The EU Commission issued a press release yesterday proposing a cut in the rate of VAT on house repairs and improvements, which is encouraging for the prospects of the Cut the VAT campaign. With over 100 MPs signed up to the Early Day Motion supporting the campaign, and a... Read more...
The National Children's Bureau has issued guidance to play group leaders and nursery teachers advising them to be alert for racist incidents among youngsters in their care, the Telegraph reports today. The 366 page guide warns that such 'racist' activity might include a dislike of chicken curry, a toddler’s... Read more...
In spite of its grand opening on 28th June, the woeful financial situation at The Public in West Bromwich persists according to this morning’s Express and Star. Whoever thought that this project would cease guzzling money from the public purse once its pink blobby doors were finally opened... Read more...
Wasted food isn't to blame for high food prices, so why is Gordon Brown intervening in the kitchen? Ordinary people do waste food. The efforts of environmentalists have made things worse by discouraging the use of packaging that prevents spoilage. A large part of the problem is simply that... Read more...
With the by-election in Haltemprice and Howden scheduled for 10 July, civil liberties and the way in which the Government is tackling the terrorist threat are central issues. Politicians on both sides of the debate have argued that their policies best represent the interests of taxpayers. Whatever one’s views on... Read more...
Since our study, The Cost of Crime, was released we've had some interesting responses - some trying, and failing, to undermine our report while most are very positive - and some new figures from Nottingham and Lincolnshire. Lincoln's Freedom of Information request was sent to an inactive e-mail address which... Read more...
FULL COST OF CRIME BREAKDOWN FOR 39 POLICE FORCES IN ENGLAND, WALES AND NORTHERN IRELAND CRIME COSTS ALMOST £275 PER HEAD OF POPULATION HIGHEST COST OF CRIME IS IN NOTTINGHAMSHIRE - FULL LEAGUE TABLE PUBLISHED With crime levels top of the list of voters’ concerns, this paper (PDF), for the... Read more...
The government, in a familiar Machiavellian fashion, snuck out this week a new plan to seize more and more Council Tax from those who simply can’t, or won’t, pay. After years of locking up pensioners and other protestors, they stared defeat in the face after Derby City Council decided to... Read more...
All pieces must obey my orders! For someone educated at an expensive private school, and the universities of Oxford and Harvard, Ed Balls is a bit of let-down. With a top-flight education like that you'd sort of hope that somewhere along the line he'd have twigged that the real world... Read more...
Back in February, in our Council Spending Uncovered paper on pensions we pointed out that instead of just talking in Westminster about how the burden of public expenditure might be lifted under a possible future Conservative Government, the Conservatives should, if they really meant it, use their vast presence in... Read more...
The Telegraph reports on the disaster of the NHS dentistry shake-up: "This suggests dentists are simply removing teeth rather than taking on complicated treatments because they have become uneconomical to provide. The report said that in the two years following the introduction of the new contract in April 2006, 900,000... Read more...
The Telegraph reports an outspoken attack on new qualifications that maintain little academic rigour from a headteacher at one of the country's leading schools: "The introduction of new-style courses - teaching children how to use English and mathematics in the work place - has been at the expense of academic... Read more...
Transparency is a great thing - in a democracy, it's only right that we should give people as much information as possible about public policy, service performance and taxation, so they can make as informed decisions as possible. That's why we applaud Nigel Evans MP for presenting his Ten Minute... Read more...
With ludicrous irony, it turns out that the Birmingham Climate Change Festival has been criticised by none other than the Friends of the Earth spokesman Chris Crean for not being very green. Environmentalists have pointed out that organisers, in their enthusiasm to decorate the city centre with fairy lights... Read more...
Community and Local Government Secretary Hazel Blears has just told Public Finance magazine about her plans to devolve power right down to street level. It makes dismal reading: "With my own roots in local politics, grounded in the streets and estates of Salford... empowerment... community engagement agenda... real opportunity...... Read more...
The Local Government Association - paid for by you and me through local councils' membership subs - have today launched one of the most ill-advised and inappropriate advertising campaigns since Gerald Ratner (who described his own jewellery firm's produce as "crap"). Here are two of their deligthful offerings, soon to... Read more...
On Saturday (yes, Saturday), the Treasury Select Committee published its report on the 10p tax fiasco. And even though many feel this Committee is little more than a Labour mouthpiece, it lets fly: "For personal tax decisions, the sudden and final nature of Budget decisions has been... about the... Read more...
In our report Wasting Lives: a statistical analysis of NHS performance in a European context since 1981 (PDF) we showed how Gordon Brown had tested the idea that more money, without significant reform, would improve the NHS to destruction. The NHS absorbed a huge increase in funding without the long... Read more...
Further to our Chief Executive's post on CentreRight.com yesterday, giving the TPA's initial reaction to the Parliamentary Members' Estimate Committee review of MPs' expenses, a good 24 hours of robust debate have highlighted in more detail some of the good and not-so-good things about the Committee's proposals. It's worth... Read more...
It’s long been a bug bear for us that taxpayers have to fund party political ‘assistants’ for the political groups on councils. What takes the biscuit this week goes a step further. From Hackney Council, we present to you the non-job of the week: “Members’ Support Office (Frontline Councillor)... Read more...
The Governments looks set to ask private companies and charities to help run the welfare state, theTelegraph reports today. "[In a speech this evening] James Purnell, the Work and Pensions Secretary, will call on firms to help overhaul the payment of benefits" ... encouraging them to "bid to run... Read more...
£29,000 Mercedes CLK 2.7 litre company sports car - as provided to Remploy boss Remploy is a government quango set up at the end of WW2 to employ "Disabled Persons", including ex-servicemen. It originally did so by providing jobs in its own subsidised chain of factories manufacturing furniture and such... Read more...
Parliament is gearing up for its next major confrontation with the government this week, with the return to the Commons of the controversial Planning Bill. Despite a very real need for reform, the Planning Bill was a poor bit of legislation from the start, and in keeping with this... Read more...
The East Anglian Daily Times has a story today about Suffolk County Council that proves the fiasco surrounding their new Chief Executive's massive salary was far from being a one-off. Suffolk CC's Communications chief left abruptly after the County Council's Chief Executive's outrageous new salary hit the national news.... Read more...