Friday, 9 July 2010

 
TPA Bulletin 9th July 2010


Speeding fines cost you £87.3m 
 
For years now motorists have suspected that Speed Cameras were simply cash-making devices, handing out often unfair fines to otherwise safe and law-abiding drivers. However, it’s always been extremely difficult to try and nail down exactly how much cameras made from these fines each year.

This morning the TPA – along with the Drivers’ Alliance – released research that reveals exactly that. First, we found that £87.3 million was generated in speeding fines last year across the UK. When you consider that motorists already pay through the nose for Vehicle Excise Duty and Fuel Duty, these excessive fines – alongside parking fines – mean that many motorists face being priced off the roads.
 
Second, the report examined just how effective cameras have been in actually reducing road casualties since their introduction in the early 1990s. Since this time, road safety policy has been heavily focused on speed but our thorough statistical analysis shows that the rate of reduction in road casualties seen between 1978 and 1990 has not been matched since. This failure has led to over 1.5 million more casualties on British roads between 1991 and 2007 than would have occurred if the previous rate of reduction had been sustained. Speed cameras are set up to detect only one thing and just aren't able to identify the many other forms of dangerous driving. Therefore the good example of Swindon - which scrapped its speed cameras in 2008 with apparently no increase in road casualties as a result - should be followed nationwide. Read the full report here
 
 
Spending Challenge - have your say!
 
Today the Treasury have launched a new online Spending Challenge and they're asking for your views on what can be cut.  As we said before about a similar site asking for ideas on laws to scrap, it is easy to get cynical about this sort of thing but it is important that we do take the opportunity to have our say when politicians create a space to do so.  We’re hoping as many of our supporters as possible will get involved even if it is just by voting for ideas the TPA and others people have submitted.
 
We’ve made a start by submitting four ideas based on our research into how to cut spending:

• Increase employee contributions to all unfunded public sector pension schemes by a third
• End government funding for ‘green consultancy’ firms
• One-year freeze of the resource and capital budgets of the Department for International Development
• Reduce gross annual pay by 15 per cent for the richest 10 per cent in the public sector

There are two things you can do to promote important cuts in public spending and help our campaign for lower taxes:
 
• Vote for our ideas.  They are all here http://spendingchallenge.hm-treasury.gov.uk/author/matthewsinclair.  If you haven’t already registered, you will be taken to a registration page.  To get back to our suggestions, click the link http://spendingchallenge.hm-treasury.gov.uk/author/matthewsinclair again once you have registered.
• Suggest your own ideas.  Once you have registered (and hopefully voted for some of our suggestions), you can “Submit an idea” and put forward other potential savings.  If you suggest any ideas that we haven’t covered in our research then let us know.
Here’s hoping that the politicians are really listening and we can get the spending cuts that are needed to get the economy back on track in the Spending Review later this year.
 
This is another great way of becoming engaged and having your say, so do take a look! If we don't use these channels of engagement, there's a real danger we might not get a second chance to, so register on the Spending Challenge website, and if you make a suggestion do feel free to let us know so that we can read your ideas too!  
 
 
The Spirit Illusion
 
There are many people who see equality as a panacea: if there was genuine equality, people would be happier and healthier, they argue. An important text to back up these viewpoints is The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better. This work apparently ‘proves’ through statistical analysis that inequality is the driver behind much of the world’s social problems.

Naturally, here at the TPA we think that competition is a good thing, and that those who work hard should be rewarded. So we have produced research that rebut the claims made in this book, and the findings are stark. On almost no measure does the central claim of the Spirit Level – that income inequality decreases life expectancy – stand up to scrutiny. And in some areas, the book’s authors appear to be promoting absurd notions, such as idea that the United States doesn’t host a particularly innovative economy. Working with Swedish economists, our research shows that the results from the book are merely an illusion. If you're intrigued, then do click here to take a look.  
 
 
Cutting red tape
 
There's some good news from the coalition government this week as Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles MP announced plans to cut back on restrictive and costly red tape. Already facing the chop are regulations that require a council to contact the CLG Secretary of State for certain actions regarding allotments, particular fire protection measures relating to commercial buildings that burden businesses but don't actually improve safety, and statutory guidance on local economic assessments, the removal of which should free up councils to decide themselves on how they monitor the local economy. 

These are alongside a raft of duplicative and unnecessary CLG secondary legislation now being considered for revocation - and the government are asking you for further suggestions. So, if you can think of another inconvienient or nonsense regulation that should face the axe, email cutredtape@communities.gsi.gov.uk and let them know!



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Posted by Britannia Radio at 15:42