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TaxPayers' Alliance Bulletin - 30 September 2011 Stop Press! TPA policy victory on bins And the winner is: council award ceremonies TFL spends £3.5 million on surplus staff Why are we financially supporting a country that is threatening British territory and people? Pin-up and Pinhead of the month Grassroots Conference Listings Best of the Blogs Stop Press! TPA policy victory on bins Good old Eric Pickles has done the TPA proud again. Not content with getting councils to be more transparent by asking them to publish all their spending above £500, he has set his sights on an even bigger task, your bins. The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government is bringing back weekly rubbish collections. He has told local councils up and down the country that they are no longer allowed to make excuses to taxpayers and that they should provide this service. This local priority will no longer be affected by draconian targets from Brussels and excessive taxes from Westminster; taxpayers will no longer have to accept councils telling them there is no option but fortnightly collections. They can decide for themselves whether they are willing to lose the inconvenience of a weekly collection, one of the few services many council taxpayers enjoy in return for bills that have almost doubled over the last decade. We have been campaigning on your behalf on this issue since councils first started to bring in fortnightly collections and Emma Boon appeared on Sky News to debate the issue after Pickles' announcement. And the winner is: council award ceremonies Has your local council attended the Loo of the Year? Or how about the National Parking Awards? We have compiled and released the first comprehensive list of award ceremonies hosted or attended by councils across the UK in the last year. You can read the report here which has a breakdown of the figures by individual council. Glasgow City Council was one of the biggest spenders, forking out at least £83,000, including spending on a “Magic of Motown” event. Others felt forking out to attend awards was far from necessary, particularly at a time when there is huge pressure on local authority finances. Disappointingly many councils failed to keep a record of how much of our money they were spending on award ceremonies. If they’re not keeping track, then how are residents meant to judge if they are getting value for money from their councils? TFL spends £3.5 million on surplus staff Following our investigation into Royal Mail staff languishing in a surplus pool we have exposed the huge cost to Londoners of Transport for London’s (TFL) “Redeployment Scheme”. The scheme is for staff who have no specific role and are waiting to be found a new post. Since 2004 TFL have spent £3.5 million on staff who do not have a job to do, more than 138 staff have been in this pool, earning on average £40,000. You can read the full report here. Why are we financially supporting a country that is threatening British territory and people? The British Government recently had to make a statement at the United Nations in New York. It outlined that we remain “fully committed to defending the rights of the people of the Falkland Islands to determine their own political, social and economic future”. The stern clarification was required because of the increasingly threatening behaviour from Argentina, which still claims sovereignty over the remote islands, almost three decades after the war that saw more than 250 British troops and scores of Argentines killed. So why are we supporting Argentina financially with millions of pounds in British taxpayers' money? The United Kingdom is a major shareholder guaranteeing the finances of the World Bank. Argentina owes the bank $5 billion and new programmes are regularly being approved, including a $30 million project earlier this year. On top of this, the European Union is running a €65 million aid programme for Argentina between 2007 and 2013. Our share of that, at current exchange rates, is nearly £7 million. The US authorities, as a matter of principle, vote against any new lending to Argentina, it's a middle-income country that hasn’t treated its creditors fairly despite having over $50 billion in reserves. British authorities should do likewise, and vote no to further programmes at any opportunity we get. Britain should not be offering financial support to a country that threatens our interests. Let's focus international aid where it's really needed, instead of spending it where it's unproductive. We also support freezing the International Aid budget and a recent YouGov/ TPA poll on spending cuts shows that the public is on our side on this too. If you think British aid to Argentina should stop, please write to your MP and urge them to oppose aid to Argentina. Pin-up and Pinhead of the month The TaxPayers’ Alliance has launched two new monthly awards to celebrate those in power who have sought to save – and waste – taxpayers’ money. On the final Friday of each month TPA Political Director, Jonathan Isaby, will name the man, woman or organisation to be congratulated for saving public money as the TPA’s “Pin-Up of the Month”, whilst whoever is found to have shown the greatest disregard for taxpayers’ cash will be shamed as the TPA’s “Pinhead of the Month”. The first award for Pin-Up of the Month goes to Defence Minister Andrew Robathan. In an answer to a parliamentary question he revealed how he discovered that the Ministry of Defence had been paying £120,000 in unnecessary satellite TV subscriptions – waste which he has now stopped. This serves as a good example of how all ministers should be looking to root out waste in their departments Meanwhile, the TPA’s inaugural Pinhead of the Month is Gordon Matheson, the leader of Glasgow City Council, on the back of the new TPA research released today which reveals that in the last year his council spent almost £83,000 on hosting and attending awards ceremonies – more than any other council in the United Kingdom. So now Cllr Matheson has an award of his own. We hope that he will reflect on the fact that many councils now recognise that using taxpayers’ money to organise or attend costly awards ceremonies is unjustifiable and that if he wants to put on these kinds of events, then he should seek private sponsorship to minimise the cost to the public purse. Grassroots Prize draw We are very grateful for all the help and information our supporters give us, and to act as an incentive to potential new supporters, we are pleased to announce today the introduction of a new supporter monthly prize draw! New supporters who sign-up will be entered into the draw at the end of the month. The first draw will take place on 31 October, and the winner will receive a signed copy of TPA Director, Matthew Sinclair's new book, Let them eat carbon. In addition to that, we will also give the winner £100 in Amazon vouchers to spend on more books. So please forward this bulletin to your family and friends, and encourage them to join us. They may be the lucky winner! NEW Shropshire Branch We are delighted to announce the formation of a new Shropshire Branch! Run by Denis Allen and Adrian Williams, they will hold their first Action Day on Saturday 15 October. Telford and Wrekin Council currently have a vacancy for a new chief executive, and we will be collecting signatures on a petition calling for the new chief executive's pay to be cut by 10 per cent. We will give you more details on the time and location next week. It's always an exciting time when a new branch is formed, so if you live in or near Shropshire, please come and join us. National Grassroots Coordinator, Andrew Allison will be there, and if you think you may be available, please let him know. Conservative Party Conference The Conservative Party Conference starts this Sunday and you will be able to find us in Freedom Zone in Manchester. You don't need a conference pass to get into this area, which is just outside the secure zone in Bridgewater Hall. If you are in the Manchester area between Sunday 2nd and Wednesday 5th October do come and say hello and meet the team. We will be hosting a number of exciting events at conference and we have top quality cast of speakers appearing: Monday 3 October 11.30am Cutting Council Spending and Delivering Lower Taxes Emma Boon (chairman) – Campaign Director of The TaxPayers’ Alliance Cllr David Burbage – Leader of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council Cllr Stephen Greenhalgh – Leader of Hammersmith and Fulham Council John O’Connell – Research Director of The TaxPayers’ Alliance Bob Neill MP – Minster for Local Government Monday 3 October 2pm We Need to Talk About Europe (an event with the Daily Express) Matthew Elliott (chairman) – Chief Executive of The TaxPayers’ Alliance Douglas Carswell – MP for Clacton Patrick O’Flynn – Chief Political Commentator of The Daily Express Tim Montgomerie – Editor of ConservativeHome Tuesday 4 October 1.45pm The TaxPayers’ Alliance: Digital Policy Under the Coalition Dominique Lazanski (chairman) – Head of Digital Policy at The TaxPayers’ Alliance Jeff Lynn – CEO of Seedrs Limited and Chairman of The Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec) Andrew Orlowski - Technology reporter at The Register Nick Pickles – Director of Big Brother Watch Tuesday 4 October 2.45pm The TaxPayers’ Alliance: How to Cut Taxes Andrew Allum (chairman) – Chairman of The TaxPayers’ Alliance Allister Heath – Chairman of the Tax Commission and Editor of City AM (pictured on the right) Sajid Javid – MP for Bromsgrove Graeme Leach – Commissioner on the Tax Commission and Chief Economist and Director of Policy of The Institute of Directors Matthew Sinclair – Director of The TaxPayers’ Alliance You might also be interested in this event which features our Chief Executive Matthew Elliott, discussing his recent sabbatical: Tuesday 4 October 4pm NO to AV: Winning Campaigns: How the AV Referendum was Won and Lost Jonathan Isaby (chairman) – Political Director of The TaxPayers’ Alliance Lewis Baston – Political Analyst and author of Don’t Take No For An Answer: The 2011 referendum and the future of electoral reform Matthew Elliott – Chief Executive of The TaxPayers’ Alliance Nick Wood – CEO of Media Intelligence Partners And as if that isn't enough of a selection for you, there's also the chance to catch the TPA team speaking at a variety of fringe events across conference including: Sunday 2nd October 7pm Fringe: AOA and ABTA on Are Flight taxes grounding business and travellers? with Emma Boon, Darren Caplan and Luke Pollard. Venue – The Freedom Zone, Bridgewater Hall 7.30pm Fringe: AGAHST on High Speed 2 with Matthew Sinclair, Martin Tett and Chris Stokes. Venue – Central 5, Manchester Central Monday 3rd October 10.15am Fringe: Freedom Association on Climate Change with Matthew Sinclair and Roger Helmer MEP. Venue – The Freedom Zone, Bridgewater Hall 12.30pm Fringe: Conservative way Forward on the Tax Cutting Agenda with Dominic Raab MP, Matthew Elliott and Conor Burns MP. Venue – The French, Midland Hotel 5.30pm Fringe: Woodland Trust on The Future of England’s Forests with Matt Sinclairand others. Venue – Chester Suite, Midland Hotel. 7.15pm Fringe: SMF and Which? On Energy Prices with Matt Sinclair and others. Venue – Committee Room 2, Manchester Town Hall Best of the Blogs Burning our Money: Non-job of the week - The BBC is looking for a Diversity Talent Executive, do you have what it takes? Campaign: Welsh prisoners claim Sky Sports as human right - The outrageous story that prisoners are claiming access to Sky Sports 2 & 3 as a human right Grassroots: Taxpayer funded union activists at York Council - York City Council have released two planning officers to do full time Union duties. Taxpayers will be paying their salaries but they won't be working for you Campaign: It's not because they love Guinness - Twitter has decided to set up its new HQ in Dublin, not London. Emma Boon on the attractive tax rates that are luring business to Ireland Burning our Money: BBC splash out on consultants and hotels - The BBC is in headlines at the moment rather than publishing them as it wastes money on consultants and hotels