government has been spending £57,000+ on ministerial red boxes in the past 5 years. A series of questions and freedom of information requests from Lib Dem MP John Hemming showed that the Department for... Read more...
The Telegraph reports that the official estimate of unfunded public sector pension liabilities has risen to £620 billion, up from the previous official estimate of £530 billion. This works out at around £30,000 per household over the next four decades. Of course, the official projection is at the low... Read more...
A TPA activist has given us a heads-up on some remarkable government procurement projects put out to tender. The first comes from Thurrock Council where we have bad news for the Bus service, but good news for the Mayor. They’re looking for a chauffeur service to ferry the Mayor... Read more...
Tax-news.com reports that Canadian Liberals, who reduced the federal corporation tax rate from 28 per cent to 19 per cent when in office, are now proposing to reduce the rate even more, and by more than the 0.5 per cent reduction proposed by the incumbent Conservative Party: Liberal Leader Stephane... Read more...
An interesting new paper from Policy Exchange argues that Britain's strong economic growth over the past 15 years is not as positive as it seems. It has, instead, been built on the back of a surge in house prices, leading to a lower savings ratio and a huge increase in... Read more...
Last week Sandwell Council deservedly got a lot of flack from us by advertising for two positions in their welfare rights department. This week, Nottingham City Council is advertising for ten positions in its welfare rights department. Top City firms may be handing out redundancies, but the welfare rights industry... Read more...
An interesting snippet from Greg Mankiw's blog - according to the OECD tax revenue as a share of GDP in the UK is higher than it was in 1975, the hight of Old Labour socialism. This needn't be the case if our politicians didn't act as a high-tax cartel. ... Read more...
No word of a lie but Nick Ferrari on LBC Radio has revealed that Leicestershire County Council will allow its staff to take an afternoon off just to go Christmas shopping (found in the Leicestershire local paper too). Good for them, but they’re still on the clock. As far as... Read more...
Following on from the widely-reported failues of the NHS to tackle hospital superbugs comes the news that one in three NHS trusts is struggling financially. How is this possible? The NHS now consumes around £100 billion a year, a threefold increase in the last decade. We can only repeat... Read more...
The former finance director of North Stoke Primary Care Trust who presided as the body plunged into £6million of debt and was subsequently suspended from her £85,000-a-year post on full pay for 18 months has also received a “golden handshake” of over £30,000 on quitting, today’s The Sentinel reports. ... Read more...
The man who cost us our shirt BBC File on Four has broadcast an investigation into yet another shambles bequeathed to taxpayers by John Prescott (listen again here). It's likely to cost us another EU fine running into tens of millions (cf the £436m EU fine for Margaret Beckett's fiasco... Read more...