TaxPayers' Alliance Bulletin - 19th February 2010
TPA moves offices
New address: 55 Tufton Street, London SW1P 3QL
It's been a busy week for us, as the TPA has moved into new offices which give us the space and facilities to further expand our campaign for lower taxes and better services. Look out in next week's bulletin for more information - and photos - of the new headquarters, but for now please note our new address: TaxPayers' Alliance, 55 Tufton Street, London SW1P 3QL.
We are also immensely grateful for the invaluable support provided to us by Avanta, and their Chief Executive David Alberto, who have generously been providing us with free office space since last summer.
Government wastes £8.6m on green propaganda: New TPA video
A new TPA report released in the Daily Mail yesterday exposed the many failings of the Government's Climate Challenge Fund (CCF). Essentially, DEFRA spent £8.6m on a range of propaganda projects which its own evaluation then concluded were riddled with inaccuracies, preached mainly to the converted and were ineffective even on their own measures. Our report, which you can read online here, reveals the full list of projects and highlights some of the more ridiculous examples including hugely expensive computer games, videos that hardly anyone has watched and even an "experiential climate dome" which resembles little more than an inflatable tent (pictured, right).We have also produced a new video drawing attention to the ridiculous and wasteful excesses of DEFRA's green propaganda, which you can watch online here. Please send it on to friends, family and colleagues, too - the more people who see it, the better.
Councils caught opposing transparency
In another TPA report released yesterday and featured on the front page of the Daily Telegraph, we revealed that several councils had been privately lobbying the Government to water down proposals to force councils to become transparent. It seems that some council officers felt less than confident that taxpayers would be happy if we were to find out the details of their generous pay and perks. Indeed, some councils even tried to scaremonger by claiming that taxpayers might carry out reprisals against officers or their children! This is transparently ridiculous - the remuneration of senior figures in every business in the land is made public, but no-one suggests that puts them in danger. Check the full report here to see if your council was one of those lobbying to keep their pay secret - and if it was, please write to them to object.
No bailout for Greece! – sign our petition
You will undoubtedly have heard that there have been some suggestions that British taxpayers should be forced to bail out Greece, which has mismanaged and overspent itself into a dire financial and economic position. Now its position has become so severe that it threatens the Eurozone itself, and indeed the Euro’s rules are a major factor in Greece being unable to pull itself out of this mess. The TPA is of course strongly opposed to the idea that even a single penny of UK taxpayers’ money should be used to mend the self-inflicted problems of either Greece or the Euro. So far, Gordon Brown has left open the possibility that our money may be used to bail out Greece, so we have launched an online petition to pressure him to pledge “No to the Greece bailout!” Please sign the petition here, email the link on to your friends, colleagues and family, and publicise it on any blog, twitter feed or other site that you have access to.
Education reform lecture TPA academic advisor Professor James Tooley, Professor of Education Policy at Newcastle University, is speaking next month on the future of education reform. Prof Tooley will be giving the monthly "Agenda for Change" lecture hosted by the Learning Skills Foundation, and will be joined by Amanda Spielman, Research and Development Director of ARK Schools, a leading UK educational charity. The event will be held at 6.30pm on Wednesday 10th March 2010 at Sixty One, Whitehall (map here). Tickets are £10 advance or £12 on the door, and can be purchased online here.
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