Monday November 12

Blogs

12.55pm, 2012 Watchdog: 2012 cogs working loose

Mike Denham blogs on the duplications and clashes between the British Olympic Association's £20m athlete training plan and UK Sport's (also flawed) £500m scheme to chase a high medal haul in 2012... - Read More

12.15pm, Better Government: Army helicopters falling to pieces

Half of the Apache gunships were grounded over summer and one third of the Chinooks withdrawn from service as not "fit for purpose"... - Read More

11.30am, Campaign: Holding the 'Rewards for Failure' to account

This year’s Public Sector Rich List includes a list of the top ten ‘Rewards for Failure’. But it’s not enough just to show how failure has been rewarded with taxpayers’ money; British taxpayers also have a right to complain. Here, the TPA provides all the contact details for you to do just that... - Read More

11.25am, Better Government: Being globally aware is bad for your health, wealth and freedom

The British Council receives £195,352,000 per year in government funding supposedly needed to "build mutually beneficial relationships between people in the UK and other countries and to increase appreciation of the UK’s creative ideas and achievements."

In order to do this they've come up with a study that shows us falling behind in our awareness of the world around us... - Read More

News Round-Up

Douglas Carswell MP: Parliament isn't working

Another year, another Queen's Speech. Yet more headline grabbing laws churned out by our politicians. Parliament produces a torrent of legislation, but is it any good at putting the spotlight on government?

The House of Commons is a house of charades; Ministers pretend to make the big decisions and we MPs pretend to hold them to account. Voters give up. - ConservativeHome.com

Transport Select Committee warns Galileo could cost taxpayers billions

In a report by the Transport Select Committee, Gwyneth Dunwoody, the chairwoman, warned that the total costs of the effort to establish an alternative to America's Global Position System (GPS) could soar to £10bn, and that it is was unclear whether it represented value for money...

The Government must stop this folly, and endeavour to bring the [EC] to its senses. The Commission is poised to spend billions of taxpayers' money on a satellite system without any realistic assessment of its costs and its benefits. To fund this, it is prepared to break all the rules for prudent budgetary discipline," she said. - Independent

Media Coverage

- Editorial: Them and us

Bumper salary hikes for public sector fatcats are outrageous when the people who do the hard work are ordered to tighten their belts. A Labour government cannot justify huge rises for a high-earning elite when everyone else is told two per cent is all they're worth this year. - Mirror

- State's fat cat payout - Mirror

- Peter McKay: Fat cats cashing in on failure

According to Corin Taylor of the TaxPayers' Alliance, which gathered the figures: "There is a complete mismatch between rewards and performance. Taypayers don't begrudge proper salaries being paid to people who perform, but this list shows plenty of people have been paid extremely well for poor performance."

Why are ordinary public employees expected to moderate their demands when they are managed by people who seem immune from such restraints? - Daily Mail

- Public sector 'fat cats' see their pay rise by six times the rate of inflation - Daily Mail

- Leo McKinstry: New breed of fat cats gaining at taxpayers' expense

According to a report just published by independent pressure group the Taxpayers’ Alliance, there are 17 state officials who earn more than £500,000 and another 66 earning at least £250,000.

One executive, Adam Crozier of the Royal Mail, was paid £1.25million in 2006/7, a staggering sum given the endless Post Office crises. - Daily Express

- 13% Pay rises for the public sector fat cats - Daily Express

- Hickey Column - Daily Express

- Pay for public sector bosses rises by 12.8 per cent

Gordon Brown is facing a major row about the salaries of public sector executives after a report from the Taxpayer's Alliance highlighted pay rises that were six times the rate of inflation.

The highest-earning 300 bosses in the public sector saw their salaries increase by 12.8 per cent last year, raising their average to £237,564. Seventeen of the top bosses earned more than £500,000, according to the pressure group's second annual Public Sector Rich List. - Independent

- Editorial: It's time to get a grip on these rises

According to a survey by the Taxpayers' Alliance, Scotland's richest "fat cat" public servants pocketed pay rises five times the rate of inflation last year - an even bigger increase than the UK average. - Scotsman

- Op-Ed: Are public sector figures being paid too much?

by Mark Wallace, Campaigns Director, The Taxpayers' Alliance

The Public Sector Rich List is based on a simple principle – accountability. As the public contribute more and more money to public coffers through taxation every year, it is only right that they can see where that money is being spent. - Scotsman

- Public sector bosses pocket rises of up to 27% - as staff set to get 2% - Scotsman