TPA supporter Ian Taylor has handed me a couple of press clippings exposing an incredibly blasé attitude to taxpayers' money from Shepway Council leaders. They recently spent £2,000 of taxpayers money on a civic lunch for Council dignitaries, businessmen and 100 Mayors at ‘The Grand Hotel’ (how fitting) – enough... Read more...
The Uttoxeter Advertiser today reported on a leaked email that revealed the level of squabbling and in-fighting at Uttoxeter Town Council. In the email town clerk Barry Holland said that he felt a full council meeting two weeks ago represented the ‘death of democracy’ at the authority, with “certain... Read more...
TPA supporter Michael van Clarke gives his view on the credit crunch: Few people seem to fully appreciate the catastrophic damage 12 years of Gordon Brown have wreaked on our society. By 2010 Gordon’s debt bombshell will put the total UK housing market in negative equity. The Broken... Read more...
British taxpayers are in serious jeopardy of a once-in-one-thousand-year stuffing. With Mr Brown in Washington to discuss the crisis with President Bush this very day, the Simple Shopper - the same Shopper who can't even be trusted to buy Post-It notes - is now lining himself up to buy a... Read more...
The Aldersgate Group - a coalition of some green groups, quangos and a smattering of MPs and businesses - are circulating an open letter to Gordon Brown calling for the rapid introduction of mandatory carbon reporting. Their press release can be found here (DOC). This misguided and burdensome regulation... Read more...
Not a good place for serious debate Last night your correspondent gave up on the BBC hysteria of Mssrs Webb and Peston, and instead surfed the US News channels. He wanted to find out what's really going on with US Treasury Secretary Paulson's $700bn TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program). Unfortunately,... Read more...
He forgot to mention this one Yesterday, the Prime Minister listed the key achievements of the Labour government. Well, he actually told us how Britain would have suffered had the Tories remained in power: "No paternity leave, no New Deal, no bank of England independence, no Sure Start, no devolution,... Read more...
The Birmingham Post reports today that the latest Cushman & Wakefield UK cities monitor has Birmingham remaining in third position, behind London and Manchester, in this list of the best places to locate a business. Out of the fourteen categories used for assessment, the city slipped back in six,... Read more...
With over 800 jobs in government this week, who says there’s an economic crisis? There certainly doesn’t seem to be one in government funding. As you can see on the right, there are more than enough jobs on offer for government to subsidise and pay whomping great salaries for. Add... Read more...
In these troubled economic times everyone feels the pinch. Most of us will consider ourbudgets more carefully and think twice about our spending. Channel 4 it seems is no different. Hit by falling advertising revenues, Andy Duncun - the channel's Chief Executive - told press yesterday that "our objective... Read more...
The Guardian reports on yet another disastrous Government IT project, via Tim Worstall: "Ministers have admitted that nearly 200,000 school and college students are still waiting for study grants three weeks into term following the collapse of a new software system. The Department for Children, Schools and Families said there... Read more...
A few weeks ago a furore broke out over the Camden Councillor who moved to Arizona to study for a PhD. Due to the outrage that he was still pocketing a £700 a month allowance, he’s subsequently tendered his resignation to the Council. Consider that taxpayers one, councillors aboard the... Read more...
Charting a crisis So once again, it's taxpayers to the rescue. The bill will be big and will have several chunky elements: Debt - governments are taking on a stack of debt from floundering banks; in the US the transfer is adding hundreds of billions to taxpayer debt; here in... Read more...
Anyone reading the Express this morning is more than likely to choke on their cornflakes at the sight of the £900 extra we’ll have to pay in tax to cover Brown’s impending borrowing and spending spree. Trying to buy his way out of trouble, Brown is heading for another... Read more...
Yesterday, some of the Worcester TaxPayers’ Alliance took to the streets of the historic city to petition all councils in the Worcestershire area for a council tax cuts in 2009. Read more...
An interesting set of comments from Gordon Brown, first pointed out by a commenter on Guido Fawkes' blog. You can watch the Brown interview with Sky News here, and the PM's comments are copied below. Gordon Brown said: "You can't excuse the irresponsibility that took place in a number ofinstitutions.... Read more...
An interesting piece on the Spectator blog notes that a focus group conducted for Newsnight last night by the famous US polster Frank Luntz finds that tax cuts go down very well with voters: "Of more immediate relevance, however, was the further evidence that the focus group provided about what... Read more...
On the eve of the Labour Party Conference, and with the City in turmoil, an explosive report from the TaxPayers' Alliance (TPA) demolishes what is left of Gordon Brown's reputation for effective economic and public sector management. Using detailed international comparisons and official statistics, the report reveals that in terms... Read more...
The Conservative love affair with the darling of the left Polly Toynbee must end now. If we consider that James McGrath was sacked by the Boris team for suggesting that those who wanted to leave the country should be allowed to go (i.e. the obvious) then Polly’s take on the... Read more...
In The Financial Times of 15th September Associate Editor Philip Stephens writes: “The bigger problem for the Tories, however, lies in an assumption that the fruits of economic growth can be readily shared between higher spending on public services and a rebate to taxpayers. Even in good times, this formula... Read more...
Good news from Hampshire today - the "Hampshire Senate", which looks remarkably like a county-wide replica of the failed regional assemblies, has buckled under pressure from the TPA and the public and has agreed to hold its meetings in public rather than in secret. I'm far from alone in... Read more...
The Birmingham Post reported yesterday that Birmingham City Council will be spending a huge £200million on private sector outsourcing firm Capita and its partner organisations in order to have consultants demonstrate how to save money and run services more efficiently. Not only is this ironic, it also completely flies... Read more...
It was bad enough yesterday reading that Ofsted were advertising for 12 press officers, costing taxpayers over £400,000. Now we see more non-jobs from the two, yes two, job supplements in the Guardian. Take the Public Relations Officer at Dorset County Council earning £28,172 or Diversity Managers at the Audit... Read more...
The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act was introduced 'in the interests of national security' and offered a range of surveillance powers in order to fight the threat of terrorism. Unfortunately, the right to use the powers available under RIPA has widened from the police and security services to a range... Read more...