Today’s Birmingham Post reports that the Government will pay consultants more than £210,000 for an ‘unprecedented’ second opinion document detailing how many homes should be built in the West Midlands. This news has incited the anger of many West Midlands councillors who have blasted the whole exercise as a... Read more...
TPA activist Grace Chen answered our recent call for action with a superb email I’d like to share. In writing to her council leader to hold them to account over lost money in the failing Icelandic banks, she wrote: Regarding Icelandic banks, I do understand and agree with the... Read more...
If North Lanarkshire Council wanted good PR, they wouldn’t be advertising for this job which sits as our non-job of the week: “Head of Corporate Communications and Marketing£73,449 plus PRP (performance related pay) to a maximum of £4,899 We are looking for an experienced communications and marketing... Read more...
Mr Brown takes his choice and we pays our money According to the government, because they cut borrowing so much from the level they inherited from the Tories, they have loads of scope to borrow more now. Others point to the leaky roof, and the fact that borrowing is higher... Read more...
The problem with serious deficiencies in an education system persisting over a number of years is that today's students are tomorrow's teachers. Earlier products of our over-centralised education system, controlled by bureaucrats and politicians instead of teachers and parents, are now becoming teachers. The Times reports that trainee teachers are... Read more...
Cameron and Osborne's latest announcement on the economic crisis is a good start, but they must still go further for it to be of meaningful benefit. The idea is to offer small businesses a VAT deferral, allowing them to pay their VAT six months later than expected. Some have assumed... Read more...
This, from the Times, appears to be yet another example of clumsy public sector targets. There should be a balance between keeping unnecessary referrals to a minimum and making sure that referrals are made when they are worthwhile. The PCTs don't have any direct incentive to provide the service patients... Read more...
On Friday we blogged here and sent out an action alert to all our supporters to lobby those responsible for Town Hall mismanagement. The two stories that caught our attention involved Three Rivers District Council giving their chief executive a day off a week, whilst on full pay, to ‘enjoy... Read more...
The Healthcare Commission - the government's NHS watchdog in England - yesterday published its annual report into the performance of NHS Trusts. Despite its predictably positive overtones - "Patients and the public should celebrate these results as they show a real shift in performance"- the report does find some... Read more...
Spot the doublespeak in the following article from the Romford Recorder: “HAVERING Council leader, Michael White, has committed himself to not raising council tax after it was revealed that the council has millions of pounds locked up in struggling Icelandic banks... Cllr White again reassured Havering residents that... Read more...
John Stossel, in the Wall Street Journal, makes a powerful case that attempts to control by regulation activities that are regulated by spontaneous order are usually doomed to fail: "Most of life works by spontaneous order. It characterizes how we choose our jobs, hobbies, associates, recreation, etc. When politicians try... Read more...
It was reported this week that a council erected 'graffiti wall' had been defaced by an angry resident who, before the official unveiling, sneaked in and wrote on the wall, "I paid my taxes and all i got was this lousy wall". The wall is said to have cost... Read more...
Two stories in the papers today come from the ring top circuses of Herefordshire county council and Three Rivers council. They defy belief. Herefordshire resident Brian Hubbard has been ordered to stop cutting a grass verge outside his home because it makes the road look ‘too tidy’. In addition... Read more...
If you've ever wondered what happens to the vast amounts of taxpayers' money that flows into the EU, read this and weep: The EU, eager to improve the lives of the 7.5 million Bulgarians, dangled €11 billion, or nearly $15 billion, in aid. Far from halting crime and violence, the... Read more...
The Police Federation of England and Wales will make a complaint to Parliament that they are unable to properly respond to all 999 calls that come in because they are too preoccupied with drunken violence. However, their claim is that the problem is not too many drunks on the streets,... Read more...
By 2050 Ed Miliband will be more than eighty years old and no longer in government. The new 80% target for greenhouse gas emission cuts is therefore not a standard that he will be judged by. It is just a way of striking a pose, and an absurd one. Since... Read more...
A report by the Centre for Cities has confirmed what we might have already assumed, that Birmingham business is ‘drowning in a sea of complex and Government-backed support organisations’. An article about the report appeared in the Birmingham Post at the end of last week, detailing how firms looking... Read more...
The Telegraph reports an incredible gap in educational performance between more and less affluent areas: "Figures from the Tories show just 3.3 per cent of teenagers in one area of Bradford, which includes the deprived Holme Wood estate, left school in 2007 with five A* to C grades including England... Read more...
The Telegraph's headline says it all: "Government cuts train overcrowding with new definition". Basically, the Government have trebled the number of people standing, per sitting passenger, that it takes for a train to be defined as 'overcrowded'. That way they can cut 'overcrowding' without any actual increase in capacity. ... Read more...
The fallout from the financial crises is beginning to bite in the public sector, with news that many jobs and initiatives will be lost. The Times is reporting that up to 10,000 jobs could be lost in the Ministry of Justice, as the department tries to locate £900 million in... Read more...
While people across the UK are spending less on luxury items in these economically troubled times, the NHS has found a way to spend more. £400,000 more to be exact. The East Yorkshire NHS Trust have proposed buying a £400,000 yacht to promote an unconventional education program that will take... Read more...
Powys Council and others, sadly, have taken the drastic step of turning street lights off during the night to save money as well as energy. Despite the best of intentions, a story in the Daily Express today – not online – reveals some unfortunate unintended consequences. The effects of... Read more...
This week’s non-job was always going to be pretty serious seeing as one in four councils lost millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money in failing Icelandic banks. Inflation reached the benchmark of 5.2%, meaning if councils want to increase council tax at the rate of inflation they will be capped... Read more...
The Times reports that SATs are going to be scrapped: "National school testing for 14-year-olds in England is to be scrapped as part of a major shake up of testing in primary and secondary education, the Government announced today. Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, said that Key Stage 3 National... Read more...