TaxPayers' Alliance Bulletin - 26th February 2010
A new home for the TPA
As we reported last week, the TPA has a new office at 55 Tufton Street, London SW1P 3QL.
The new building has already been nicknamed “Think Tank Central”, because we’ll be sharing it with several other campaigns, non-partisan groups and think tanks. One major aim of the move is to foster greater cooperation between groups, who broadly share the same philosophy, strengthening the influence of our ideas in Whitehall and Westminster. The confirmed tenants of the building so far are: the TaxPayers’ Alliance, Big Brother Watch, Civitas, the Conservative Cooperative Movement, the New Culture Forum, the Nothing British campaign, and the Africa Research Institute.
Our next-door neighbours will be the Centre for Policy Studies, the long-established intellectual powerhouse set up by Margaret Thatcher and Sir Keith Joseph in the mid-1970s, and both Open Europe and the Social Market Foundation are also based on the same street.
As well as providing a wonderful focus point for like-minded campaigners and think tanks to share ideas, the new office also has excellent facilities which will allow us to host our own press conferences and other events, further adding to our influence and impact.
We are of course extremely 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. Their help has been crucial to the successful expansion of the TPA. This new project is the brainchild of Midlands businessman Richard Smith - who is a TPA supporter and donor to various other think tanks – and will allow us to build massively on the successes of recent years.
Mr Smith said: “With all three major political parties trying to occupy the same ground, the battle for ideas now rests with independent and innovative think-tanks and campaigning groups. They are flourishing and I hope that those organisations who choose to make 55 Tufton Street their home will become intellectual powerhouses in the policy debate. Working under one roof will give them opportunities for cross-fertilisation of ideas and a collective strength of purpose, which I hope will stimulate the donor community to increase their giving.”
Matthew Elliott, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “We are delighted with the fantastic opportunity that Richard has given us to be able to work alongside some of the best brains in the Westminster Village. The synergy between the groups will make 55 Tufton Street a major powerhouse in Whitehall and the versatility of the building will allow us to develop cutting-edge campaign techniques in the coming year, including web broadcasting. The impact of this deal has the potential to be revolutionary to UK politics.”
Please remember to use the new postal address: TaxPayers’ Alliance, 55 Tufton Street, London SW1P 3QL.
Pre-order the TPA’s new book: “How to cut spending (and still win an election)”
In these tough economic times there’s a war of words in the political arena over how and when to cut public spending, and by how much. Our Research Director Matthew Sinclair blogged this week about the Taxodus - as the Treasury struggles to convince business to stay in the UK. This and many other sides of the debate are covered in much more detail in our forthcoming book, which sets out how Britain can start building a sustainable economic recovery. We’re proud to announce a straightforward guide, out on April 2nd but available to order now on Amazon: ‘How to Cut Public Spending (and Still Win an Election)’.
New TPA website now live!
If you’ve been to www.taxpayersalliance.com in the last few days you may have noticed some big differences. We’ve totally revamped the website, so do pop in to have a look around. On another front, you can now find out what Matthew Elliott is up to and get all the latest TPA news by following him on Twitter here! Mark Wallace, the TPA’s Campaign Director, is also on twitter here with news of TPA media appearances and campaign activities. Revamping the website is an ongoing project, and we're hoping to make it as user-friendly as possible. All of the blogs continue as before and can now be found by clicking the buttons on the right-hand side. TPA books, videos and widgets are now all easily accessible from the navigation bar along the top, with a photo section on the way. We'll be featuring our latest reports on the home page, but be sure to check out our research archive - also accessible from the navigation bar - for the full range of TPA research papers. Andy’s keen to get some feedback on the changes so far, so feel free to get in touch if there’s something you’d like to see: andy.whitehurst@taxpayersalliance.com.
We’re pleased to welcome two new members of the team:
Andy Whitehurst has joined us as New Media Co-ordinator. He’s starting off in his new role with an overhaul of the website, if you click through to our homepage you’ll see some of the exciting changes that he’s already put in place. Andy’s focus is on promoting the campaign through new media - videos, social networking, podcasts and so on - and to enhance the ability of our supporters to spread the TPA message. He’ll be working closely with the rest of the team to bring you a whole lot more exciting content like videos, widgets and other tools that can be easily shared around the web via blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and suchlike. 
Emma Boon has joined us as Campaign Manager. She’ll be helping Mark Wallace deal with media enquiries as well as day to day campaigning. Emma has joined us after working for several years in broadcast journalism. Now she’ll be fighting for taxpayers from the other side of the camera. With a very busy few months ahead, with at least one budget and a general election, the campaign is going to get very busy to we’re really lucky to have someone with Emma’s experience and skills on board. Find out more about her here.
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Friday, 26 February 2010
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