By Milly Skriczka, Development Manager With parliament having returned yesterday, it’s an odd time for the House of Commons. A national epidemic has triggered massive and immediate state intervention in our everyday lives, making parliament’s usual to-and-fro seem trivial by comparison. But in times like this, the ability to ask... Read more...
By Kieran Neild- Ali, grassroots assistant at the TaxPayers’ Alliance Coronavirus has had a huge impact on our daily lives. Shopping has been especially affected. Supermarkets are enforcing social distancing laws to protect their customers from the virus and ensuring essential items cannot be bought in bulk. For most of... Read more...
By Sam Packer, media campaign manager In February, the government launched a consultation on decriminalising the BBC licence fee. Given the crux of our Axe the Tax campaign - that it’s preposterous that people are compelled to pay a tax on pain of imprisonment in order to fund something they... Read more...
By Joe Ventre, digital campaign manager Yesterday it emerged that over thirty council leaders have signed a letter to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government urging the government to assist households in the paying of their council tax bills, amidst the economic fallout of the coronavirus crisis. “One... Read more...
By Ian Taylor - chairman of the Alliance of British Drivers (ABD) and local coordinator for the TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA) in East Kent A recent opinion article for the British Medical Journal (BMJ) called for cigarette packet-style warnings on petrol and diesel pumps. The implementation of which “could have... Read more...
By Joe Ventre, digital campaign manager This year’s budget was anything but typical. With measures to tackle the coronavirus outbreak understandably dominating the media’s attention and the wider economic picture in flux, many of the less immediate elements seem to have slipped through the net. Below we have outlined five... Read more...
By Jeremy Hutton, Policy Analyst The full resources of the state are being marshalled so that Britain can emerge from the dark clouds of this 21st century coronavirus plague as soon as possible. At the TaxPayers’ Alliance, we have been clear that we broadly understand the need for these extraordinary... Read more...
By Keiran Neild- Ali, grassroots assistant Britain is a nation of pint guzzlers, wine quoffers and gin and tonic sippers. Whether it is the joy of a pint in the glory of a sunlit beer garden (or, at the moment with social distancing, in your own garden!) or a glass... Read more...
By Harry Fone, grassroots campaign manager We are in unprecedented times and many things remain unclear. What is certain though, is that the public finances will be in need of urgent repair in the coming years. Politicians should not solve budget holes by raising taxes when there is an imperative... Read more...
By Sara Rainwater, Operations Director Sutton council has impeccable timing. At 8.01pm on the evening of Wednesday 18th March - a mere three hours after the Education Secretary announced the closure of schools in England in the wake of the coronavirus crisis - the council sent out this email to... Read more...
By Sam Packer, media campaign manager The coronavirus outbreak has had a truly extraordinary impact on life across the western world. Whilst obviously secondary to health concerns, for me and millions like me the resulting freeze on all forms of sport has been one of the most frustrating aspects of... Read more...
In the first of a series of thought pieces considering the philosophical basis of political concepts, grassroots assistant Kieran Neild questions whether a large tax burden can go hand in hand with liberty. Big government is on the rise in Britain. The tax burden is at its highest for fifty... Read more...
In light of the coronavirus (covid-19) outbreak, we have been asked how the TaxPayers’ Alliance responds to the massive government intervention undertaken to tackle the public health emergency and prevent the economy from collapsing. We want to address that clearly. The TaxPayers’ Alliance vision is for a pro-enterprise country with... Read more...
By Harry Fone, grassroots campaign manager A fortnight ago, in light of the coronavirus crisis, chancellor Rishi Sunak postponed this year’s planned IR35 changes by 12 months. IR35 is designed to clamp down on contractors who are an employee of a firm in all but name. However, its introduction has... Read more...
By Sam Packer, media campaign manager Last month, the TaxPayers’ Alliance released a research paper detailing how every year, tens of million of pounds of taxpayer money is spent on grants to lobbying and political campaign groups. Unsurprisingly, many of these grants went to big state, high-tax campaign groups. Government... Read more...
By Ian Taylor, grassroots coordinator for Kent For a TaxPayers’ Alliance grassroots coordinator like me, the latest series of tax increases in my county of Kent is deeply disappointing. Yet again, most of Kent’s taxpayers face steep council tax rises. Kent County Council has gone for the maximum without a... Read more...
By Sam Packer, media campaign manager at the TaxPayers' Alliance In 2011, Australia introduced the Clean Energy Act to levy additional taxes on carbon emissions. It was repealed just three years later. Since then, British politicians have repeatedly advocated following suit, with 516 references made to the idea of a... Read more...
by Charles Amos, TaxPayers' Alliance Local Coordinator for Sussex This week the chancellor gave the first post-election budget, setting out a series of serious spending promises. It’s critical to remember, however, that plenty of wasteful spending and excessive taxing happens at a local level. It is little wonder that council... Read more...
By Sydney Rennich Perhaps pork-barrel spending is not as American as I thought. As I got on a plane from Atlanta to London two months ago, I braced myself for change. A new country meant new people, places, and politics. However, it seems that there was something other than my... Read more...
A huge thank you to everyone who attended a most enjoyable conversation with Sir Robbie Gibb and Mark Wallace. The venue was packed, showing that the licence fee continues to divide opinion. If you couldn’t make it, don’t worry - you can watch the recording below: The TaxPayers’ Alliance believes... Read more...
by Harry Fone, grassroots campaign manager at the TaxPayers’ Alliance Now that the dust has settled on the government’s decision to proceed with HS2 it’s worth analysing the report that was instrumental in the decision making process. Commissioned by transport secretary Grant Schapps in August 2019, the Oakervee Review... Read more...
by Kieran Neild-Ali, grassroots assistant at the TaxPayers' Alliance The 2020-21 Local Government Finance Settlement has proposed an increase in central government funding for councils across England. The government package includes a new £1.41 billion Social Care Grant for adult and children’s services. That is an additional £1 billion in... Read more...
by Darwin Friend, Researcher at the TaxPayers' Alliance At the last Budget in October 2018, the then chancellor Philip Hammond triumphantly declared that austerity was over. With the deficit cut, it was job done and he suggested that now was the time to turn the taps on and increase... Read more...
By Darwin Friend, researcher at the TaxPayers’ Alliance The calamitous backdrop of Derek Mackay, the Scottish finance minister resigning hours before he was due to deliver his budget last week was a fairly poignant analogy for the SNP’s financial record. It illustrated the terrible judgement and farcical ineptitude with which... Read more...