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TaxPayers' Alliance Bulletin - 6 March 2009

 

TPA celebrates its fifth birthday and book launch

 

It's our 5th birthday, and we think it's time to celebrate! In five short years the TPA has become Britain's most quoted think tank and has pushed the issues of lower taxes and better government to the top of the political agenda. We have gone from a small group of volunteers to having over 20,000 supporters around the country, including 1,500 activists. Our achievements to date are many and varied, from policy changes such as the scrapping of inheritance tax to achieving an average of 15 quality media hits per day. It's all down to the hard work and dedication of our staff and supporters, who are always willing to go the extra mile to get our message across and we'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who has made the TPA the success it is today. Tim Montgomerie has been very kind about the last five years of our work on Conservative Home today. To read his piece, please click here.

 

And so it was a double celebration at our book launch party in Westminster. Last night marked the official launch of Matthew Elliott and David Craig's new book The Great European Rip-off. The book is a wide-ranging investigation into the huge cost, in taxes, regulations and wasteful bureaucracy, of the European Union to ordinary people. Exposing everything from MEP corruption to the tsunami of regulation pouring out of Brussels that continues to strangle our businesses, this is an essential read for anyone who is concerned about what's going on behind the scenes in the European Parliament, and how it affects British taxpayers. If you haven't already secured your copy, you can take advantage of our special supporter's offer of 20% discount and free postage and packaging by following this link: www.rbooks.co.uk/ripoff and enter the promotional code RIPOFF when prompted.

  

Calculate your Beer Tax

The Axe The Beer Tax campaign, which is opposed to the Government's excessive tax on beer, has produced a nifty Beer Taxometer that lets you calculate how much beer tax you currently pay and how much you will have to pay under the Government's planned tax rises. Click here to give it a try.

The punitive tax on beer, which is founded on a combination of the Government's worst instincts on money grabbing and health nannying, is not just unfair to people who fancy a pint after a hard day's work, it's driving hundreds of pubs out of business. Click here to learn more about Axe the Beer Tax and to lend your support to their campaign.

Vacancies on the East Hertfordshire Independent Remuneration Panel

We’ve been informed that there are now two vacancies at the East Hertfordshire Council Independent Remuneration Panel (IRP) to be advertised in the local newspapers today.  You can find the advert at the bottom of this blog.

IRPs set councillor pay – so if you want to hold your councillors to account for increasing your taxes, cutting back your services and only appearing at election time, click here and find out how to apply. 

The Rotten State of Britain

 

Another excellent book that went on sale this week is Eamonn Butler's The Rotten State of Britain. A member of the TPA Advisory Council and Director of the Adam Smith Institute, Eamonn shows how, from the economy to individual freedom, the state of Britain has become very much worse than it ought to be.
 
Dr Butler scrutinises all aspects of our society from political sleaze and public sector bureaucracy to draconian police and council powers to sky high taxes. He proposes checks and balances to restrain our political leaders and the unelected advisors who actually control our lives. If you would like to buy the book, please click here.  
 

Welsh Assembly refurbishment

 

It emerged last night that the Welsh Assembly Government plans to spend £42 million refurbishing its headquarters in Cathays Park. Yes, £42 million. That's a staggering amount of taxpayers' money. More than it cost to build the Synedd, or the Liberty Stadium in Swansea, and this is for refurbishment, not building from scratch. The Assembly has cited health and safety reasons, but has also cited 'inflexible accommodation, unable to respond to changing business needs' and 'public and stakeholder image diminished by outdated and inefficient accommodation'. If essentail rewiring and other maintenance needs to be done, that's one thing. But this refurbishment is going to be done to very high specifications to have that price tag attached, and that is a big problem. The bottom line is that this will cost us a fortune at a time when people are struggling to put food on the table. If you live in Wales, and think this represents a bad deal for taxpayers, write to Richard Wilson, Construction Programme Director at the Welsh Assembly: richard.wilson@wales.gsi.gov.uk  

 

TPA Campaign Manager Susie Squire was interviewed by BBC Radio Wales and Welsh current affairs progamme Dragon's Eye on the topic. She argued that taxpayers money could be better spent on public services and that this project was not only too large in the first place, but risked running over budget and behind schedule and could become a massive burden on Welsh taxpayers for years to come.

Local activity

We have plenty of action days and TPA activism in the coming weeks to get your teeth into:

13th and 17th March – In conjunction with the West London Residents Association, we’ll be petitioning in Sloane Square against the unsafe, expensive shared space schemes in Kensington and Chelsea.  We’ll be meeting at Sloane Square station, petitioning throughout the day, so do come and join us anytime between 8.30am – 2pm.  Contact our grassroots coordinator Tim Aker (tim.aker@taxpayersalliance.com) or chairman of the West London Residents Association Gordon Taylor (gwhtaylor@yahoo.co.uk) if you will be attending.

16th March – We will be leafleting in Merton borough, either in Wimbledon High Street or outside Morden Station.  If you're free in the morning of the 16th and can get to Merton borough to help us out please email Tim Aker at tim.aker@taxpayersalliance.com.

25th March – We will be leafleting in Knaresborough market and getting petition signatures to send to the Liberal Democrat chairman of Harrogate and Knaresborough Lib Dems to get him to drop his plans to siphon taxpayer funds to party political activities.  We plan to meet in the late morning, time TBC.  If you are free late morning/early afternoon in the Harrogate and Knaresborough area on the 25th and can help us out email our grassroots coordinator Tim Aker (tim.aker@taxpayersalliance.com).

We also have two supporters who want to get local campaigns going in the Preston and East Lindsey areas.  If you live in those areas and want to be put in contact with other activists to begin a campaign holding local government to account, please email Tim Aker.

If you want an action day in your area, dishing out leaflets, protesting high taxes and campaigning against council waste, then do get in touch. 

Leaflets

If you would like some of our EU waste or ‘are you over-taxed’ leaflets to distribute please tell Tim (tim.aker@taxpayersalliance.com) how many you’d like and what address to send them to.

Best of the Blogs

Campaign: A sharp reminder of skewed priorities in the NHS
Campaign: Time for a proper repayment programme for rogue MPs
Campaign: Scarborough set a good example on pensions
European Union: A Tale of Two Subsidies
Better Government: Civil Service Reform
Better Government: Dangerous Mistakes
Non-job of the week: Croydon Council: On Board Civil Enforcement Officer

 

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