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Andrew Allison: Deselected councillors reinstated in a farcical appeals process

Andrew allison When ten Conservative councillors were deselected a couple of weeks ago, I and many others thought that at last justice had prevailed. An panel of senior Conservatives looked at applications from everyone who wished to be a candidate. Some - including cabinet members - were interviewed. Evidence was taken and minuted. They did not reach their decisions lightly, and spent many hours in deliberations.

When those ten councillors appealed against the decision, I was under the mistaken belief the appeals process would be similar to a court of law. I thought those appealing would have to come up with reasons as to why they should remain on the candidates' list. The truth is entirely different.

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Andrew Allison: Non-job of the week

Andrew allison Non-jobs are (thankfully) getting harder to find. There is also a vast reduction in the amount of government jobs on The Gurdian website too. Instead of over 500 a few months' ago, this week it is down to 122!

The government is not very good when it comes to IT (or ICT as it is called today). Major projects are usually completed over time, over budget, with teething troubles that make a clapped-out car look like a Ferrari! Major organisations - such as banks - manage to get their IT systems to work, but not government departments and agencies.

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John Martin: All is not well in the kingdom of Norfolk

John-Martin-(3) One of the principal concerns of the TPA is that public money should not be squandered, or spent in an improper or ill-advised manner. But it is also anxious to see that standards of good governance are maintained within local authorities.

This cannot be the case where the political group in power is engaged in internecine warfare. The minds of our elected representatives should not be distracted when crucial decisions affecting us all need to be made.

Sadly, there have been more than few distractions inside Norfolk County Council (“NCC”) of late. Everything should be sweetness and light within the ruling Conservative group, if only because it has a huge overall majority of thirty-six seats that renders meaningful scrutiny, or opposition, impossible. But this is not so...

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Rory Meakin: Surprise tax raid undermines corporation tax cut

Rory Treasury minister David Guake caused outrage yesterday by announcing a range of measures to raise £2bn. The legislation harshens the tax treatment of intra-group loans and derivative contracts and has been given immediate effect.It also addresses the use of trusts to lower income tax and national insurance liabilities and changing investment firms’ functional currencies to create a loss.

While there may be some logic in changing the tax treatment of these practices, the 1 per cent corporation tax cut announced in the June emergency budget is scheduled for next year while this raid will hit UK companies now.

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Charlotte Linacre: On your bike for 20p a mile

Charlotte Following the MPs' expenses scandal in 2009, we were vocal in highlighting the need for an overhaul to provide a better deal for taxpayers. The latest expense revelations pour fresh doubt on MPs’ priorities. While some have got the point, others are continuing to make bizarre claims.

Generally the scandalous claims have stopped or been rejected this time, but there were a surprising number of small pointless amounts being recorded. Lots of examples like: 54p for sugar, 20p for bicycle mileage, 84p for coffee. It indicates a worrying lack of common sense!  For the time it takes to fill out the form it simply isn’t worth it. With a salary of £64,000 why wouldn’t they just use the loose change in their pocket and move on?

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Dominique Lazanski: Scrap the fibre tax

Dominique Today, Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced the government’s plan to roll out broadband for everyone across the UK. Mr. Hunt said that in the next seven years £830m of public money will be made available and BT said that it will match any of this funding that it receives with its own investment. All of this is well and good in achieving the Coalition’s Government goal on broadband access, but a little known tax, called the Fibre Tax, is actually hampering investment from small to medium sized ISPs in fibre and technical infrastructure.

The Fibre Tax is a tax assessed by the Valuation Office Agency (VAO) on fibre deployment and ‘lighting’ – or the turning on of fibre so that it is ready to use.Companies have to pay in advance if they are hoping to set up smaller networks – even by renting lines from larger ISPs. Prior to this summer, it cost ISPs £200 for one fibre connection deployed over 2km. Now, it costs ISPs £850 for one connection over 1km and ten connections cost £4,400 over 1km. If you do the maths, an ISP that deploys or rents fibre over 100km, say, could pay up to £440,000 for ten connections. BT is exempt from this tax, however, as they are charged a flat fee based on incomes and revenues.

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Andrew Allison: Council pensions and the 'staff merry-go-round'

Andrew allison There are many people in Britain who are facing redundancy. Many do not know if they will still be working after Christmas. This is the economic reality, and they also know the redundancy payments they will receive will be at a minimum. Companies cannot afford to pay more as they struggle to stay in business. If you work in the public sector, however, it's completely difficult. 

Hull City Council abolished the role of Head of Communications and Marketing in September last year, and the incumbent was earning a salary of £65,942. The redundancy payment they received was £109,576. As you can see, this is almost two years' salary. The argument the council uses is it saves a £66K salary and - eventually -  Hull taxpayers will be better off. These type of high payouts go on all the time, but just over a year on, what has happened to this officer?

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Rory Meakin: High public spending means a decade of decline

Rory Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has warned that the coming decade may be seen by history as a decade of decline for the West. In an interview with the Guardian he highlighted the rise of Asian economies and the West’s failure to rise to the challenges and opportunities that rise presents.

"If the story of the coming decade is not to become 'the decline of the West' then Europe and America have to change tack, rise to the biggest challenge of all – restructuring the world economy – and equip themselves to benefit from the next great global challenge – the dramatic rise in the consumer spending power of Asia."

Of course, Brown is right. Britain and the West in general are losing their competitiveness as emerging economies continue to liberalise and develop. But while he is right about the threat to British prosperity, he is wrong about why we are struggling to keep up and wrong about what we should do about it.

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Tim Newark: Rubbish garbage removal

Tim Newark Last Thursday, there was a flurry of snow on the streets of Bath. Thanks to the swift gritting of the roads in the centre of the city by the council, my wife could drive our children to school, the postman could deliver our mail and even the recycling truck could remove our food scraps, but, oh no, our black bags of rubbish remained unmoved.

When I phoned up the council on Friday to ask when they were going to remove our rubbish, I was given two contradictory pieces of advice within minutes of each other. Firstly, I was told I should leave my rubbish out on the off chance that it might be collected that day, but then I mustn’t do that because I would be fined for leaving my rubbish out on a non-pick-up day.

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The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) remains controversial as it forces changes in legislation that the British public and politicians do not want, such as allowing prisoners to vote. This new research, based on a detailed investigation of cases that the British Government has lost, provides new insight into the cost of complying with the court’s decisions:

  • The UK has to date lost three quarters (331 out of 418) of the rulings that have progressed to the top Strasbourg court, a trend that has increased despite the Human Rights Act (HRA) 1998.
  • 80 per cent of all judgments (246 out of 331) Britain has ever lost under the ECHR have been reached since we signed the HRA.
  • The cost of complying with judgements under the ECHR is £2.1 billion a year, with an additional £1.8 billion in one off costs. The total cost to date is £17.3 billion.
  • The growth of a “compensation culture” fostered by the Court costs a further £7.1 billion a year, £25 billion to date.
  • True reform can only take place by the United Kingdom withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights, or the European Court changing its stance to respect a new British Bill of Rights.

Some of the changes made in response to court decisions may, in time, have been made anyway. But many would not and the Government is clearly being pushed into decisions that have significant costs for taxpayers by the ECHR.

To read the report, which includes a full list of cases involving the UK, click here

UPDATE: THE INITIAL VERSION OF THIS REPORT CONTAINED AN ERRONEOUS DESCRIPTION OF THE CRIME COMMITTED BY JOHN HIRST.  THAT HAS NOW BEEN AMENDED AND WE REGRET IF ANYONE WAS MISLED.

Matthew Sinclair: Taxpayers' money going to the London Review of Books

Matt There is a fine line between taxpayers' money supporting free expression in the arts, and it funding political work that bolsters a particular viewpoint.  With ordinary taxpayers' money tight there clearly need to be sharp cuts in support for the arts.  It would just be intolerable for poor families to be paying more in VAT so that the well off can enjoy the fruits of the art budget: from galleries to the opera.

But that is one more debate over getting good value and competing priorities.  It is far more egregious when arts funding is used as a cover to support political causes.  That is unfair and undemocratic.  Taxpayers shouldn't be supporting views that they don't even agree with.  There was one example of this in our recent report on taxpayer funded environmentalism, the Arts Council paid the radical New Economics Foundation £5,000 in 2008-09.

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Andrew Allison: East Riding Councillors to appeal against de-selection

Andrew allison A quick update on events in the East Riding. Last week, I reported how our campaign against a £364K discretionary payment to a senior council officer resulted in ten councillors being deselected  by the Conservative Party.

This week it has been announced those councillors have appealed against the decision. Nine will have their appeals heard next week. The decisions to deselect these councillors was not taken lightly. Sources have told me this was a long process, and the panel reached their verdict after many hours of deliberations. 

No-one I have spoken to thinks the appeals will be successful; nor should they be. These councillors - along with others - blatantly wasted taxpayers' money. The good news is this matter should be settled next week, and we can then move forward. As I said last week, we now have a lame duck leadership in charge of the East Riding and this is not sustainable in the long term.

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Click here to read the full report

Click here for the full press release

We can today reveal for the first time the true extent of taxpayer funded environmental campaigning in the UK and the European Union.

This sort of campaigning pushes the case for green taxes and distorts decision making in favour of greater regulation. It is a form of taxpayer funded lobbying and, particularly at a time when there are cuts in other areas of public spending and tax rises, it should be stopped.

This new research details the groups receiving funding and how they use their resources to lobby and campaign on environmental issues.

Key findings:

  • A total of £10.1 million was given to a range of environmental groups by the UK Government and the European Union in 2009-10.
  • The total includes £2.5 million from various UK local councils, departments and quangos.
  • It also includes £7.6 million in European Commission grants to environmental NGOs.
  • The Foreign and Commonwealth Office made the largest UK payment in 2009-10 of £342,929 to WWF UK.
  • Hackney council made the largest payment in 2009-10 from a UK council at £141,246 to Global Action Plan.

Matthew Sinclair, Director of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said:

"Environmentalist campaigns are politicised groups so it’s unfair and undemocratic that they are getting taxpayers’ money. If people want to give their own cash that's one thing, but with ordinary families facing higher taxes the last thing they want is for politicians and bureaucrats to give on their behalf or put contracts to such groups. Taxpayers pay twice, once for the money given to green groups and then again when they campaign for regulations that push up electricity bills and other costs. The expensive scandal of taxpayer funded environmentalism in Britain and the EU has to end."

Click here to read the full report

Click here for the full press release

Ibl-cover To be a truly competitive economy, the UK must have a competitive tax system. The EU and other international organisations like the OECD and the IMF have promoted policies that would restrict tax competition.

The Instituto Bruno Leoni in Italy have today released a paper that outlines a robust case for why tax competition is crucial and can help to restrict governments’ natural inclination to grow.

Matthew Sinclair, Director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said:

"If there was only one supermarket, we would get ripped off when we went to buy our food. In the same way, having governments compete to offer a good deal is one of the things that limits their ability to rip off taxpayers. Tax competition keeps down the burden of taxation and stops it getting in the way of entrepreneurs and choking the life out of the economy. We should reject all attempts at tax harmonisation, a government tax cartel will come for our money in the end."

To read the full report, click here

Andrew Allison: Non-job of the week

Andrew allison Councils across the country are having to rein-in spending. This we know. We also know some councils, have been doing this for years, providing frontline services & lowering council tax at the same time. It can be done. 

North East Lincolnshire Council is conducting a budget consultation, asking residents' opinions on how they would reduce spending. This we applaud, but what makes this week's non-job so galling is at the same time, the council is advertising for a Future Shape Programme Manager on a whacking £70,189 per annum.  Unfortunately, if you are thinking about applying for this job, you're a day too late, as applications closed yesterday, but this advert had to be highlighted.

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Mike Denham: Hutton on Public Sector Fat Cats

Mike Denham The Treasury has just published the interim Hutton Report on Fair Pay in the Public Sector.

Back in the summer the Treasury commissioned Will Hutton "... to investigate pay scales across the public sector, and make recommendations on how to ensure that no public sector manager can earn more than twenty times the lowest paid person in the organisation."

In other words, the remit was to address the scandal of fat cat pay in the public sector - a scandal first exposed in a series of reports from the TaxPayers' Alliance (eg see here). And to work out how to implement a 20-to-1 cap on top public sector remuneration.

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John O'Connell: Why we need free schools, summed up in a sentence

John-new The quality of teacher training in Scotland was criticised yesterday. Poor quality candidates are apparently making it in to the profession. In response, Tony Axon of the lecturers' union UCU said:

"People may complain about spelling and grammar but these days we sit at a computer which works out much of that for you. Are those skills really as important as they used to be?"

A clear example of the need to free schools from the stranglehold of the deluded unions and the bureaucracies they represent, if more were needed.

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Rory Meakin: Why Keynesians are wrong - 11 words and a video

Rory On his Telegraph blog yesterday, Daniel Hannan summed up why Keynesians are wrong in eleven words:

“Consumer demand is a consequence, not a cause, of economic growth.”

Hiwa Alaghebandian goes into more detail, explaining why policy-makers should focus on Gross Domestic Income rather than Gross Domestic Product, in this short video:

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