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TaxPayers' Alliance Bulletin - 28 October 2011 - From Chicago to Shanghai: Councils spending on flights - The week that was: Europe - Pin-up and Pinhead of the Month - Taxpayer funding of trade unions discussed in Parliament - Grassroots - Best of the blogs From Chicago to Shanghai: council spending on flights As part of our campaign to cut wasteful spending in town halls, the results of our examination of councils' use of flights are exposed in a new report. The research found that councils in the Midlands have spent over a quarter of a million pounds on airfares in the past two years. The question we are asking council bosses across the region is “Do you really need to take that flight?” Our report revealed that in too many cases the trips were business class journeys to far-flung destinations. While some local authorities were happy to part with taxpayers’ cash for expensive airfares twenty nine councils didn’t spend a penny on flights. This stark contrast suggests there are opportunities to deliver better value money. Our campaigns team toook to the airwaves to discuss the revelations. Topping the list were Lincolnshire County Council. After we revealed the money spent on flights by the authority, an investigation has begun into why a senior fire chief was able to travel the globe at taxpayers' expense. Birmingham City Council, the largest authority in the region, failed to answer our questions properly, which undoubtedly reduced the total figure. With facilities like video conferencing, councils should keep spending on plane tickets to a minimum. You can read the full report here. The week that was: Europe The week’s politics have been dominated by Europe and a passionate debate over whether there should be a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU. Last Saturday, before the House of Commons debate, we were at the extremely well attended People's Pledge Congress for an EU Referendum. A variety of speakers from across the political spectrum gave informed and powerful speeches on why there should or shouldn’t be an EU referendum and what form it should take. We were there chatting to supporters and encouraging new members to join us. Such was the response that we ran out of sign-up sheets! If your friends, family or colleagues haven’t signed up make sure they do so to be eligible for this month’s supporter’s prize. In the run up to the debate TPA Research Fellow Lee Rotherham put forward a compelling argument that, regardless of your stance on our relationship with Europe, it is important you are given a chance to have your voice heard. As the vote approached, details of just how unaccountable bureaucrats in the EU really are and the potential for corruption in their expense claims came to light . After the vote, the focus moved to the debt crisis that is engulfing the Eurozone. While EU leaders declared that they had come to an agreement over the Greek debt crisis, our director Matthew Sinclair urged George Osborne to get real with the Eurozone leaders who “need to face up to the currency’s failure”. Pin-up and Pinhead of the month “Pin-Up of the Month” and the “Pinhead of the Month” are our new awards for the man, woman or organisation to be congratulated for saving public money, and whoever is found to have shown the greatest disregard for taxpayers’ cash respectively. October 2011’s Pin-Up of the Month is Margaret Hodge, the Labour MP who chairs the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee. She is this month’s winner for her brilliant work in holding HM Revenue and Customs to account over their secretive dealings with Goldman Sachs. Pinhead of the Month is Cllr Nick Clarke, the Tory leader of Cambridgeshire County Council. At a council meeting earlier this month, Cllr Clarke led moves to increase councillors’ allowances by an eye-watering 25%. You can read more about the deserving winners of the awards here. Taxpayer funding of trade unions discussed in Parliament Our research into taxpayer funding of trade unions has taken centre stage in the House of Commons again. Aidan Burley MP (Cannock Chase) spoke in a debate that he had tabled to a chamber that was unusually busy for a Wednesday evening. He extensively quoted the TPA’s landmark 2010 report Taxpayer funding of trade unions and the TPA-commissioned YouGov poll from June this year which showed that more than half of the public want to see an end to the practice of using taxpayers’ cash to pay full-time trade union organisers in large public sector organisations. Echoing our calls for radical changes to the current set-up, he concluded: “Trade unions should pay for representation within public sector organisations through subscriptions. It is unfair that taxpayers should have to shoulder that burden.” You can watch the full video of the heated debated here. While the minister made some commitments to increase transparency, you can rest assured we will continue to keep up the pressure on the Government on this issue. Grassroots Hull action day Hull & East Riding TPA have launched a new campaign to end Kingston Communication's monopoly in telecoms and broadband in the area. Hull was the only city to retain its municipal telephone exchange, and to this day, residents in Hull have no choice in who supplies their fixed line broadband and telephone services. This is unfair to local taxpayers who pay over the odds, and we are petitioning OFCOM to do something about it. Tomorrow we will be in Queen Victoria Square in Hull collecting signatures for our petition. We will be meeting at 11.30 am, and if you can help us, please contact our National Grassroots Coordinator Andrew Allison. If you can't make it, you can also sign our online petition. Event: Hull Action Day When: 11.30 am, Saturday 29 October Where: Queen Victoria Square, Hull NEW Northern Ireland branch We are pleased to announce a new branch in Northern Ireland. Our coordinator there, Rosie Greer, has already written an article questioning the need for so many MLAs in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Keep an eye out for future exciting research that we have planned. Northern Ireland often gets forgotten when we talk about the UK, and with your help, we can build-up a large and successful branch. If you live in Northern Ireland and would like to join our campaigns, please contact National Grassroots Coordinator,Andrew Allison. Supporter prize The first draw for the new supporter prize will take place this Monday 31 October. Please forward this bulletin to your friends, family, and colleagues, and if they sign up to receive it, they will be in with a chance of winning a copy of Matthew Sinclair's new book, Let Them Eat Carbon, and £100 worth of Amazon Vouchers. Best of the blogs Burning our Money: Non-job of the week - A carbon heavy non-job this week as councils continue to employ managers to monitor their resilience to the depletion of fossil fuels Better Government: DfID under fire from Commons Committee - The Public Accounts Committee has found that the Department for International Development still doesn't understand value for money, yet their budget is set to rise while others are cut Grassroots: Blame the cuts, say two of Hull’s MPs - Stoking fear by blaming "cuts" that have barely started and represent only a modest reduction in the rise in spending means we will never have a serious debate about the problems facing this country Better Government: Civil servant credit card spending over £500 set for publication - The news has been full of revelations about John Prescott's credit card spending but why is this Government limiting the publication of credit card spending data to above £500? Better Government: Public Accounts Committee says that the NHS must make better use of machines - Following our ground-breaking report Wasting Lives that found the NHS compared poorly with its European peers, the Public Accounts Committee has released a report on how effectively machinery such as scanners are used in the NHS