New investigation reveals true picture of generous Westminster salariesFirst comprehensive comparison with European politiciansA new research note from the TaxPayers’ Alliance seeks to put paid to suggestions of a pay rise for Members of Parliament by revealing the true scale of their pay packets, and comparing them to Parliamentarians abroad.... Read more...
I want to point out here that I apologise for the use of acronyms; the alphabet soup of our government just gets more absurd by the day. Onto the plot…Yesterday I was back in Bath for yet another Bath and North East Somerset Council Development Control Committee meeting (the planning committee... Read more...
Yesterday the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) released a report that criticised the Government on its emissions policy. The report, Greening Government, suggests that the Government is unlikely to meet its 2011 targets for reducing CO2 emissions; carbon output has dropped by 6.3 per cent on 1999 levels – just half... Read more...
There are nearly 500 jobs on offer in the government sector, plenty offering final salary pensions gold plated with taxpayers’ money. Compare that with the £100 billion deficit in FTSE 100 private sector pensions and you can see the problem.The tip of the iceberg this week is the non-job of... Read more...
Stoke, a council that could probably count itself amongst those with the worst reputation in the country, has treated some of its communications team to an evening of booze and back-slapping in London, all courtesy of the very taxpayers who are currently facing cuts in frontline services (The Sentinel).The council... Read more...
According to an article in the Walsall Chronicle (23rd July) sent over by a WMTPA activist, Walsall councillors claimed £830,923 in expenses over the last year, making them the third biggest claimants in the Black Country and Staffordshire, beaten only by Staffordshire County Council whose elected members claimed £988,637, and... Read more...
Yesterday, the Annual Report of the Commons Administration was released, revealing the generous pay increase given to staff in the last 12 months. Included in this is Malcolm Jack, Clerk to the House, whose pay shot up nearly 11%- meaning he now earns more than the Prime Minister. Also of... Read more...
We often hear about huge amounts of waste in the public sector: quangos; MPs’ expenses; extravagant executive pay. What tend to go unnoticed are the smaller examples. Talking to a Chartered Accountant this morning, I was informed that HMRC recently sent out pension coding forms to accountants’ offices for completion.... Read more...
The new TaxPayers' Alliance report Taxpayer funded lobbying and political campaigning reveals the extent of taxpayer funded lobbying and political campaigning in the UK. The Conservatives have pledged to stop public bodies spending taxpayers’ money on lobbying, and this report reveals for the first time that over £37 million a year... Read more...
Today the Secretary of State for Transport, Sadiq Khan, gave the go-ahead for the introduction of a Workplace Parking Levy (the Levy) in Nottingham. The Levy, to be introduced in 2012, is the UK’s first tax on parking spaces. Initially; it will place a charge of £185 on businesses that... Read more...
Today the WMTPA released a story in the local media about the £12,500 expenses claim filed by Suzie Norton, chief executive of film quango Screen WM, which included her membership of the Ivy Club in London, and asked whether taxpayers should be footing the bill for her enviable lifestyle? Read more...
Juxtapose these two points. 1. Barking and Dagenham was crowned London’s most unhealthy borough last year.2. Health and safety officials at Barking and Dagenham council have forbidden swimmers at the local pool from swimming lengths – instead forcing swimmers to swim widths instead. Who in their right mind, without any... Read more...
A unique collaboration between the TaxPayers' Alliance (TPA) and leading economic forecaster the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) reveals the worrying vulnerability of the public finances, and the dangerous reliance of the Treasury on optimistic predictions of the future economy. Given the Treasury's track record of making highly... Read more...
According to this blogger the West Midlands will soon see the demise of one of its many many quangos as Shropshire’s own Transforming Telford looks to be nearing the end. The powers of this regeneration quango are being repatriated to Telford & Wrekin Council, and although the local authority... Read more...
Here at the TPA we always advocate the benefits of transparency in the public sector and yesterday this policy was justified by the findings of a health statistics report. Published by the Society of Cardiothoracic Surgery, the report has found that an increase in transparency and availability of data has... Read more...
Readers may remember earlier comments made on this thread, regarding the head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). Since then, however, Mr. Trevor Phillips has dug himself an even deeper hole. Over recent weeks his super-quango has had a rough time of it and has been subject to... Read more...
The Guardian’s list of jobs this week has almost 500 positions in government that need to be filled. More importantly, you're required to pay for them. On the right you can see the chart detailing the jobs and salary bands you’ve generously ‘contributed’ to. There were plenty of contenders... Read more...
It looks as though residents in Malvern Hills will be limited to just two sacks of non-recyclable rubbish a week as District Council chiefs feel the pressure from central government to hit landfill targets in the area. The new rule looks set to be okayed this evening, and will... Read more...
I just wanted to flag up a few choice words from the inimitable Fergus Shanahan in his Sun column today: Dwarf French President Nicolas Sarkozy is carted off to hospital suffering from exhaustion, anxiously pursued on a motorbike by his sex goddess wife Carla Bruni. Italy's randy old... Read more...
A few weeks ago we reported on the campaign to save Swindon ’s small community libraries from closure. Since knowing about the ‘alphabet soup’ quangocracy that governs library policy, and can advise on whether to keep certain libraries open or not, we’ve got more involved in this grassroots effort to... Read more...
In a catastrophic 12-page report, the interim chief executive of Surrey County Council slates the leadership, organisation and strategy of the borough. You can read the full report here but these paragraphs really stand out: Para 13“The difficult position in which the County Council finds itself is fundamentally a... Read more...
New report argues that government tax changes will reduce the incentives to become an entrepreneur. The top marginal tax rate on income earned, saved, invested in a company and then passed on to children is currently 90 per cent. With the forthcoming 50 per cent top tax rate, that will... Read more...
Finally, I have found some positive news in the British government: the new Mayor of Doncaster, Peter Davies. This is a man who is setting a positive example for all British politicians and proving his worth by cutting his spending. Since being elected in June, the Mayor has slashed... Read more...
Today the Transport Select Committee have said that the public do not trust the Government with road taxation. The report says that changes to Vehicle Excise Duty have damaged the reputation of green taxes, essentially meaning that people do not believe that taxes are used for anything other than old-fashioned... Read more...