There is room for debate on whether reducing inequality is a proper goal for government. Too often attempts to tackle inequality substitute petty attacks on 'the rich' (usually the middle classes are the ones actually affected) for meaningful attempts to help the poor. However, as reducing inequality has been a... Read more...
Pharmacists have never had it so good Listening to the commissars' latest wheeze for dumbing down the NHS - getting pharmacists to replace GPs - you have to guess they don't visit many chemists. Judging from the queues and the waits, many chemists have problems simply dealing with their... Read more...
The Noble Lord Snape, former railwayman and MP, has rushed to the defence of speaker Michael Martin, calling the inquiry into his wife’s £4,000 taxi bill a “load of fuss and nonsense about nothing”. He states his position clearly in an interview with the BBC, which you can see... Read more...
This week we bring you the management board of West Midlands in Europe, and you can rest assured - there are some familiar names in here... Read more...
Although we regularly highlight non-jobs in local government, and we will this week, this week’s non-job of the week is going to be a little bit different. We maintain through our campaigns that we want taxpayers’ money to go to the frontline. Our reports have exposed the growth in middle... Read more...
Further to our complaint to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner back in February, it has today been confirmed that Michael Martin is to be investigated over expenses claimed by his wife for taxi trips to the supermarket. You can read the full letter from the Commissioner here: Download michael_martin_1.jpg ... Read more...
Despite public services, managed by politicians, failing in so many areas politicians are still trying to further their control over the rest of us. The rate at which new regulations are imposed is even increasing - hurting Britain's competitiveness and creating endless new frustrations: "Red Tape Day looms this week... Read more...
Today’s Birmingham Post heralds new Government plans to take funding decisions away from mother-quango Advantage West Midlands and pass powers over to our local councils. At first glance it looks as though a “senate” of West Midlands councils will replace the agency altogether, but it seems that they would... Read more...
14 TPA Activists gathered on Monday morning to protest with Steve Peers, who was taken to court over £65 non-payment of Council Tax. This isn’t the first time he’s withheld council tax either. He was sent to prison back in January, on his 40th birthday no less, for non-payment... Read more...
So does the newly published Crock Restructuring Plan finally bring some comfort for taxpayers? The basic idea is that NR will go on a crash diet, slimming from total assets of £107bn at end-2007, to £49bn by end-2011. That will be achieved by encouraging existing mortgagees to switch... Read more...
NHS Blog Doctor's attack on the Town Hall Rich List 2008 and the TaxPayers' Alliance is a mix of ignorance and irrelevance. Little more than a dishonest and misleading smear. First, he makes the startling discovery that the TaxPayers' Alliance thinks tax is a bad thing. That with the... Read more...
Dr. Terence Kealey (Vice Chancellor of Buckingham University) recently explained on Radio 4’s PM programme that Ireland is now wealthier than the UK. Indeed, Ireland’s per capita income is $38,504; the UK’s is $33,238. It is probably for the first time ever that Ireland is wealthier than the UK. ... Read more...
Our Budget 2008 Report (PDF), released shortly before the Budget, set out how a range of public services - particularly education, health and law and order - had achieved very little improvement in standards despite vast increases in funding. What these services need isn't yet more resources but to be... Read more...
The second Town Hall Rich List provides details of over 800 local authority employees with remuneration packages of at least £100,000 for the periods 2005-06 and 2006-07, including 14 earning more than the Prime Minister.Click here to read the report Read more...
FULL LIST OF THE 818 COUNCIL EMPLOYEES EARNING OVER £100,000 PUBLISHED INDIVIDUAL DETAILS OF NAMES, JOBS AND FULL REMUNERATION PACKAGES FOR SENIOR OFFICIALS AT HUNDREDS OF COUNCILS Download the full report (PDF, 1.3MB) The TaxPayers' Alliance presents the second annual Town Hall Rich List, which reveals details... Read more...
Some fascinating statistics from Michael Gove MP setting out how too many children are let down by our education system: Click here (PDF) for a larger version. Politicians have proved unable to deliver an effective education system. We need to free education from political control and... Read more...
Apparently (via Tim Worstall) the least competent people are also the least likely to know they are incompetent - they lack self-monitoring skills: "One reason that the ignorant also tend to be the blissfully self-assured, the researchers believe, is that the skills required for competence often are the same skills... Read more...
The Department for Communities and Local Government has issued its ridiculous defence of this year’s Council Tax increases, much along the lines of “it’s the least worst rise in 11 years”, which is as much of a paradox as ‘helpful botulism’ or ‘medicinal anthrax’. You’ll read in today’s and... Read more...
Today the Department of Communities and Local Government will announce Council Tax increases set to land on doormats all over the UK. It’s doubled in ten years and will soar beyond the official inflation figure of 2.5% this year. People are being sent to prison for being unable or refusing... Read more...
A few months ago Mike Denham wondered, on the Burning Our Money blog, whether the new eco-towns would be "The Crap Towns Of Tomorrow". After all, the last generation of government sponsored new towns hardly matched up to the initial, idealistic visions. Even the relatively successful schemes like Harlow are... Read more...
After a three year battle by the redoubtable Heather Brooke of Your Right to Know and a number of other investigative journalists, the Commons authorities have found themselves backed into a bit of a corner over MPs' second home expenses. Sadly it seems the Commission doesn't know when to quit... Read more...
Finance is fantastically profitable... so why are taxpayers bailing it out? Taxpayers on both sides of the Atlantic should be depressed by yesterday's decision by the US authorities to revise their Bear Stearns bail-out terms. Instead of lending JP Morgan $30bn against the collateral of Bear assets, US taxpayers... Read more...
Local Government reform has always been a bit of a minefield. The current patchwork of unitaries, counties, metropolitans, towns and districts, many of which elect councillors at varied and bemusing intervals is testament to the sheer number and poor record of repeated attempts to alter Britain's local governance. It... Read more...
The Telegraph reports that ten hospitals have mortality rates far above the 'expected' level: "The baseline for England is set at 100 and a lower figure indicates fewer patients died than expected, and a higher one means more patients died. The latest Good Hospital Guide, compiled by Dr Foster Research,... Read more...