With the ongoing weakening in standards and concerns that schools are teaching to the test the A-levels are becoming less and less useful for universities trying to assess students for entry to university. Oxford and Cambridge universities are responding by setting up their own tests. The Telegraph describes a range... Read more...
The Telegraph reports that patients are taking to pulling their own teeth as they are unable to find an NHS dentist. There have been massive increases in the NHS budget, often more than 7 per cent annually, in recent years. That there should still be such basic, and worsening, shortages... Read more...
The Government appears to have performed a U-turn on the national road pricing scheme. The Telegraph reports that the Department for Transport will tell MPs next week: "It is not the department's intention, at this stage, to take the separate powers needed to price the national road network." ... Read more...
An open letter from the British Chambers of Commerce, the CBI, the Federation of Small Businesses and the Institute of Directors to the Chancellor Alistair Darling has attacked last week's changes to capital gains tax, which saw the abolition of taper relief and the introduction of a new 18 per... Read more...
TPA Activist Mike Schofield has revealed to us some real dodgy goings on down in Hampshire. Over half the councillors who appointed Hampshire County Council’s new Chief Executive (on a salary of £199,000 taxpayer pounds a year) didn’t read the report recommending that he face disciplinary action. A three... Read more...
His Most Excellent Grace is not for dissin' In the news this week:Labour's Speaker blows £21,516 on libel lawyers- "Michael Martin, the Speaker of the House of Commons, has been accused of showing “contempt towards taxpayers” after spending £21,516.06 of public money on legal battles against the press. The office... Read more...
The first three tiers of management in the NHS: the Secretary of State, the Ministers and the Parliamentary Under-Secretaries are all politicians. As politicians their careers have been spent honing their media skills and their public speaking. Few politicians have any experience of managing significant numbers of staff. The current... Read more...
Despite the fact that there are no real tax cuts on the horizon, a local firefighter has spoken out about extensive cuts to the West Midlands Fire Service, the results of which he describes as “dangerous and demoralising” (Birmingham Mail). The firefighter claims that crews in Birmingham struggle whenever... Read more...
The news from Kent is truly shocking. In the face of financial problems and in an effort to meet government targets a clearly incompetent management presided over hospital infections that the Healthcare Commission say directly killed at least 90 patients and may have contributed to the deaths of 331 people. ... Read more...
TPA activist Tony Flynn, who also happens to be a councillor on Tivetshall Parish Council, put a motion to his Parish council this week (similar to Wendy Nevard’s motion) calling for council tax to be frozen this year and cut in the following years. But this motion also failed. ... Read more...
The Financial Times reports that unemployment in Australia fell to a 33-year low of 4.2 per cent in September. Could that have anything to do with its sustained period of tax reductions (see Chapter 4 of the Tax Reform Commission report for a discussion); its comparatively low burden of public... Read more...
It's back and, depressingly, the figure is even bigger than last time. Read more...
The Times today publishes a regional breakdown of public spending as a share of GDP, produced by the Centre for Economics and Business Research. It makes fascinating, if worrying, reading. In the UK as a whole, public spending has climbed to 44.1 per cent of GDP,... Read more...
The Financial Times reports that Hong Kong will cut corporate and salary taxes by 1 percentage point to 16.5 and 15 per cent respectively. This really isn't surprising. The Hong Kong government knows how to maintain the city's world-leading position, although the tax cuts have only used a small... Read more...
The Howard League for Penal Reform have released figures, reported in the Guardian, showing that almost all, 95%, of 10-15 year olds are victims of crime. 72% were hit or kicked, more than half threatened with violence, almost a fifth have had things stolen outside of school, 11% have had... Read more...
Alistair Darling has finished speaking, we’ve taken a look at the Pre-Budget Report and Comprehensive Spending Review, and here are some key measures of interest to taxpayers: Read more...
When the Northern Rock crisis broke, we blogged that taxpayers should on no account be made to bail out NR shareholders. And the Bank and Treasury denied they would do any such thing.But today they've executed a complete U-turn, and handed Northern Rock shareholders an exquisitely wrapped giftbox. The authorities... Read more...
The Parliamentary Ombudsman, Ann Abraham, has released a report calling Gordon Brown's system of tax credits "unfair" to some of Britain's poorest families. Ms Abraham also accused HMRC staff of failing to apply overpayment guidelines properly, which had led to some "unduly harsh decisions" that had "caused extreme worry... Read more...
The Telegraph reports that the failed computer system for recruiting junior doctors to training posts is to be scrapped. An inquiry headed by Sir John Tooke has found that those running the system failed in two key ways: The IT systems were full of errors and did not keep... Read more...
Cash-strapped one-star rated Stoke-On-Trent Council are once again ploughing taxpayers’ money in the wrong direction, and instead of improving on their poorly ranking children’s services, or attempting to raise themselves from amongst the country’s very worst ‘value for money’ councils they are looking to re-brand at the expense of their... Read more...
Research by the price comparison website uSwitch.com found that disposable income - the money left over after taxes, mortgage/rent payments and household bills - has fallen to just 32.6 per cent of gross income, compared with 34.5 per cent in 1997. The biggest increases in household costs, apart from... Read more...
Two polls over the weekend showed that the Conservative plans to raise the inheritance tax threshold to £1 million are popular with voters: YouGov for The Sunday Times found that 66% of voters thought the £1m threshold for IHT was a good policy. Only 18% thought it a bad... Read more...
Crushed by bureaucracy In the news this week:Cost of Olympics venues spirals by another £295m- "The London Olympics were hit by a new costs crisis today. The bill for the aquatics centre is set to double to £150 million while the budget for the stadium will rise from £280million to... Read more...
Plans finally given go-ahead Yesterday, Gordon Brown gave a pre-election go ahead for Crossrail, Britain's biggest civil engineering project since Hadrian's Wall. It's supposedly going to cost £16bn, but if you believe that, you obviously haven't been paying attention.The cross-London tunnelled rail project has been around since the days of... Read more...