Friday, 13 March 2009

TaxPayers' Alliance Bulletin - 13th March 2009
 
TPA and Dispatches reveal how to save £57.8 billion
 
On Sunday we launched a new report showing that the Government could save £57.8 billion a year, £2,277 per family, by cutting structural waste in the public sector. The report was written by William Norton (pictured, right, on Channel 4), a key author of the James Review in 2005, who revisited the subject for the TPA against the background of the current recession and taking into account the last four years of extra government spending. Channel 4's Dispatches ran a full one-hour documentary based on the report and the TPA's work on Monday, which can be watched here.
 
The Norton Report reveals that:

• The official figure of 498,960 full time equivalent staff in the civil service obscures the true extent of the state bureaucracy, which has soared through the boom in quangos and other bodies. In March 2007 there were roughly 2 million people employed by government departments or quangos, excluding frontline staff.
• Adjusting for various Government attempts to fudge the figures, there were 1,814 public bodies operating in England or on a UK scale in 1998. On a like-for-like basis, by 2007 this total had risen to 2,247.
• The James Review, carried out before the last election, identified £34.9 billion of structural waste in government that could be eliminated. Taking into account the growth in public spending since 2005, a serious waste-cutting Government today could save £57.6 billion annually - £2,277 per family.
• The Government is set to borrow more, on official figures adjusted for RPI inflation, than was borrowed in World War II, World War I or the Napoleonic Wars.
 
The full report can be read here.
 
The report was used as the basis of a full one-hour Dispatches programme on Channel 4 on Monday night, presented by Jane Moore of The Sun and watched by 1.2 million people. The TPA featured heavily in the show, including interviews with William Norton and TPA Campaign Director Mark Wallace and a visit to West Bromwich with West Midlands TPA Campaign Agent Fiona McEvoy to expose the money wasted on The Public art gallery. The programme was extremely well-received and we've had a flood of new supporters sign up on the back of it. Click here to watch the show online.  
 
The report and the programme was reported in several media outlets, including:
 
Also on Sunday, the News of the World exclusively revealed the finding from Matthew Elliott and David Craig's new book, The Great European Rip-Off, that in total the EU costs every man, woman and child in Europe £2,000 a year - or £975 billion a year in total through high taxes, wasteful policies and disastrous mismanagement. To put that in context, £975 billion is enough to swallow the combined economies of 15 EU member states, including Ireland, Finland, Portugal and the Czech Republic.
 
That figure comprises:
 

 

Item

Cost, €

Cost, £

1

Cost to business of complying with EU regulations

€600 billion

£480 billion

2

Cost to business of administering EU regulations

€300 billion

£240 billion

3

VAT and other EU tax fraud

€100 billion

£80 billion

4

Higher food prices

€50 billion

£40 billion

5

Officials in the member states enforcing EU rules

€35 billion

£30 billion

6

EU administration costs

€7 billion

£6 billion

7

Other EU spending

€127 billion

£101 billion

 

Total

€1,219 billion

£975 billion

 

Number of people in the EU

495,000,000

495,000,000

 

Cost per person

€2,460

£1,968

 
As well as the News of the World, the book and its calculations, a summary of which can be read here, were also reported in:
 
 
If you haven't already, don't forget you can buy a copy of The Great European Rip-Off at a special 20% discount and with free postage and packaging by clicking here and typing in RIPOFF when prompted for a promotional code.

Take control of your councillors
 
The third TPA report launched this week was the front page story in the Sunday Express, and launched our campaign to get radical reform of the way councillors are rewarded for their service. After our recent finding that 3,500 councillors are now cashing in by getting local government pensions, the Sunday Express backed our call for taxpayers to have greater power over councillors' pay and perks. The report, written by TPA Grassroots Co-ordinator Tim Aker, is a full examination of the failings of the current system and lays out key ways in which local government can be made more accountable. To read the report, click here, and if you would like to know how to apply to be a member of your council's Independent Remuneration Panel so you can speak up for local taxpayers, email Tim at tim.aker@taxpayersalliance.com
 
Toynbee Wars: The TPA strikes back
 
Following Polly Toynbee's hysterical Guardian article about the TPA, in which she branded us "rottweilers" for our "phenomenally successful" campaign for lower taxes, we got the opportunity to hit back yesterday. On BBC Radio 2's The Jeremy Vine Show, Polly and TPA Campaign Director Mark Wallace locked horns over the issue. To listen to the exchange, click here and scroll forward to 1 hour 10 minutes into the show. In fact, it was a good day for head to head debates - Mark also appeared on BBC 2's Daily Politics show, putting the case for lower council spending against the Local Government Association. That debate can be watched here.

Leafleting in Wimbledon

Following on from our protest in Morden a few weeks ago, we'll be out leafleting this coming Monday 16th March, in Wimbledon. The event is organised by our superb activists Layla Wells and Donna Stanley. Do come and join us in recruiting more supporters to the cause. We'll be meeting at 10am outside the Centre Court exit of Wimbledon Underground Station. If you can join us for two hours or even twenty minutes, please do come along and help us take the low tax message into the community.  Wimbledon Underground Station is on the district line.  If you are attending please email our grassroots coordinator Tim Aker tim.aker@taxpayersalliance.com.

Campaign Day in Knaresborough

On Wednesday 25th March we'll be leafleting in Knaresborough Market, North Yorkshire. Our campaign will involve recruiting new supporters but also protesting the unilateral decision taken by Harrogate and Knaresborough Lib Dems to siphon 10% of their councillor allowances for their own party political activities. If councillors don't hand the money over, they get deselected as candidates without a vote by members. We think this is state funding of political parties by the back door and will be collecting signatures to petition against such state funding. You can read more about the issue in TIm's recent opinion piece in the Yorkshire Post. We'll be meeting at 11am by 'Blind Jack's Statue' in the marketplace. I do hope you'll be able to join us for an important campaign day.  You can find a map here.  If you are coming please do notify us tim.aker@taxpayersalliance.com.

TPA in Northern Ireland

TPA supporter Henry Gordon has asked to be put in touch with other supporters in Northern Ireland looking to get active for lower taxes.  If you would like to contact him to get involved, please contact us at tim.aker@taxpayersalliance.com

 

Posted by Britannia Radio at 21:33