We have two exciting new additions to our office to tell you about this week. Firstly Jonathan Isaby, the former co-editor of Conservative Home, is joining us as Political Director. Jonathan previously worked at the BBC and the Daily Telegraph and has a wealth of experience working in politics. His contacts in the political world will assist us with one of our key objectives, representing taxpayers in the corridors of power. Jonathan’s first role will be to promote the work of the 2020 Tax Commission to key decision and policy makers and to develop joint campaigns with other European taxpayers groups in light of the Eurozone crisis. Early next year the 2020 Tax Commission will set out what can be done to simplify Britain’s overcomplicated and bloated tax system. Check out the 2020 Tax Commission website to stay up to date with the Commission's work. Jonathan starts in mid-August and you can follow him on Twitter here (@isaby). You can learn more about our team on our website. Our Campaign Director, Emma Boon, appeared on Sky News calling for more competition and for the tendering process to be more transparent so that smaller companies could get involved more easily. Burning our Money: Non-job of the week - Tower Hamlets writes a 2,000-word justification of their £45k 'Performance Enhancing Manager' Let them eat carbon: The Happy Planet Index shows the problem with woolly wellbeing studies - Matthew Sinclair points out there aren't many Americans trying to crawl under a fence to get into Mexico Economics 101: Latest OBR figures show public spending is still rising. Time to cut it - Public spending is still going up and so is public sector borrowing. Rory Meakin looks at the latest figures from the Office of Budget Responsibility Grassroots: Kirklees Council leader accused of meddling with information - Andrew Allison with the story of the Council Leader interfering in Freedom of Information responses Better Government: Needless bureaucracy and how FOI compliance should be much cheaper - Rory Meakin with a lesson from the NHS on making FOI responses more complicated than they should be Better Government: Cabinet Office order to reveal top earners details - In his first post for the TPA, Robert Oxley highlights the further release of top civil servant pay details
TaxPayers' Alliance Bulletin - 29 July 2011
Campaign team grows
Also joining the team is Robert Oxley, our new Campaign Manager. Robert began his new role at the start of the week; he will be managing our social media accounts and working closely with our Campaign Director, Emma Boon, to promote our work in the press. You can follow Robert on Twitter here(@roxley)£3,500 for a PC that should cost £250
It has emerged that the Government could be paying as much as ten times the commercial rate for equipment and up to £3,500 for a single desktop PC. The warning came from the Public Administration Select Committee (PASC), who found ministers were "overly reliant" on a few large suppliers, resulting in the waste of an "obscene amount of public money". A report from the committee stated: "The lack of IT skills in Government and over-reliance on contracting out is a fundamental problem which has been described as a 'recipe for rip-offs'."Good work from Hull and East Riding TPA
Just two months ago a number of senior officers in the Humberside Fire and Rescue Service were given temporary promotions following the retirement of the Chief Fire Officer. This week it has been revealed one of those officers applied for early retirement in the same week as he was promoted, and after just eight weeks in the job will receive an extra £29,500 of our money! Hull and East Riding coordinator, Andrew Allison, criticised this move:
"Taxpayers will be shocked to discover Mr Rhodes accepted a temporary promotion one day, and then applied for early retirement the next. At a time when public spending is being reined in, cashing-in like this is even more unacceptable, and Humberside Fire Authority has many questions to answer. Surely they must have been aware of the financial consequences of these promotions? If they weren't, then who was advising them, and what advice did they receive? We do not pay our taxes for them to be wasted, lining the pockets of senior fire officers who already benefit from a generous taxpayer subsidised pension scheme."
If you know of any similar payouts in your area, please contact Andrew Allison. The more we can expose these egregious payments, the more we will be able to prevent them in the future. HS2 consultation ends today
If you haven’t already contributed to the Government’s consultation process on High Speed Rail (HS2) proposals you need to do so by the end of the day, today! Check out Matthew Sinclair’s call to action for more on how to have your say. We have written extensively about the flawed economic arguments behind HS2 and you can read Chris Stokes' excellent report onHigh Speed Rail to learn more about the case against these plans.
It’s important to make sure your voice is heard in this debate or else the Government will push ahead with their costly white elephant, which could end up costing taxpayers billions in the years to come. If you use Facebook then head to our page to let us know what you think about HS2.Best of the Blogs
Grassroots: Salisbury Parking Charges – Update - Andrew Allison with a tale of local authority incompetence and bureaucracy that surprises even him
Grassroots: The right steps in Gwynedd - TPA Cardiff's Lee Canning has tentative praise for Gwynedd council, who are taking the unusual step of putting local businesses and residents first
Economics 101: Boris Johnson agrees, lacklustre growth figures mean we need targeted tax cuts now - The economy needs targeted tax cuts to get it growing says Rory Meakin, Boris Johnson agrees
Friday, 29 July 2011
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