In the second of today’s duck-related blogs, Sir Peter Viggers is to step down at the next election after The Telegraph revealed that he claimed £1,645 for a ‘duck island’ in the middle of his pond. This is of course a ludicrous claim and it is absolutely right that he... Read more...
The Daily Star recently reported "A Duckin' Waste of £300,000". A DEFRA-funded study showed that rain, or a nice shower, is good for ducks. Susie Squire, TPA Campaign Manager, criticised the spending, saying that "It is common sense that ducks like rain and water. The last thing the government should be allocating... Read more...
With MPs’ expenses dominating the headlines, news that the pay-packets of Shell executives have been challenged by shareholders may seem unsurprising. The FT says that 59 per cent of the company’s shareholders have voted down the remuneration report at Shell, in scenes similar to those at shareholder meetings of Next... Read more...
Today, the Commons will vote on the level of the BBC licence fee. The Government seems to be planning to approve yet another increase, whilst the Tories are proposing a freeze. A freeze would of course be better than another rise, but in actual fact a cut is perfectly possible.... Read more...
The whole MPs' expenses scandal has reinforced the need for transparency in public spending. The entire sorry affair, from John Reid's sparkly toilet seat to Elliot Morley's phantom mortgage,is a textbook study of exactly how secrecy breeds deceit. Happily, the internet provides just the technology to change that. Indeed,... Read more...
The Coventry Telegraph has revealed how Warwickshire County Council’s “Go Green” boss has been using his 4x4 vehicle to clock up almost 10,000 miles, costing taxpayers no less than £8,500. Martin Healey, the council’s ‘environmental leader’, hasn’t exactly been leading by example as his expenses claims for mileage topped... Read more...
The news, reported in the Telegraph, that Nick Brown has claimed tens of thousands of pounds, including £18,000 just for food, in expenses without even submitting receipts makes it clear why we can't trust the political parties to decide which candidates need to go. At the moment, the decision over what... Read more...
The expenses scandal rumbles on. The revelations of the past 10 days or so have lifted the lid on a culture of recklessness and greed in Westminster. Receipt after receipt for items such as bathplugs and light bulbs have exasperated the people paying for it all – the taxpayers. ... Read more...
500+ jobs are on offer this week in the government sector, a week where parliament and government lost the people’s trust over the Commons expenses scandal. With everyone’s eyes on how the politicians spend our money, we give you our non-job of the week as another reason why taxpayers need... Read more...
You’re a business owner in Dudley trying your level best to make it through this difficult period and hoping that things pick-up so that you can retain staff and turn a profit. You may be faced with something of an uphill struggle and then out of nowhere – Is it... Read more...
Today the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) published the results of its long running enquiry into the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) 20 largest military procurements. Pulling no punches in its criticisms, the report highlights a total cost overrun of £205 million and 96 months of additional ‘slippage’ from set target dates, equivalent... Read more...
The Express & Star revealed today that disgraced ex-West Midlands Fire Chief Frank Sheehan will be receiving a taxpayer-funded pension of over £100,000 despite being forced to quit following a child pornography investigation. Sheehan, who was not charged as the CPS claimed it wasn’t in the public interest to... Read more...
At the Police Federation's annual conference, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was told that she and the Government had created a "Hokey Cokey" Criminal Justice System. Police representatives made it clear that they are frustrated with the system that allows convicted felons back on the streets too easily. They claim the... Read more...
Following the latest - and most shocking - revelations in the MPs' expenses saga, regarding Elliot Morley's claims for a mortgage that had already been paid off, the TaxPayers' Alliance have registered a formal complaint with the Metropolitan Police today. We have asked them to investigate whether Mr Morley is in breach... Read more...
For individuals at a certain level of the civil service it must be reassuring to know that if you fail - however spectacularly - you will never be out of work for long. Most likely another public sector appointment awaits you, perhaps with a slightly lower profile, but also perhaps... Read more...
Heather Brooke, the Freedom of Information Campaigner who won a High Court victory over the Parliamentary authorities to force the release of MPs’ expenses details, and the TaxPayers' Alliance have teamed up to produce a petition pressing for the immediate publication of all expenses receipts and guaranteed future transparency: We the people call... Read more...
Our stalwart Surrey TPA organiser Peter Webb gives us his campaign diary for Febrary, March and April. During the period campaigning has continued the pattern as before with local emphasis directed at the County Council. In particular: Following the meeting on 28th January for 2009-10 budget briefing a... Read more...
There is a video on the Newsnight website of Stephen Fry telling Michael Crick that all the fuss over MPs' expenses is 'nonsense', 'isn't the big picture' and 'simply doesn't matter'. Predictably, I beg to differ. I am a big fan of Stephen's work, the biggest in fact. But... Read more...
For a year from September 2007, my TPA blog continued to chronicle crap from the politicos in what amounted to updates to my book “Crap: A Guide to Politics”. The beginning of that blog describes the book itself, and the Introduction explains why my main source of political journalism was... Read more...
Yesterday the Coventry Telegraph used the our ‘Town Hall Rich List’, published last month, to run a story about the top ten bosses at Coventry City Council raking in no less than £1million between them. The fact that today the same newspaper published an article about two very elderly residents... Read more...
The latest revelations in the ongoing MPs’ expenses scandal revealing the indiscretions of the Tory front bench prove once and for all that the problem is a cross-party one, clearly so embedded in the culture of the House of Commons that politicians on all sides have been taking advantage of... Read more...
Houghton Hall - built on the proceeds of Sir Robert Walpole's efforts not to get rich in public service Amidst all the jaw-dropping revelations about their abuse of expenses, we have heard many MPs saying "we become MPs to serve the public... I can assure you that nobody comes into politics to get... Read more...
David Brooks yesterday used his column in the New York Times to draw peoples attention to the startling results coming out of New York's 'Charter Schools'. "The typical student entered the charter middle school ... in sixth grade [12 years old] and scored in the 39th percentile among New York... Read more...
Yesterday we held a very successful action day to launch the logo and slogan of our EU Campaign: TPA Activists handed out thousands of leaflets and free car window stickers to commuters at King's Cross, St Pancras, Charing Cross and Westminster Tube station: The leaflets and the message were... Read more...