Announced in last weeks Queen's Speech was the extension of the current planned route of HS2. As part of the debate on the Queen's Speech in the House of Lords, Lord Framlington urged the government to scrap the project in the following speech. "My Lords, I make no apology for... Read more...
The British Medical Association (BMA) has held its Annual Representative Meeting in Bournemouth today, where it has called for spending on the NHS to rise to match that of other leading EU economies. What sort of a rise? Its economists have produced a figure of 10.4 per cent of GDP... Read more...
HMRC has today published figures on income tax liabilities, showing a number of interesting patterns, the most significant of which being income tax burden distribution – that is, how big a share of the total income tax take is paid by the top and bottom earners. Naturally, a degree of... Read more...
It is incredibly naïve to think that ‘the banks’ are something which can simply be raided for resources with no effect on how they behave or consequences for the wider economy. Nowhere does this ring as true as with the financial transactions tax (FTT) which has been included in the... Read more...
The government recently published its major housing white paper, Fixing our broken housing market. The paper concerns the huge problems in our housing and land markets, causing higher rents and prices which lead to higher welfare spending and higher taxes. We reviewed the paper and produced a response, which we sent to the... Read more...
The tedious process of rival politicians telling each other that their spending plans are either “uncosted” or “unfunded” kicked into gear this morning. The Conservatives claimed Labour plans amount to a £45 billion “bombshell” only for Labour to hit back, saying the plans were “fully costed”. It’s a similar tactic... Read more...
Nigel Holder is a management consultant, quondam RAF fighter pilot and a supporter of the TaxPayers' Alliance. Just because there is a public interest in funding a service from tax revenue, it does not follow that the state should operate and run that service. Where the state controls a service it... Read more...
Our Chief Executive, John O'Connell, co-signed a letter with Benny Peiser of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, Mark Littlewood of the Institute of Economic Affairs and David Green of Civitas calling for a better way to cut fuel bills. It was published in this morning's Daily Telegraph (£). SIR... Read more...
The influential Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Select Committee has today endorsed a number of our recommendations in their report on financial disclosure in the public sector. The report, entitled Accounting for Democracy, extensively cites our submission, recommending a major overhaul of the way public bodies present their accounts, in... Read more...
Theresa May’s decision to call a snap election does not just give her the opportunity to gain a working majority. It frees her from the manifesto commitments made by David Cameron in 2015, and gives her the opportunity to set out an agenda of her own. But what should that... Read more...
Election season is now upon us, and one pledge rumoured to be a key feature of the Conservative party manifesto is a cap - the details of which still unclear - on energy tariffs. If this sounds familiar, it’s because back in 2013 Ed Miliband, then-leader of the Labour Party,... Read more...
Bill Gates has hit the headlines today by warning the prime minister not to abandon the government’s 0.7 per cent spending commitment to overseas aid. This morning, I spoke to Julia Hartley-Brewer on TalkRadio about why Bill Gates is wrong. Mr Gates is an exceptionally generous philanthropist and plans to... Read more...