Britannia Radio

TaxPayers' Alliance Bulletin - 19th November 2010 Sign our petition against British taxpayers' money supporting a euro-bailout for Ireland The TaxPayers' Alliance criticised plans for a euro-bailout of Ireland this week. Ireland is facing increasing pressure to accept billions, in order to supposedly rescue the Irish economy and support the single currency. Plans drawn up by the Government could see UK taxpayers being liable for £7 billion if Ireland defaulted on any loan. Now we need your help. Please sign our petition against the bailout. CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE ONLINE PETITION You will need to validate your signature by clicking a link that the website petition.co.uk will email to you. Please share this petition with your friends and family by email, Twitter and Facebook. Help us get more signatures on the petition and stop this misuse of British taxpayers' money. Matthew Sinclair, Director of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "It is a shame that Ireland is paying such a heavy price for the huge mistake of joining the euro. British taxpayers don't want to see their money poured into a black hole trying to bail out that failed project, particularly with money so tight here at home. They rejected the euro and shouldn't be forced to pay for other people's mistakes. The euro is fundamentally broken and Ireland needs to leave, not be railroaded into a bailout by politicians who are more interested in pursuing political integration than sustainable economic policy. The Government need to reject this deal or they will be betraying the interests of British taxpayers." Ruth Lea, Economic Adviser, Arbuthnot Banking Group and member of the TaxPayers' Alliance Academic Advisory Council, said: "The eurozone cannot work with such disparate economies. Putting aside the current financial crisis, it is hard to see how Ireland, for example, can recover economically. As one of our major trading partners this is bad news for us. At some point, the EU will have to come to terms with the exit of some of their members – the sooner the better. Of course there are implications for the banks – but better to deal with their problems directly rather than struggle with propping up the unsustainable." Matthew Sinclair wrote about the problems with an Irish bailout for theConservativeHome and Spectator websites. John Redwood also wrote about why it is a bad idea. A Royal wedding At the TaxPayers' Alliance, we have been responding to the announcement that there will be a royal wedding in 2011. We don't want to go too far, and do understand that there will be some costs for measures like security, but think that with ordinary households facing austerity a lavish ceremony is best avoided. Emma Boon was interviewed by a wide range of media including BBC and ITV News and the TPA was quoted in a huge number of newspapers and other outlets. She blogged about the issue here, and concluded that: "For those who are fans of the royals the wedding will be an international day of celebration, it will bring money to the UK through tourism and we cannot ignore that there will be some benefit to our economy. Of course it should be an event for the whole nation to celebrate, but British taxpayers should not be left with a bill fit for a king. The message to Wills and Kate is clear: enjoy your big moment, but remember those who are paying for it and keep the cost to taxpayers down." Another victory for transparency On Friday morning Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude (pictured), released all departmental spending over £25,000. This is great news. Since the TPA was formed back in 2004 we’ve campaigned hard for spending transparency and while more can still be done, today is an encouraging start. TPA Director Matthew Sinclair took to the airwaves and appeared on the Today programme to welcome the move. If you missed it you can listen to him again on the BBC R4 website. He faced some opposition in the studio, but spending transparency is something that has been happening for years in America with Federal expenditure so there’s no reason why it can’t be done here. Selected professional data visualisation companies were given a week’s advanced access to the data so there will be plenty of colourful charts and graphs online already, although keen-eyed TPA staff have noticed a couple of new items while looking through the data – they’re outlined in this blog by our Research Director John O’Connell. If you have the time, click here to access the data, pick out the most questionable items, and please do post them on John’s blog or our Facebook wall. The Local Government Association There have been two stories this week about the Local Government Association (LGA), a taxpayer funded trade association for councils. Chris Daniel blogged yesterday about the astonishing £302,000 salary and pension package of the chief executive of the LGA, a taxpayer funded trade association for councils. On Tuesday he blogged about how some councils are looking at leaving the LGA. Membership costs thousands of pounds a year that should be spent on services. We need to encourage them to follow through and leave, and push other councils to do the same. Please help us and write to your council using the WriteToThem service. All you need to do is CLICK HERE and enter your post code and it will provide you with a form to contact your councillor. These emails can make a difference. We need your help to stop this wasteful spending. Grassroots growing We would like to thank those supporters who have offered to form a branch of the TPA in Hampshire. We will be meeting up with them soon and the branch should get off the ground in the new year. As a result of that request, we also received offers of help from supporters in Dorset, Bristol and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. If you live in those areas and would like to get actively involved in rooting out waste and promoting the TPA's low tax message, please get in touch with National Grassroots Coordinator, Andrew Allison (andrew.allison@taxpayersalliance.com). Best of the Blogs Economics 101: Regulation, tax and the City's worrying decline - Rory Meakin on how London is losing its lustre as a financial centre Burning our Money: Non-job of the week - More non-jobs from Andrew Allison, this week featuring Cambridge, Gloucestershire, Surrey, and a bonus Sir Humphrey Grassroots: Cardiff's Capital Times - TPA Cardiff's Lee Canning welcomes the likely demise of Cardiff City Council's 'propaganda rag' Campaign: Why the Royal wedding should not be a lavish affair - Emma Boon hopes William and Kate take the opportunity to show that they understand the pressures that ordinary families and the public finances are under Economics 101: VAT rise to hit consumer sales - Rory Meakin: "Falling sales due to tax hikes suggest that, for all the political furore over spending cuts, increases in taxation might be the real risk to the economy." Better Government: Pay of LGA Chief Executive revealed - Chris Daniel on the £300,000 remuneration package of the LGA's Chief Executive