TPA Bulletin - 23rd April 2010
Debt Clock Week 2
It’s been another busy week at the TaxPayers’ Alliance as driver Peter took the ever-ticking Debt Clock another few hundred miles around the country. The tour is drawing to a close and we are finishing in Norwich on Monday morning, but photos and details of all the places we’ve stopped across the UK can be found here.
The Debt Clock featured prominently in the Tonight programme on the national debt, which went out on ITV last night at 7.30pm, just before the Leaders’ Debate. It can particularly be seen in the intro section and at around 15 minutes, watch it online here if you missed it.
Monday - North West
We rolled into Manchester and headed to the internationally renowned Old Trafford football stadium, home of Manchester United FC.
Manchester United’s huge debt, run up by the Glazers, is now £716.6m. The Government currently borrows that much every 1 day, 14 hours and 30 minutes.
The TPA's Fiona McEvoy was interviewed by Real Radio ahead of the event and they liked her so much that they came back to talk to her again after the tour left Manchester, to see how it went!
Tuesday - Scotland
On our way to Edinburgh we stopped off in the scenic borders to take a snap of the Debt Clock straddling the border between England and Scotland. Northumberland newspaper The Berwick Advertiser liked the photo and here it is in their paper:
The clock also visited the headquarters of bailed out bank RBS. Its stop there was covered in the Independent and City AM.
Wednesday - North East
We pulled into Newcastle and parked up on the Quayside, between the iconic Tyne and Millennium bridges.
ITV came out to film the Debt Clock and interviewed TPA Campaign Director, Mark Wallace about the national debt for Tyne Tees Tonight.
Thursday - Yorkshire
At every stop we have invited local candidates who are standing in the General Election to come out and see out Debt Clock. Hull saw the best turnout of local politicians, including David Davis (Conservative), Denis Healy (Liberal Democrat) and Godfrey Bloom (UKIP).
The Yorkshire Post had the best headline yet: Living on tick... 'Hock clock reveals dramatic extent of UK national debt'.
The blogs were chattering about the Debt Clock too.
The Debt Clock was also extensively covered on the BBC’s Look North regional news in a report by Tim Iredale.
Today - East Midlands
The Debt Clock cruised into Peterborough this morning, driving past the train station and bemusing the commuters on their way to work. After that it was down to Keltruck driver Peter to negotiate the narrow streets to get as close as possible to the Cathedral for a photo for The Peterborough Evening Telegraph- it’ll be in tomorrow’s paper.
On the Doorstep
As it’s election time (who could forget?) we’re sure a lot of you will have candidates knocking on your door or canvassing your local high street. To help you seize the opportunity and put them on the spot, here are a few essential questions that you might like to challenge them with:
1) Some councils have started publishing full details of all public spending online for taxpayers to scrutinise. Isn’t it time national government did the same?
2) Which quangos will you abolish? Surely the Regional Development Agencies should be at the top of the list?
3) Public sector pensions are far more generous than those available to the rest of the country and they cost a huge amount. Isn’t it time the public sector was moved off final salary pensions and onto the same schemes as everyone else?
We hope you find these useful – if you do, why not print them out and keep them by the front door so you’ve got them to hand when candidates come calling? For more ideas on a whole range of other issues, do have a look at the TPA Manifesto.
It’s time to take to the streets and protest!
On May Day, Monday 3 May, at 2.00pm, join the TaxPayers’ Alliance for a protest rally outside County Hall in Beverley, Yorkshire. Organised by Hull and East Riding coordinator Andrew Allison this protest is against the policy of offering discretionary payments to already well paid staff on very generous pension plans paid for by us. It comes after East Riding Council’s decision to award Sue Lockwood’s pension fund a discretionary payment of £364,205. The public only found out after the story was leaked to the Yorkshire Post.
This is not a personal campaign against Sue Lockwood. That would be wrong. We are protesting against the £1.4 million already paid out in 2008/9 to those seeking early retirement. And we are protesting against excessive pay rises and excessive salaries for senior officers, at a time when the government is borrowing more than £5,000 a second. We need to send a message to the ruling elite we are not prepared to be treated as though we don’t matter. We elect them and pay their wages. We can also vote them out and send them packing.
If you can join the protest then let us know by e-mailing beverleyprotest@mail.com
If you are a Facebook user, join the Hull & East Riding Group and click to confirm you are attending.
Win Cinema tickets
We’re delighted to offer TPA supporters the chance to win a pair of tickets for a screening of new film ‘Erasing David’.
Erasing David is a new feature documentary in which Filmmaker David Bond decided to try and disappear for a month and set two private investigators the task of tracking him down, using only publicly available data. It really highlights the intrusive nature of snooper Britain, and the TaxPayers’ Alliance has two pairs of tickets to give away. Watch the trailer and find out where it’s being screened by checking out thewebsite.
There is a pair of tickets each for the first two people to e-mail emma.boon@taxpayersalliance.com and tell us:
How many members of the Cabinet have volunteered to put their own DNA on the DNA database?
Please mark the subject of your e-mail as ‘Erasing David competition’.
New EU Research: Britain's Justice and Home Affairs Opt Ins
The TaxPayers’ Alliance reveals a list of Justice and Home Affairs areas in which the British Government has surrendered its opt out in Brussels and decided to participate:
• 53 areas where the UK has opted into asylum and immigration measures
• 15 measures where the UK has opted into civil judicial cooperation
These 68 surrenders compare with a remarkable 4 areas in which Denmark, another opt out state, has decided to drop its opt outs. This suggests that the British Government has been pursuing a policy of abandoning Britain’s opt outs by the back door. Download the full report here.
Dr Lee Rotherham, EU Policy Analyst at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said:“Over the past few years, successive government ministers have been quietly dropping the British opt out in a surprising number of areas. By comparison, Denmark – which won its opt out after Maastricht – has studiously avoided signing away its freedom of manoeuvre. It seems that the British civil service has lost all confidence in its abilities to manage its own borders, and ministers have gone along with quietly shifting responsibility onto the shoulders of others. The electorate deserves politicians who come clean on their aspirations.”
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Friday, 23 April 2010
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