It’s nine years since that saunter through the rose garden of Downing Street. A curious bonhomie was on show that sunny day in May 2010. The coalition had a stab at fiscal retrenchment. Adjusting for inflation, total managed expenditure fell by £5 billion between 2009-10 and 2014-15, from £824 billion... Read more...
To find out more about the Stand Against Socialism (SAS) campaign, click here By Jeremy Hutton, Policy Analyst For decades the Communication Workers Union (CWU, formerly the postal workers union) fought privatisation of Royal Mail under both Conservative and Labour governments. But the union proved no match for the combined... Read more...
To learn more about the Stand Against Socialism (SAS) campaign, click here. by Ben Ramanauskas, Policy Analyst Today marks the 70th anniversary of the modern Commonwealth. To mark this auspicious occasion, let’s take a look at some of the economic policies of our friends around the world to see what... Read more...
We were pleased to be joined this morning by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Rt Hon Matt Hancock MP, at an event to launch a new TPA report on introducing more automation and technology in to health and social care. He welcomed the report's findings and agreed that... Read more...
by John O'Connell, Chief Executive Tomorrow, we're launching the next paper in our series on introducing more automation in the public sector. A lot of our work at the TPA focuses on fighting for lower taxes. But the flip side of the coin is securing better services. With the tax... Read more...
To learn more about the Stand Against Socialism (SAS) campaign, click here. by Duncan Simpson, Policy Analyst The terrorist chic of the Che Guevara t-shirt has had remarkable staying power. If you put his name into eBay, you get a staggering 36,000 results. Yet leading figures on the left and... Read more...
It’s that time of year again: the bills are going up. April has arrived and brought with it a flood of eye-watering rises, not least the calls to cough up yet more council tax. Across England, the typical household is facing a nasty 4.7 per cent rise. Council leaders are... Read more...
By Jeremy Hutton, Policy Analyst The TaxPayers’ Alliance released its first Town Hall Rich List in 2007. Since then we have published it 12 times covering 13 years up to the present. When we first compiled the Rich List the data was compiled via Freedom of Information requests. This garnered... Read more...
by Ben Ramanauskas, Policy Analyst The Soft Drinks Industry Levy, more commonly referred to as the sugar tax, came into force one year ago today. Although it’s only been in force for one year, let’s have a look at its impact so far and why sugar taxes are a bad... Read more...
To learn more about the Stand Against Socialism Campaign, click here. by Chloe Westley, Campaign ManagerThe freedom to question and criticise the government is essential for any free and democratic society. Journalists and ordinary citizens should absolutely have the right to hold those in elected office accountable for their actions.... Read more...
by Ben Ramanauskas, Policy AnalystToday marks April Fools’ Day. We all know the drill: unfunny pranks played on unsuspecting and irritated victims. Perhaps this is why, on this day in 1965, corporation tax was put into effect. It was believed at the time by the tax consultant John Chown that,... Read more...
by Jeremy Hutton, Policy AnalystOn Monday, we launched the first paper in our new series on foreign aid - First aid: Fixing international development. Massive thanks to Priti Patel, former aid secretary, who joined us for the launch and gave us her insights. While government is already picking up many... Read more...
By Ben Ramanauskas, Policy Analyst With punters pouring into pubs today for St Patrick’s Day, let’s talk about Ireland. It has pulled off one of the most impressive economic u-turns in recent memory. The Republic was hit particularly hard by the global financial crisis and subsequently fell into recession. It... Read more...
UPDATE: Higher probate fees are a tax, admits the government after charge increase for grieving families was introduced to generate an extra £155 million a year by Ben Ramanauskas, Policy AnalystUnder the innocuous sounding ‘Non-Contentious Probate (Fees Order)’, the government looks sets to push ahead with its plans to hike the... Read more...
By Ben Ramanauskas, Policy Analyst After the annual dog show, Crufts, it’s clear that the UK is a nation of animal lovers. According to the PDSA, in their appropriately named “Paw” report, 49 per cent of UK adults own a pet. This breaks down to 11.1 million cats, 8.9 million... Read more...
To learn more about the Stand Against Socialism (SAS) campaign, click here. by James Middleton, TPA intern Socialism is on the rise. From Plymouth to Orkney, young people clamour for greater state intervention in their lives, higher taxes and even higher spending. Capitalism, we are expected to believe, is a... Read more...
The TaxPayers’ Alliance hosted a panel discussion on local authorities’ spending on commercial property and investments on Tuesday 26th. The discussion, and subsequent Q&A, was wide ranging, and included the councillors’ experience of commercial property and other investments, the moral hazard for taxpayers that this may create, and the distortionary... Read more...
To learn more about the Stand Against Socialism (SAS) campaign, click here. by Chloe Westley, Campaign Manager At the TPA, we believe in lower taxes and better public services, because these policies have been proven to improve the lives of millions of people across the world. In stark comparison, socialism... Read more...
Click here to learn more about the Stand Against Socialism (SAS) campaign, click here. by Ben Ramanauskas, Policy AnalystDespite lifting over a billion people out of poverty and raising the standard of living in a way that is unprecedented in human history, capitalism has an image problem. It is seen... Read more...
To learn more about the Stand Against Socialism (SAS) campaign, click here. 1. It’s really difficult to get online In a country like Cuba, don’t count on being able to use Google Maps to find your way around. As for using your phone to order a takeaway or find that... Read more...
To learn more about the Stand Against Socialism (SAS) campaign, click here. by John O'Connell, Chief Executive It's a truth, unfortunately not universally acknowledged, that not all countries have started on the path to socialist ruin with hardline socialist governments. The march to statism doesn't only happen with the guys... Read more...
by Chloe Westley, Campaign Manager Awards season is upon us! Cue the flashing lights, teary acceptance speeches about smashing the patriarchy, selfies on the catwalk and bickering online over the best and worst dressed Hollywood stars. It’s the epitome of celebrity culture in the 21st century - glitzy, narcissistic, a... Read more...
by Richard Mason - Research Fellow at Consumer Choice CenterAbout half a century ago, Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter wrote in his book Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy about a concept he called ‘creative destruction’. Derived from the previous works of Marx, Schumpeter perceived economic growth under capitalism as a destructive force... Read more...
By Policy Analyst, Jeremy Hutton. At the TaxPayers’ Alliance we don’t waste a moment and it’s pretty standard for everyone in the office to be working on completely different projects. Hence whilst I’ve been analysing reams of data for the next research paper (see my work on council spending on... Read more...