Friday, 20 February 2009


TaxPayers' Alliance Bulletin - 20 February 2009

Ta-da Qatada

In the news this week was the poisonous hate preacher Abu Qatada. Depsite the Law Lords ruling in favour of his immediate deportation, Qatada may remain in the country for up to 5 years and, worse still, has been awarded compensation for his 'treatment', i.e. imprisonment, in Belmarsh. This has caused an understandable outcry amongst taxpayers, who continue to foot the sizeable bill for this man's presence in our country. For details of the ruling, read TPA Campaign Director Mark Wallace's excellent blog, Qatada case shows the law is a disgrace
 
The TPA has spoken out against the presence of hate preachers in Britain many times, including in our July 2008 report The Cost of Big Brother Government which showed how much hate preachers, including Qatada, were costing British taxpayers. So far, we estimate that Qatada has cost taxpayers £1.5m in legal fees, prison bills and benefits. 
 
TPA spokesmen were vocal again in the press this week, calling for Qatada's immediate deportation, with coverage including:
Daily Express: He is a fanatic now get him out of here (Front Page)  
The Sun: Tada Qatada 
Agence France Press: Anger in Britain as radical cleric wins payout

The Tories adopt TPA local government plans as policy 

The TPA has welcomed the Conservatives’ new green paper on local government, launched this week. The paper proposes greater powers for local people over council tax levels and the way councils are run, improved transparency in local government spending and the effective abolition of the Regional Development Agencies.

Matthew Elliott, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said:
“These are excellent measures that will increase the power of the people to decide how much tax they pay and how their money is spent, whilst reducing the power of highly paid, ineffective bureaucrats in town halls and regional quangos. If councils have to answer to the people who pay the bills, then we will see better services, less waste and lower taxes. For too long power has shifted from the people to officials in the Regional Development Agencies and Town Halls. It’s high time the centralisation of our government was reversed.”

Particularly rewarding for the TPA is that several of the Conservatives’ key proposals are inspired by our research and campaigning. Firstly, under the new plans councils will be required to publish detailed information on a wide range of their expenditure.  As you will know, the TPA launched its groundbreaking Council Spending Uncovered campaign in 2007, which revealed, council by council, the true scale of town hall expenditure on publicity, pensions, middle management and senior executives, putting the case for greater transparency in local government.

Also, under the new Tory plans councils will be required to publish the pay and perks received by senior council staff. Since 2007 the TPA has campaigned for full transparency of the remuneration of senior council staff, and we have published an annual Town Hall Rich List, which in 2008 featured 818 council staff with remuneration packages over £100,000. Last but not least, Regional Development Agencies will be effectively abolished under the new plans. In August 2008 the TPA published “The case for abolishing the Regional Development Agencies”, a detailed economic survey that revealed the £15 billion spent on RDAs had produced little or no benefit to the regions themselves.  
 
This is a great sign that our campaigning on local government – to get your voice heard more – has been highly successful. Needless to say we will continue to plug away for an even better deal for local taxpayers.

Thursday: Kensington and Chelsea protest
 
Yesterday morning TPA supporters joined up with the West London Residents Association and Guide Dogs for the Blind to protest against an expensive and potentially dangerous experiment about to take place in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The protest was to oppose the plans for ‘street sharing’ in Exhibition Road but also to highlight how dangerous the plans already are in high traffic areas, such as the £330,000 redevelopment recently completed outside Sloane Square station. Street sharing is when there is no differentiation between the pavement and the road. For pedestrians, this means to cross the road they have to eye down a car for it to stop as there are no traffic lights. This causes multiple problems for blind, partially sighted and disabled people. 
 
Not one person yesterday spoke in favour of the plans.  That bodes ill for the council’s plans to implement shared surface scheme on Exhibition Road, which will cost Kensington and Chelsea’s taxpayers £42 million. We were out leafleting and petitioning to bring this to the public’s attention as you will see from the photos on our website.  Thanks to all who turned up, from as far away as Southend, as we had an excellent protest and made our point clearly. If you oppose these plans as we do, please email Cllr. Daniel Moylan – who is promoting this scheme – to ask that he reconsider, save some money and pass it back to residents in a tax cut next year.
 
Wednesday: Grassroots Action Day in Morden
 
The grassroots campaign was out and about in Morden, South London on Wednesday, with a protest outside Merton Council’s town hall.  Armed with our new leaflets, some excellent grassroots placards and the grit and determination to see our council tax cut, we met and talked to Londoners who overwhelmingly agreed with us that taxes should be cut. In the space of 3 hours, we handed out over 1,000 recruitment postcards. As we parted, we all agreed to give this another go in March to rally more support for lower taxes as Merton council votes on their council tax in a few weeks. It’s to the credit of Layla Wells, Donna Stanley and co. that they did something about tax and will continue the campaign regardless! 
 
On that note, if you would like an action day leafleting or petitioning in your area, either organising a door to door leaflet drop or petitioning in the high street, then please do contact Tim Aker, our Grassroots Co-ordinator at tim.aker@taxpayersalliance.com.  Remember that it’s your money the politicians are wasting.
The new leaflets have arrived, and are winging their way to you if you have already put in an order. If you would like some, or to confirm your order, please contact Tim on the above email address.

Olympic Challenge

Last night TPA Chief Executive Matthew Elliott spoke at the Cambridge Union on 'This House regrets the 2012 Olympic bid'. Matthew proposed the motion, arguing that the Olympics would bring no financial benefit to London. He argued that, with the logistics running behind time and over budget, these games could come to be remembered as the debt Olympics, leaving taxpayers footing a huge bill for public sector inefficiency and mismanagement. Also proposing the motion were Andrew Gilligan from the Evening Standard and Ian Sinclair, prize-winning London author. Opposing the motion were Janie Hampton, author of 'London 1948: The austerity Olympics', Sam Dobin, champion debater and Mike Lee, author and former spokesman for Lord Coe. By the end of the debate the audience was convinced by Matthew, Andrew and Ian, voting overwhelmingly to support the motion.

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Posted by Britannia Radio at 18:40