The TaxPayers' Alliance - Home

Monday November 23

Blogs

4.00pm, Campaign
Mark Wallace:
CRU emails reveal inconvenient truths about FOI

There has been quite a storm raging on the blogosphere over the last few days about a large batch of emails, climate data and other information that has allegedly been leaked or hacked from the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit. It's not in the TPA's field or remit to go into the scientific debate but one aspect of the published correspondence is very much on our patch, and it is very revealing... - Read More

12.45pm, European Union
Lee Rotherham:
All the Presidents' Men

There has been a considerable amount of coverage over the past few days on two new posts that have emerged from the Lisbon Treaty. A third seems to have slipped under the radar, and it’s one with just as much significance, even if commentators aren’t at all aware of it... - Read More

The Sun: ‘Injured’ teachers in £3m compo bonanza
Daily Telegraph: The multi-million pound 'bribe' to send foreign criminals home
Daily Mail: Harman blocks the £185,000 salary of equalities chief
Daily Mail: BBC under fire for Autumnwatch tree giveaway costing licence fee payers £150,000
Politics.co.uk: Minister's £12,000 expenses claims for fourth office
IOL Motoring (South Africa): Top Gear war games - counting the cost
Supply Management: UK government spending on major capital projects slammed
ZDNet UK: Campaigners criticise '£10bn NHS IT overspend'
Irish Sun: Crazy compo claims made by Brit teachers cost taxpayers 3m pounds last year
DailyIndia.com: Crazy compo claims made by Brit teachers cost taxpayers 3m pounds last year
Newstrack India: Crazy compo claims made by Brit teachers cost taxpayers 3m pounds last year
Just Politics: UK Report: First the Garbage, Now Household Searches

Sun Talk, TPA Political Director spoke to Gaunty about the growing compensation culture in British schools, saying that no taxpayers’ money must go to spurious claimants.

Over the weekend,

Mail on Sunday: MANDY'S COOL EMPIRE
Sunday Times: ‘Mrs Expenses’ Ann Keen claimed £12,000 for fourth office
Sunday People: NHS COMPUTERS COST 3P TAX CUT
Sunday People: Benefit liar sent on hol
Sunday People: FURY AT CARR'S XMAS DEMANDS
Sunday Mercury: Tax cash for sex-change respect tips
Russia Today: Creating extra carbon to talk climate change
ConservativeHome: Mark Wallace: What does Sir Hugh Orde have to worry about?
Daily Express: Patrick O'Flynn: Papa Smurf and Bugs turn Britain anti-EU
Daily Mail: BBC DISPATCHES 35 STAFF TO CLIMATE TALKS - CREATING AS MUCH CARBON AS AN AFRICAN VILLAGE DOES IN A YEAR
Daily Mail Online: Anger at Peter Mandelson's £13m plan for ‘minimalist palace’ after he calls for pay restraint

Friday November 20

New Research: Out of Control: How the Government overspends on capital projects

Download the full report (PDF).

New TaxPayers' Alliance cinema advert launched 

Order you free copy of Ten Years on today - click here

Blogs

5.20pm, European Union
Lee Rotherham & Matthew Sinclair:
Response to Left Foot Forward on the costs of the European Union

Left Foot Forward have posted an article which purports to “fact check” our cinema advert.  Their criticisms are shallow and don’t actually identify any problems with our advert or the reports underlying the claims it makes about the cost of the EU... - Read More

11.15am, European Union
Lee Rotherham:
Two Years On

Our new book Ten Years On: Britain Without the European Union as of today is now being advertised in cinemas. It’s not the only future shock you might see on the big screen when you go... - Read More

Daily Mail: LEADER: Nightmare legacy of the Labour Party
Daily Mail: THE £19BN PROJECT OVERSPEND
Metro: £19bn bill for project overruns
Construction News: Overruns on public projects cost £19bn
Computer Weekly: More than half of £19bn overspend on government projects due to NPfIT
Information Age: IT projects among government’s biggest failures
Politics.co.uk: 'Unmanageable' government wastes £19 billion
Yahoo UK News: IT projects responsible for £11bn cost overruns
CRN: IT projects responsible for £11bn cost overruns
Computing.co.uk: IT projects responsible for £11bn cost overruns
IT Week: IT projects responsible for £11bn cost overruns
ConservativeHome: CentreRight: Matt Sinclair: Big Government projects keep going over budget
Cato @ Liberty: Cost Overruns: It's the same in Britain
The Sun: Cops have to spend £25m on translation
Yorkshire Post: Lee Rotherham: Britain would be better off without the EU
The Scotsman: Ministers urged to cut public sector's £100k-plus earners
The Scotsman: 26 MSPs employ their own relatives on staff
The Scotsman: Food for thought as four MSPs claim over £1,000 each for meals
Scottish Sun: MSPs’ hooray for Lollyrood
Webfinanser (Sweden): Liberal Democratic Party: Government’s woeful record on capital projects – Cable

Thursday November 19

Blogs

2.30pm, European Union
Lee Rotherham:
Silver Screen

Brussels is nothing but a fan of the classics when naming its projects. MEDIA Mundus is a case in point. That programme establishes a global audiovisual programme for cooperation with film professionals beyond the EU... - Read More

The Independent: MoD defends time spent on Top Gear stunts
Daily Express: CCTV IN HOMES TO SPY ON NEIGHBOURS
Scottish Daily Express: Games running up £1billion bill
Kentish Express: Top staff must take share of KCC cuts, urges union
Luton & Dunstable Express: MP accused of 'waltzing away with lump sum'
Sheerness Times Guardian: High-earning posts in jeopardy
Oxford Times: COUNTY CASH CRISIS: Expenses face freeze
Irish Independent: British army commits equipment worth millions... to 'Top Gear'
Gravesend Messenger: Council leader critical of action
Gravesend Messenger: Call for slim down of KCC high earners
Clacton Gazette: £200k pricetag for cost-cutting cull?
Irish Evening Herald: British army commits equipment worth millions ... to 'Top Gear'
Telegraph.co.uk: MSP expense claims soar to £11 million
Money Week: Tabloid money... the £310 per person whip-round for the EU
Yahoo UK News: CCTV placed inside private homes
NZ Herald: Top Gear war games - counting the cost
ePolitix: Fiscal Responsibility Bill
Guido Fawkes: Why Did Labour Want to Avoid Expenses Issue?
ActionAid UK: Oh for the glory glory days of Make Poverty History
New American: UK Health Department to Require Snooping Into Private Homes

Wednesday November 18

Blogs

2.40pm, Burning Our Money
Fiona McEvoy:
Non-job of the week

Marginally fewer public sector jobs advertised on the Guardian site this week, but nevertheless, a hearty 540 dominated by middle-management and executive positions... - Read More

11.00am, Burning Our Money
Mike Denham:
Big and Inefficient

We all know our public sector wastes squillions, but just how inefficient is it? How does it look against public sectors elsewhere in the world?

There are a number of studies that have attempted to answer such questions. One of the best known was published by the European Central Bank in 2003 - Public Sector Efficiency: An International Comparison, by Afonso, Schuknecht, and Tanzi... - Read More

Daily Mail: The Queen a parasite? No, a penny-pinching paragon (and our rotten MPs should take note)
Daily Express: Ministers spend £6m on chauffeurs
Daily Express: Outcry as council is ordered to apologise to 'school phobia' boy
Daily Telegraph: Ministers rack up £6.3 million bill on chauffeur-driven cars
Oxford Mail: COUNTY CASH CRISIS: Expenses face freeze
Telegraph.co.uk: Daniel Hannan: The cost of EU membership
Politics.co.uk: CCTV placed inside private homes

BBC Radio Somerset: TPA Campaign Director Mark Wallace debated against Arts Council South West, saying that council arts spending was a non-essential item that should be cut back in the recession.
Ram FM: TPA Campaign Director Mark Wallace criticised Derbyshire headteachers for spending £28,000 on meeting in a luxury hotel.

Tuesday November 17

Blogs

3.00pm, West Midlands
Fiona McEvoy:
Film's a flop after £380k of taxpayers' cash

Despite reviews in the local and national press, a huge amount of publicity due to the controversy surrounding it and £380,000 of Screen WM investment, the taxpayer-funded movie 1 Day still only grossed a meagre £44k on its opening weekend at 80 cinemas nationwide... - Read More

2.50pm, Economics 101
Matthew Sinclair:
The Government's Fiscal Responsibility Bill

I've written an article for the Adam Smith Institute, setting out why the Fiscal Responsibility Bill is a pretty poor substitute for actual fiscal responsibility:

"The idea of this government locking in Fiscal Responsibility with a new law would be laughable if their current irresponsibility wasn’t mortgaging our future...  - Read More

11.45, Better Government
Jennifer Dunn:
The speed camera goldmine

A Freedom of Information request made by campaigners has revealed that one speed camera alone generated half a million pounds on the M11 in Essex. The high amount of revenue from a single speed camera has given considerable clout to the argument - made by the campaigners who issued the request - that speed cameras are just another means to milk the motorist... - Read More

Daily Mail: Four-poster beds, spa, golf course...£30,000 break for headteachers in cash-strapped county
Daily Mail: Labour's £115m boost for hard-up homebuyers ends up helping precisely no one
Daily Mail: Even in jail, they can't get Abu Hamza to pipe down
The Sun: Outrage as home alone binge mum spared jail
Daily Express: Archbishop backs higher taxes
Lincolnshire Echo: GPs offered £1k bonus to cut drugs
Leicester Mercury: MPs accused of not backing reform
BBC Online: Stephanomics: Tough times ahead
Kent Online: Unison urges KCC to cut number of senior managers
Perspicacious.co.uk: Labour’s £115m boost for hard-up homebuyers ends up helping precisely no one
Adam Smith Institute: Matt Sinclair: Fiscal Responsibility Bill
Independent.co.uk: Job-cuts council holds conference at spa resort
24Dash.com: Jobs cut council under fire over £28,000 headteachers' conference at spa resort
Virtue Online: Archbishop backs higher taxes

BBC Radio Derby: TPA Campaign Director Mark Wallace criticised Derbyshire County Council’s decision to spend £30,000 on a training event for headteachers at a boutique spa hotel.

Smooth Radio: Mark Wallace said that Derbyshire County Council were letting down taxpayers and pupils by spending school budgets irresponsibly.

BBC Radio Derby: Later in the evening, Mark Wallace debated the issue of council away days in general, calling for them to be cancelled or held at cheaper venues.

Monday November 16

New TaxPayers' Alliance cinema advert launched 

Order you free copy of Ten Years on today - click here

Blogs

4.30pm, West Midlands
Fiona McEvoy:
The Public watch: No.3

Only last month The Public’s auditors, KPMG, urged Sandwell Council to consider “mothballing, decommissioning or demolishing” the West Bromwich eyesore and the future of the project seemed to be very grim indeed. So why on earth are they advertising in the Guardian today for four new managers and a director...? - Read More

2.15pm, Economics 101
Matthew Sinclair:
Global Entrepreneurship Week

It is apparently Global Entrepreneurship Week.  The organisers claim that "[it’s] a worldwide movement of entrepreneurial people, with millions unleashing their enterprising talents and turning their ideas into reality"... - Read More

12.00pm, European Union
Lee Rotherham:
A sanguinary lesson

A new Commission law reveals just how far the Single Market has expanded across aspects of our lives. Directive 2009/135/EC provides for a temporary derogation allowing for lower levels of haemoglobin in donated blood... - Read More

 
Daily Mail: Janet Street Porter: You've been quangoed -- and it's a real slap in the face
Daily Mail: Jailed killers allowed to sleep at home every month
Daily Mail: Cut pay of public sector fat cats, says Harman... apart from bosses at the BBC and Royal Mail
Daily Mail Online: 'Big Brother' ID cards cost taxpayers £230,000 each day
Daily Mail Online: Harry Phibbs: Harriet Harman's bid to reduce the pay of Whitehall fat cats - she should just cut these non-jobs
Daily Telegraph: LEADER: We don't want to fly the flag for Europe
Daily Telegraph: Carbon reform 'could pay for nuclear growth'
Daily Telegraph: Crowded prisons sending killers on 'holiday'
Daily Telegraph: Families face health and safety checks
Telegraph.co.uk: 'Great EU debate' asks voters about UK membership
Telegraph.co.uk: March to ID cards costing the public quarter of a million pounds a day
Telegraph.co.uk: Favourite to be EU president backs European national anthem
Telegraph.co.uk: Prison officials spend £650 on new taps for Abu Hamza
Daily Express: Stop fighting the expenses blitz, Speaker warns MPs
Daily Express: Now health and safety snoopers visit your home
The Sun: Hamza drives us round Abu-bend
Sheffield Telegraph: Police chief defends £18m bonus payout
Western Morning News: Give us a lump sum payment - MPs
Express & Star: Mother wins support in duck fine battle
Southern Daily Echo: Fines for flouting recycling rules in Fareham
Politics.co.uk: TPA: A policy of copping out
Personneltoday.com: Public sector pay packets could be capped below prime minister’s salary
thisiscornwall.co.uk: Give us a lump sum payment - MPs
Odgers Berndtson: Harman proposes public sector executive pay cap
EuropeNews.dk: Prison officials spend £650 on new taps for Abu Hamza
ToryBear: TPA Cinema Ad
ConservativeHome: ToryDiary: The future of Euroscepticism
All Seeing Eye: Coming Soon To A Cinema Near You

Sun Talk, TPA Political Director Susie Squire spoke about how cases such as Abu Hamza’s expensive new taps make taxpayers question the Government’s spending priorities.

Westside FM, TPA Political Director Susie Squire argued that Harrow council’s neighbourhood champions will not encourage community spirit, but destroy it.

Over the weekend,

BBC News Online: Top salaries must be cut - Harman
The Observer: Public sector chiefs' pay must be cut, says Harman
The Observer: Top 10 public sector remuneration packages
Independent on Sunday: British police drop bike guide after mockery
Sunday Telegraph: Truth about the great Post Office consultation
Telegraph.co.uk: Health and Safety inspectors ‘sent in to family homes’
Sunday Times: Health and safety snoops to enter family homes
Sunday Times: Costs of maintaining Holyrood rise by 40%
Sunday Express: EXCLUSIVE: MARTIN FURY OVER FREEBIE ON FIRST DAY
Sunday Express: PAMPERED PRISONERS
News of the World: Scandal of benefit-grabbing family who live a life of idleness
ConservativeHome: Platform: Ben Farrugia: Promising to ring-fence the international aid budget seems naive when you consider that 14% of DfID's budget never reaches those for whom it is intended
The Times: Donations fund PR
Daily Mail: EU 'COSTS FAMILIES £428 A YEAR'
Daily Express: PUBLIC PAY GOES UP BY 3.1% IN PAST YEAR
Telegraph.co.uk: Post Office closures: How the Government ignored the public outcry
Telegraph.co.uk: Daniel Hannan: The case for leaving the EU
Burning Our Money Blog: Cost Of Aid Admin
LV.com: Tories slam 'benefits culture'

Radio Fife, TPA Deputy Research Director Ben Farrugia discussed our latest report on DfID spending, saying that too much of the taxpayers’ funds that charities receive go on non front-line costs.

Colourful Radio, TPA Political Director Susie Squire sais that DfID is not getting value for money from taxpayers’ aid donations.

Saturday November 14

New TaxPayers' Alliance research reveals the true cost of the UK international development programme.

"13p in every pound never reaches the poorest countries in the World"

To read the full report, click here 

Ben Farrugia, Deputy Research Director at the TaxPayers' Alliance said:

"With UK spending on international development set to grow substantially, it's more important than ever that we start to look at how much our current approach costs. The money that never reaches the front-line could go a long way in the world's poorest countries. Politicians need to be less concerned about ring-fencing budgets and how to achieve arbitrary spending targets, and concentrate more on how to get real value from what we already give."

******************************************* Please note

Since publication information previously unavailable has now been made public. The report has been edited to reflect this. For multilateral organisations, the average non-front line cost is now 15.4 per cent. For NGOs, the average non-front line cost is 20.5. The total lost to non-front line costs in 2007-08 has fallen slightly, to £685 million.

Friday November 13

Blogs

4.30pm, West Midlands
Fiona McEvoy:
AWM scatter some more of our money around

With our heads still spinning from the vagaries of the recent Advantage West Midlands conference, a WMTPA supporter sent over a flyer for a “FREE Diversity Week Workshop” sponsored by, well, guess... - Read More

Daily Telegraph: BBC pays its 100 most senior staff £20m a year
Daily Telegraph: Police criticised for 93-page cycle guide
The Sun: 300,000 coin £20k in benefit bonanza
Daily Mirror: Top BBC bosses claim £175,000 in expenses, including 70p parking ticket
Daily Mail: Benefits Britain: Labour's reign puts 300,000 families on handouts worth £20,000 a year
Daily Mail: THE BLOATED BEEB
Daily Express: £20M BONANZA FOR BBC CHIEFS AND THEIR CRONIES
Yorkshire Post: Exclusive: Bin strike council in war of words on £1m bill
Lancashire Evening Post: Pregnant women paid to quit smoking
thisislancashire.co.uk: Baroness in new expenses row over air flight
thisisnottingham.co.uk: Graham Allen defends expenses petition
Hull Daily Mail: Watchdog looks into outsourced council contract
Bolton News: Baroness in new expenses row over air flight
Bucks Free Press: Fury over £1/2m for Buckinghamshire council chiefs' private healthcare
Yahoo UK News: Police drop bike guide after mockery
Oman Tribune: Much ado about British cops’ cycling
Cape Times (South Africa): Wheelie serious guide to stop coppers coming a cropper
Gulf Times (Qatar): Police get 93-page guide to riding cycles
The Post (South Africa): Wheelie serious guide to stop coppers coming a cropper
De Morgen (Belgium): Fietsen voor Britse agenten: 93 pagina's aanbevelingen
South China Morning Post: Police drop 93-page cycling guide
News24.com (South Africa): UK cops cycle by the book, not
IOL (South Africa): How to ride a bike: a guide for dummies
National Post (Canada): Training Wheels
Loughborough Echo: Anti social behaviour put in the spotlight

Beach FM, TPA Political Director Susie Squire said that councils need to try harder to cut council tax and improve public services.

BBC Radio Humberside, TPA Political Director Susie Squire discussed the worrying trend of benefit dependency in Britain.

City Talk Radio Liverpool, Susie criticised BBC executive salaries and expenses.

Kestrel FM, TPA Campaign Director Mark Wallace said Hampshire County Council is right to be cutting out wasteful spending and that taxpayers wanted to see public spending fall.

Thursday November 12

Blogs

4.30pm, West Midlands
Fiona McEvoy:
Sandwell Council hit mother and baby with £75 fine for feeding ducks

A couple of weeks ago the WMTPA commented on how Sandwell Council wardens appeared to have been somewhat over zealous issuing on-the-spot fines, doling out an enormous 2,200 compared to just 336 in neighbouring Dudley. Well now an article in today’s Express & Star presents us with some of the unlikely victims of this local government avarice... - Read More

10.00am, Burning Our Money
Fiona McEvoy:
Non-job of the week

The grand total of government jobs advertised in the Guardian has crept up again this week to 556, with almost double the number of positions in the £80-£100k category compared to last week. There’s clearly an executive drought in the public sector or perhaps frontline redundancies have freed up the cash for a few new ones... - Read More

Daily Telegraph: Thousands of family doctors 'being paid not to give out antibiotics'
Daily Mail: The post office sham: 'Consultation' on devastating closures was window dressing, says scathing report
Daily Express: ARROGANT! NOW 37 MPS BATTLE FOR A £100,000 PAY DEAL
Daily Express: ANGER AT £18M BONUSES PAID TO POLICE
The Sun: The bonkers bike book for bobbies
Daily Telegraph: Watchdogs chasing their tail
Daily Express: POLICE GET 93-PAGE GUIDE TO CYCLING
Daily Star: POLICE GET 93-PAGE GUIDE TO CYCLING
BBC News Online: Police chiefs ditch cycle manual
road.cc: Police to get 93 page guide on how to ride a bike
bikeradar.com: Police deny plans for cycling manual
FM World: Rail firm's coach travel raises eyebrows
Burton Mail: Police get 93-page guide to cycling
Uttoxeter Advertiser: Police get 93-page guide to cycling
Luton & Dunstable Express: Police get 93-page guide to cycling
Berwick Advertiser: Police get 93-page guide to cycling
Swindon Advertiser: Police get 93-page guide to cycling
Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard: Police get 93-page guide to cycling
Nuneaton News: Police get 93-page guide to cycling
Ashbourne News Telegraph: Police get 93-page guide to cycling
Hertfordshire Mercury: Police get 93-page guide to cycling
Liverpool Daily Post: Police get 93-page guide to cycling
Morpeth Herald: Police get 93-page guide to cycling
Cambridge-News.co.uk: Police get 93-page guide to cycling
Metro.co.uk: Police get 93-page guide to cycling
Harlow Star: Police get 93-page guide to cycling
Sheffield Telegraph: Police get 93-page guide to cycling
Caernarfon Herald: Police get 93-page guide to cycling
Ananova.com: Police get 93-page guide to cycling
Teletext.co.uk: Police get 93-page guide to cycling
Yahoo UK News: Police get 93-page guide to cycling
Police Oracle: Police Get 93-Page Guide To Cycling
Herald Express (South Devon): Cops under fire over bike guide
MK News: Thumbs down for police bike guide
Belfast Telegraph: Fury as police chiefs reveal new 93-page guide ... to riding a bike

BBC Radio Sheffield, TPA Political Director Susie Squire discussed council chief executive pay.

BBC Radio Three Counties, Susie discussed the lunacy of scrutiny panels to scrutinize scrutiny panels, saying that taxpayers would see this council initiative as unnecessary bureaucracy.

Sun Talk, Susie talked to Gaunty about MoD bonuses and the madness of a two volume publication from APCO telling policemen how to ride a bike.

Channel 4 News, Susie criticised the MoD for handing out bonuses to civil servants against a backdrop of under-equipped troops and poor procurement performance.

Wednesday November 11

Join the Great EU Debate

 
Blogs

2.50pm, Better Government
John O'Connell:
Major's committee evidence

John Major gave evidence to the Public Administration Committee yesterday on the subject of ministerial appointments. He offered some sound suggestions to the MPs present, including reducing the number of MPs and the payroll vote (the MPs who are paid-up members of the Government or in roles attached to Government)... - Read More

10.20am, Burning our Money
Mike Denham:
Turning A False Corner

Yesterday, the front page of the Times proclaimed:

Poll shows Britons see good times around the corner
People are more optimistic about the economy than at any time for the past 18 months, according to a Populus poll for The Times today.

Which was surprising, given the tidings of doom carried elsewhere... Read More

 
ConservativeHome: Lee Rotherham: Life after the European Union - How it would benefit the British fishing industry
London Evening Standard: Being a good citizen? It's just not British
Local Government Chronicle: Council chief's salary defended
Yorkshire Post: Council attacked for recruiting 'snoopers'
The Island Pulse: Island MP Questions Public Spending On Wight
Police Oracle: 'Specialist' Road Patrol Duty
Sheffield Telegraph: Police £18m bonus outcry
Get Surrey: Guildford council's website costs 'extortionate'
Telegraph.co.uk: Council sets up scrutiny panel - to scrutinise its scrutiny panels
Ipswich Evening Star: Thirsty staff cost taxpayers thousands