The TaxPayers' Alliance - Home

Wednesday July 23

Blogs

10.00am, Burning Our Money
Tim Aker:
Non-job of the week

Essex County Council have become a pain when it comes to squandering taxpayers’ money.  They’re very good at it.  During the last run of The Apprentice on the BBC, Essex CC announced they would give the runner up a job at Essex CC.  They didn’t say what the job would involve, but that they would be willing to spend taxpayers’ money on employing a ‘celebrity’ to do God knows what.  With a record like that it isn’t surprising to see this job advertised at Essex CC... - Read More

Liverpool Daily Post, Top brass get lower rises than others, report says
Daily Express, We pay £1m for ministers' junkets and luxury travel
Western Mail, Tories attack bonus leap for top Assembly officials

Tuesday July 22

Blogs

12.00pm, Campaign
Mark Wallace:
Equality and Human Rights Commission throwing its weight around

A remit like that would be a universal excuse for a myriad of policies that would be barking mad at best (see the Fabian Society's "Ban the word Chav" contribution to get an idea of this category), economically hugely damaging at medium and sinister at worst (consider that the Government's recent race and gender "equality" laws have founded equality on the principle of actively discriminating against others)... - Read More

9.45am, Better Government
Matthew Sinclair:
Armed forces being run into the ground

...over years and decades if the armed forces are not properly managed and resourced the strain will tell and, in some future crisis, we won't be able to call on the effective military we expect.

Unfortunately, as most ministers are only in their posts for a few short years, they have every incentive to leave these problems to another day... - Read More

Daily Telegraph, Council chiefs' pay doubles in a decade
Daily Telegraph, MoD accused of 'conspiracy of optimism' on defence projects
City AM, Matthew Elliott: Why Chancellor must kill off his corporate tax plans for good
Daily Mail, Olympics fat cats pocket more than £500,000 in bonuses despite rocketing costs
Daily Mail, Spiralling costs of MoD projects could 'leave troops short of equipment', MPs warn
Daily Express, Anger at MPs' hols
TalkSport, The John Gaunt Show: Parliamentary restaurants subsidised to the tune of millions

Monday July 21

Blogs

1.30pm, Burning Our Money
Mike Denham:
The Money Belongs To Us

But the short-term need to clear up the immediate mess should not detract us from asking for more detail on the Mr Osborne's longer-term fiscal rules. It's good news that they'll be independently monitored, but "sharing the proceeds of growth" remains far too vague - especially in a world where growth may be much harder to come by... - Read More

10.35am, Better Government
Matthew Sinclair:
Rewards for failure at Network Rail

Network Rail has its debts guaranteed by the Government and enjoys a monopoly.  It may not be entirely owned by the state but it is hardly a private sector organisation either.  Taxpayers have a very real stake in how the company is run both as its guarantors and as rail passengers who depend upon an efficient and reliable service... - Read More

Metro, Unpaid court fines rise above £500m (not online)
Evening Standard, 2012 bosses pick up £1.7m bonuses despite cost rises
BBC Radio Three Counties, Mark Wallace supported the Government's welfare plans, but questioned whether they will be delivered
BBC Radio 5 Live, Do MPs deserve their 11 week summer holiday?

Over the weekend,

The Sunday Times, Minette Marrin: Deliver us, minister, from your dreadful incompetence
Sunday Times, Huge pay rises for watchdog bosses
Mail on Sunday, Tories accused of expenses binge as crackdown looms
News of the World, Baby bonds crash
Daily Telegraph, Leader: Spending our way further into trouble
The Times, Fire brigade criticised for rescuing injured seagull
Sunday Express, No such thing as a free lunch? Tell that to MPs
Sunday People, Gunner Gordon
BBC News Online, Fire brigade defends bird rescue
Carlisle News & Star, Letters: Striking workers benefit at others’ expense
Western Daily Press, Seagull's rescue by fire brigade sparks outcry

Friday July 18

Blogs

4.45pm, Economics 101
Corin Taylor:
Still a long way to go on tax and spend

This is extremely welcome and significant, whether out of a change in principle, or a sense that votes are up for grabs.  The Liberal Democrats are the only one of the three main parties to pledge to reduce the overall burden of tax.  We wait to see their detailed costings and the specific areas of government spending they will cut, but, as Iain Dale wrote in today’s Telegraph [link], “it’s a damn sight more than any other politician has had the guts to do”... - Read More

3.30pm, Campaign
Tim Aker:
What the Thurrock are they playing at?

...a whopping £130,000 bill for the Council to employ 3 more health and safety officers at Thurrock Council... - Read More

10.20am, Campaign
Tim Aker:
Depoliticising politics

By reforming, decentralising and allowing taxpayers’ money to follow the taxpayer into competitive services, we would see taxpayers’ making the choices about where their money goes so they have the responsibility of finding – and receiving – the best service.  Undoubtedly taxpayers would opt for the service professionally run and delivered.  If the service fails, they have the option to remove their custom.  With government education, health and – dare I even say it – policing, there is no alternative, the politicians rule and make your decisions.  It’s like Henry Ford’s analogy: “you can have whatever colour car you like, as long as it’s black”... - Read More

9.20am, Better Government
Corin Taylor:
Choice needs to go much further than at present

This is an important reminder that half-hearted reforms will not be sufficient to really improve our public services. Only putting real spending power in the hands of ordinary people will achieve that... - Read More

The Sun, 7 firemen to rescue 1 seagull
The Sun, Sirs 'extra 1hr' strike
Daily Mail, 'Pay up or we'll sue', Equitable Life victims tell Ministers as report orders Government to pay out £4.5 billion
Telegraph.co.uk, Matthew Elliott: Business expertise is sorely lacking in Whitehall
Irish News, Crime cost taxpayers in north £240 per person last year
Newcastle Journal, Ministers lacking quality
Newcastle Journal, Tax Offices To Be Closed
Birmingham Post, Ministers 'lack experience'
Loughborough Echo, Letter: What a waste of money
Yorkshire Post, Officials defend £40,000 spent on property convention
Exeter Express & Echo, Authority defends £350,000 annual bill for councillors
Politics.co.uk, Govt ministers 'couldn't run private companies'
Talk 107, Mark Wallace discussed the fact that council tax is too high, irrespective of what system is used to collect it

Thursday July 17

New TaxPayers' Alliance research

Structure of Government 2: The Failure of Management

Download the full report here (PDF)

Blogs

4.30pm, West Midlands
Fiona McEvoy:
Coventry staff cash in on carbon cutting

Without intending to insult the intelligence of Coventry City Council general staff, I doubt many of them are scientists specialising in climate change or environmental issues, and therefore many of their suggestions are more than likely going to be lifted from the internet or picked up from another external source, so why can’t those who are receiving taxpayers’ money to investigate climate change issues do the research, save the other 17,000 the time, and save local residents the cost of this ridiculous hotline?  - Read More

2.45pm, Economic 101
Matthew Sinclair:
The OECD reveals the inefficiency of biofuel subsidies

At the moment, neither biofuels nor renewables are anywhere near efficient enough to replace fossil fuels.  Pretending otherwise and throwing huge amounts of subsidy at technologies that just aren't ready for the big time is a ruinously bad idea... - Read More

11.15am, West Midlands
Fiona McEvoy:
Wolverhampton tighten their belt

It’s good to see a West Midlands council working practically to recover money that is being haemorrhaged internally. Let’s hope it won’t take the others too long to follow-suit... - Read More

10.30am, Burning Our Money
Tim Aker:
Non-job of the week

These backroom non-jobbers don’t clean the bins, sweep the streets or keep us safe, so what service is there that taxpayers are involuntarily funding?  They’re there to appease the politically correct, the do-gooders who believe government is the miraculous solution to all our woes... - Read More

9.45am, Better Government
Corin Taylor:
The IPOD generation: politics should not be business as usual

These are encouraging findings. In the future it will no longer be possible simply to spend enormous amounts of money on public services with no plans for reform and get away with it for so long. To attract support, political parties will have to be smarter than that... - Read More

Daily Telegraph, Taxpayers' Alliance contrasts business leaders and politicians
Daily Express, MPs replace 'John Lewis list' with IKEA
Daily Express, When 999 really was an emergency
Daily Express, 2p off petrol tax: it's a farce
Daily Mail, MPs vote to keep getting furniture on the taxpayer
Daily Mail, Bin collection cuts fuel surge in fires
Telegraph.co.uk, Motorists face £5 charge to beat jams on motorway hard shoulder
The Mirror, OUT MPs' John Lewis list ripped up IN But they still get £2,400 Ikea list to kit out homes
Metro, 'John Lewis list' replaced by IKEA (not online)
Channel 4 News, MPs scrap John Lewis list
Daily Record, Lewis list 'replaced by IKEA'
The Herald, MPs' John Lewis list gets Ikea makeover
Newcastle Journal, MPs Ditch Lewis List But Keep Handouts
Cambridge News, £6.6 million taxi bill for schools
Belfast Newsletter, Bid to ban smacking 'has cost £90k so far'
Yorkshire Post, MPs back partial expenses reform
Irish News, MPs drop John Lewis for Ikea list say Tories
Spectator, Business Blog: Good thing they’re not in business
Evening Standard: Letters: Poor families hit by car tax changes
BBC News Online, MPs vote to review expenses rule
BBC Radio 4, Mike Denham debates charges for public services with Charles Clarke on the Today Programme

Last night:

BBC Newsnight, Matthew Sinclair argued that perceived weakness on the part of the Government was contributing to the extraordinary number of public sector strikes.  Watch here.

 

Wednesday July 16

Blogs

6.00pm, Campaign
Mark Wallace:
MPs' expenses fudge, whilst Tories partially open the books

In other news, it's encouraging to note that there has been at least one step towards transparency by the Tories today, who have published the categorised expenses claims of their frontbenchers and many of their backbenchers for the last three months. We've had a look through, and will of course be scrutinising them even more closely in coming days, but do have a look yourself - they can be found here... - Read More

10.45am, Campaign
Tim Aker:
Reform, not words, spending or empty gestures, please!

Madness is defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.  The government, I can therefore announce, is bonkers.  It’s the one who flew over the cuckoo’s nest, one it built with taxpayer’s money... - Read More

9.15am, Campaign
Nigel Holder:
Transferring Wealth from the State to the Citizen

The has been much talk of late about the role of the State as a commissioner of services, with competition being provided through a multiplicity of providers, some of whom may be in the private sector.  It is important to recognise that true competition only exists when an individual citizen freely can make a value for money distinction between providers that are vying for trade in a free market place... - Read More

The Mirror, What a discgrace: £137k pay off for benefits fiasco boss
Newcastle Journal, Missing Discs Boss's £7,000 A Month Pay'
The Guardian, HMRC chiefs' payouts revealed
Daily Telegraph, Data loss mandarin gets £2.2m farewell
Daily Telegraph, Cameron refuses to rule out tax increases
Daily Mail, £2.3m eases pain for data loss chief
Daily Mail, Cameron leaves door open for Tory tax rises
The Sun, 1.5m face bills after tax blunder
Daily Star, Disc blunder chief gets a £2m pension
Daily Express, Anger at £2m bonanza for data bungler
Metro, Data bungle civil servant gets £2.3m
Accountancy Age, Huge payoff for HMRC boss Gray
Sunderland Echo, Fury over pay-off for boss
Birmingham Post, Pay-off of £137,000 after HMRC boob
Liverpool Daily Post, Customs cash row

Tuesday July 15

Blogs

12.30pm, Campaign
Mark Wallace:
Fat Boy Farrell Investigates

I'm now a hero so that's good. I now get recognised all the time by kids on the street...

So far so good...

...they all call me Fatboy Farrell...- Read More

11.15am, Better Government
Mark Wallace:
DETAILS OF EX-HMRC BOSS'S REWARDS FOR FAILURE REVEALED

The TaxPayers' Alliance releases full details of the massive financial package given to Paul Gray, the former Chairman of HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) who resigned over the loss of computer discs containing the personal details of 25 million people. - Read More

11.00am, Better Government
Matthew Sinclair:
The unions buy Government policy

It is rather sad that unions can secure policy changes like this one just by underwriting the Labour Party's debts... - Read More

9.20am, Campaign
Mark Wallace:
Swindon gives speed cameras a long overdue heave-ho

Good on Swindon council for finally saying what the rest of us have known for quite some time - speed cameras have become a money-raising scam rather than a road safety measure... - Read More

9.00am, Campaign
Tim Aker:
All talk

Your money in the past ten years apparently served as ‘investment’ in public services.  In return you get dirty hospitals, police barricaded in their stations through an avalanche of paperwork and a government employing PC bureaucrats – as mentioned above – to help problem families stay in their council houses... - Read More

Daily Telegraph, BBC spend on taxis jumps £2m in a year
Daily Telegraph, Parents of troubled teens face coaching courses and eviction threats
Daily Express, Convicts hug a tree to go free
DailyMail.co.uk, Police unveil their latest weapon to fight crime - Top Trumps cards of THEMSELVES
Grimsby Evening Telegraph, Hot on the heels of council tax dodgers
Politics.co.uk, Data loss boss got £137k for resignation
Teletext, Row over HMRC's chief payout

On TV tonight:

Tyne Tees TV (ITV): Mark Wallace of the TPA criticises the massive pay-off given to the former Chairman of HMRC

Monday July 14

Blogs

10.00am, Better Government
Matthew Sinclair:
Politicians don't build nuclear power plants, builders do

Of course, in reality ministers are only providing planning permission but the underlying attitude, that things get done when ministers command that they be done, is dangerous.  An attitude which expects Government to take action and interfere from the top in the day-to-day delivery of services is responsible for so much poor performance in the public services... - Read More

Daily Star, Migrants passport scandal
Daily Express, Translating costs soar to guarantee all get a passport
Daily Express, If you want weekly bin runs you'll have to pay for them
The Mirror, BBC taxi bill costs fee payers £13.8m
Daily Mail, BBC's taxi bill soars by 60% in a year to a staggering £14million
Daily Mail, Home Secretary: Reforming MP's expenses would have created extra work for my staff
Daily Telegraph, Fat nurses get £250K scheme to lose weight
CityTalk Radio, Do civil servants deserve massive bonuses?

Media coverage over the weekend:

Daily Mail, Fury as Games chief's bonus hits £200,000
Sunday Telegraph, Profile: Jenny Abramsky: Are you retiring comfortably?
Sunday Telegraph, MPs claim expenses for unnecessary homes
Sunday Telegraph, Wastewatch: Double Perks
Sunday People, The jaunt committees
Sunday People, £3k for doc
Newcastle Sunday Sun, Paying high price for crime fight

Friday July 11

Blogs

5.30pm, Campaign
Mark Wallace:
Local Government report a waste of White Paper

Local democracy is a really big issue, and has a host of serious problems that need solving, but do we hear any truly radical suggestions to put services under democratic control, throw open the doors of bureaucracy and introduce genuine transparency? Not a bit of it - they've dodged the question. To continue the historic theme, if they carry on behaving like this they'll have the Peasants Revolt 1381 on their hands... - Read More

4.45pm, West Midlands
Fiona McEvoy:
Unconstructive quango

A WMTPA supporter recently queried the existence of the West Midlands Centre for Constructing Excellence, a body set-up to “improve the capabilities and competitiveness of the West Midlands construction industry”, the like of which is replicated in each of the regions... - Read More

The Sun, Road tax rage
Daily Express, EU allows foreigners to claim British benefits after returning home
Daily Express, Britain needs a stamp duty holiday
Daily Star, Fury at EU dole plan
Rochdale Online, Annual crime cost tops £370
Glasgow Herald, Road tax rise last straw for poor families, claim Tories
Blackpool Gazette, Motorists suffer green tax misery
Wokingham Times, Counting the cost of crime
Newcastle Journal, Increased Road Tax Sparks Fury
Whitby Gazette, Letters: Anyone for taxpayer idea?
Yorkshire Post, Glyn Gaskarth: Four steps to keep Britain safe... and free
South Wales Echo, Viewpoints - Why not set our AMs an allowance?
The Herald, Road tax rise last straw for poor families, claim Tories
Liverpool Daily Post, WALES: Road tax anger grows
ConservativeHome.com, Tax relief for the poor
The Comet, £255 - that's the cost of crime to you if you live in Bedfordshire

Sky News, TPA slams councils for selling personal data

BBC Look North, Newcastle City Council try to solve the housing market using taxpayers' money (click to watch)

Thursday July 10

Blogs

11.00am, Economics 101
Matthew Sinclair:
Finally the Government are facing the facts on Vehicle Excise Duty

When new green charges are put in place the main effect people see isn't a marginal increase in the already huge incentive to run an efficient car.  What they see is a Government using green rhetoric as a smokescreen to conceal yet another imposition on hard-pressed motorists and misleading them about the impact of the new charges.  They are rightly angry... - Read More

10.25am, Better Government
Corin Taylor:
Private sector running £80bn worth of public services

So overall, while the report contains much to be positive about, the current pattern of private involvement in public services leaves much to be desired. The market is currently constrained on both the supply and the demand sides and until that changes, the much-needed revolution in public services will not occur. - Read More

Daily Mail, Voters to be enticed to the polls... with an offer of free doughnuts
Shields Gazette, Council tax could rise by 5% a year
24dash, Government accused of bribing voters with polling booth 'incentives'
Heritage.org, Europe and Israel: Strengthening the Partnership
Lancashire Evening Post, Row over council's allowances bill
Lancashire Evening Post, Car tax hike hits motorists hard
Politics.co.uk, Tory MEPs forced to publish expenses
Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph, Force has third highest cost for tackling crime
4ni.co.uk, Road Users Face Car Tax Hike
Edinburgh Evening News, Free tables and chairs on offer as £100k furniture deal looms
Resource & Waste Management News, AWCs are a disservice to the public, says campaign group
Finance Markets, New car tax to hit nearly 10 million people
Nottingham Evening Post, Notts police rue information slip