Britannia Radio

TaxPayers' Alliance Bulletin - 12th November 2010 Britain's Trillion Pound Horror Story Last night the TPA's Director, Matthew Sinclair, appeared in a powerful Channel 4 documentary by Martin Durkin (of The Great Global Warming Swindle) about the state of the country's finances. Allister Heath, Editor of City AM and the chair of the 2020 Tax Commission that the TPA is in the process of establishing (we'll have more news on the Commission soon), also gave his views. This is how Channel 4 describe the programme: "Film maker Martin Durkin explains the full extent of the financial mess we are in: an estimated £4.8 trillion of national debt and counting. It's so big that even if every home in the UK was sold it wouldn't raise enough cash to pay it off. Durkin argues that to put Britain back on track we need to radically rethink the role of the state, stop politicians spending money in our name and introduce, among other measures, flat taxes to make Britain's economy boom again. This polemical film presented by Martin Durkin, brings economic theory to life and makes it hit home. It includes interviews with academics, economic experts, entrepreneurs, no less than four ex-Chancellors of the Exchequer and the biggest stack of £50 notes you'll never see." If you didn't catch it, you can watch it by CLICKING HERE. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOsqBf5hDjI And do keep an eye out for our very own Debt Clock Truck! Donate As you’re probably aware, the TPA only survives thanks to the generosity of our supporters. It’s never easy asking for money, but without your help we couldn’t run the energetic campaign that is securing spending cuts and shifting the public debate to get lower taxes. If you like the work we do and feel we’re making a difference, then please do think about contributing. You can CLICK HERE TO DONATEonline via our PayPal account, or send a cheque payable to the TaxPayers' Alliance to 55 Tufton Street, London, SW1P 3QL. We really appreciate your support. Staff Changes Sadly this week Fiona McEvoy and Jenny Dunn are leaving the TPA. Fiona McEvoy has been at the TPA for over three years. She started working in the West Midlands building up our grassroots campaign there and has since moved down to London to work as part of the Campaign team dealing with the media. You may particularly remember her devastating work attacking the extraordinary waste of money at the wildly over budget The Public art gallery. Her work has always been excellent and we will miss her as she moves on to an exciting opportunity working for a major political consultancy. Jenny Dunn has worked in the research team for just over a year and has produced powerful reports on issues like parking fines and speed cameras. Her reports have made a real difference to the campaign to get motorists, in particular, better value for money. She is off to join the Countryside Alliance, so you might still see her at work if you are interested in rural issues. While Fiona and Jenny are moving on, the TPA campaign will continue to go from strength to strength with a great team in our London office. John O'Connell is being promoted to Research Director and Emma Boon to Campaign Director. John O'Connell has been a member of the research team since early 2009 and produced insightful reports on issues like waste in local government and the growth of quangos. Emma Boon joined us in February and has become a regular fixture on the broadcast media and in the newspapers, an incredibly effective advocate for taxpayers' interests. We are also hiring new staff, an Economist to join the research team and a Campaign Manager to join the campaign team. While the deadline for applications has now passed, if you think you would be a particularly good candidate then please e-mail emma.bennett@taxpayersalliance.com this weekend. Simplifying Welfare On Thursday morning Iain Duncan-Smith launched his White PaperUniversal Credit: welfare that works at an event in North London. There are huge problems with the current welfare system: 1.4 million claimants have been living on benefits for nine of the last 10 years; working for the minimum wage of £5.80 an hour can be worth as little as 26p an hour; over 2.5 million non-disabled working-age households face a marginal tax and benefit withdrawal rate of over 60 per cent. In short, for many people it doesn’t pay to go back to work. To address that situation the Coalition Government are introducing a single Universal Credit, which replaces work-related benefits. Claimants moving into work will keep more of their income, but face losing benefits if they refuse a job. The Secretary of State said yesterday morning that their proposal will take 500,000 adults and 350,000 children out of poverty. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) had an open consultation in preparation for their policy paper, and you may remember the TPA made a robust submission based our our landmark report calling for a Negative Income Tax. It certainly made a splash over at DWP because the TPA was the only organisation to have its proposal for reform mentioned in yesterday’s White Paper. Our idea is similar to the Universal Credit in many ways: it would simplify the system and the taper rates we suggested would see people returning to work sooner and escaping the benefits trap. The taper rate of 65 per cent proposed in the White Paper is higher than our maximum 55 per cent rate though. Overall we’re pleased to see real action being taken to tackle the ridiculously complex benefits system that traps people in dependency, and in some cases poverty. It has always been one of the biggest challenges facing any Government, which is why very little has been done about it for so many years. We would like to have seen savings made straight away – our proposal would not have needed the £2.1 billion boost in the Spending Review – but it’s good to see the Government heading in the right direction. John O'Connell wrote a blog on the issue here and Mike Denham followed up here. Gypsy Campaigner Con Our Campaign Director, Emma Boon, appeared on the BBC News at lunchtime, in the evening and at ten condemning gypsy campaigner, Lavinia Olmazu, who was jailed this week after trying to con British taxpayers out of £10m by enabling benefit fraud. It’s great that we’ve become a first port of call on these issues, and rest assured we’ll continue to make the case that a simpler benefit system would make it harder for this kind of fraud to take place and there need to be tough sanctions for fraudsters. CLICK HERE to watch Emma on the BBC News. A Message for Supporters in Hampshire We have been contacted by one of our supporters in Southampton. He would like to set up a TPA branch in Hampshire, however he doesn't have time to do it all by himself. If you have some free time to help us, then please e-mail National Grassroots Coordinator, Andrew Allison (andrew.allison@taxpayersalliance.com). You can help by sending out Freedom of Information Requests where you suspect waste, writing letters to your local newspapers, and help get our low tax message out to people in Hampshire. Best of the Blogs Grassroots: Council Tax summons hit a new high - "If a private company treated people in this way councillors across the country would be up in arms. When councils treat people badly, councillors stay quiet" Better Government: Useful Transparency - Chris Daniel says that Number 10's new transparency website must mean that the Government becomes properly accountable Grassroots: Leaks can be a good thing - In a further missive from Norfolk, TPA supporter John Martin explains why County Hall at present bears resemblance to a large sieve Burning our Money: Non-job of the week - Fiona McEvoy with her final collection of non-jobs Better Government: Bad news for the railways - "It is an indictment that despite the Rail Regulator being formed in 1994 it still does not have a full understanding of Network Rail's costs. The inability to drive efficiency savings at Network Rail is largely down to their status as a guaranteed monopoly company" www.taxpayersalliance.com