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TaxPayers' Alliance Bulletin - 13 January 2012 - High speed rail rolls on despite flawed plans - Quango's globetrotting credit card bill - Latest on our campaign to end taxpayer funding of trade unions - Grassroots - Best of the Blogs High speed rail rolls on despite flawed plans On Tuesday the Government gave the green light to high speed rail (HS2) despite failing to put forward a convincing economic case for the line. Ever since the plans were announced we have been highly critical of the business case behind HS2 and believe the project will be a white elephant that will cost every family in Britain well over £1,000. The Transport Secretary, Justine Greening, announced the scheme would still cost £32 billion, but ourresearch has revealed the true cost could be more than £45 billion after meeting ministerial promises and paying for other schemes which will be needed to make it work as advertised. We have been actively involved in the debate over the new line. Our Political Director Jonathan Isaby recently appeared on the BBC News Channel to review the day’s papers and highlighted the issue. It’s no wonder that the public aren’t in favour of the project. Polling by YouGov that we commissioned found that 48 per cent of respondents supported cancelling it, with only 34 per cent opposed to such a move. The business case for the line is weak, particularly while hard decisions have to be made about how to cut spending elsewhere. It will only benefit a fortunate minority, but all taxpayers are picking up a share of the bill. Why is the Government taxing the poor to pay for a rich man’s train? Click the image to watch the video Quango's globetrotting credit card bill In the last two years, Scottish Enterprise, a quango purporting to promote business north of the border, has racked up bills of £2 million on its taxpayer-funded credit cards. Our research reveals that taxpayers have picked up the tab at a 7* hotel in Abu Dhabi and paid for bar bills of nearly £12,000. Some of this extravagant spending is completely inappropriate. Scottish Enterprise should be scrapped like the English Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) have been. RDAs take money from every business and spends it trying to support a favoured few, and this is more evidence the quango is ripe for abolition. Latest on our campaign to end taxpayer funding of trade unions Shortly after Prime Ministers Questions on Wednesday, Jesse Norman MP (Hereford and South Herefordshire) proposed a bill that would have ended the taxpayer funding of trade unions. Through extensive Freedom of Information campaigns we have exposed the incredible back door subsidy that unions receive from taxpayers. In our latest research we discovered that at least £113 million of taxpayers’ money was going to fund the unions. This comes from direct grants to the trade unions and the cosy arrangement where public sector staff spend their time on union duties instead of doing the job they are paid to do. You can watch the full debate about the bill here. The transcript is also available inHansard. Jesse Norman’s bill aimed to make trade unions cover the cost of the staff time they benefit from. During his speech he quoted our research highlighting the number of union officials paid for by taxpayers in Whitehall such as in the Department for Work and Pensions (308) and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (181). He made important points that there should be “proper transparency and accountability” in trade union funding and that it was not ultimately in the interest of unions to be reliant on hand-outs from taxpayers. CALL TO ACTION: Ultimately this backbench motion was not voted through, but it is more evidence politicians are starting to wake up to this issue and the Government has pledged to take action. (You can see the list of how MPs voted here). We need you to keep up the pressure to end this scandalous subsidy. You can use the websitewritetothem.com to contact your local MP and ask them to support our campaign to end the taxpayer funding of trade unions. Grassroots Weekly bin collections In Sheffield, the council has announced plans to scrap the weekly bin collections and end the free collection of garden waste too. This is a front-line service council taxpayers rely on. Too many local authorities are willing to reduce this service, but of course do not reduce Council Tax despite the fact that it has almost doubled in the last ten years. This is an issue we have consistently fought on, and we will keep that up. If your council plans to end weekly collections, please let us know and we will try to help. Parking charges Two years ago the Hull and East Riding Branch fought against the introduction of parking charges in some small towns in the East Riding of Yorkshire. We only won a temporary reprieve and at the time grassroots coordinator, Andrew Allison, said the council had also failed to address the problems of high parking charges in towns like Beverley. Two years on, the problem has reared its ugly head again, and the issue of parking charges is back on the agenda. If you want to help Andrew fight against these and also get charges reduced in some areas to help local shopkeepers, please drop him a line. During these difficult economic times, this is the last thing local residents and businesses need. Best of the Blogs Burning our money: Non-job of the week - This week we bring you PR jobs working promoting the census and council spin doctors Burning our money: Why are the Government letting nationalised banks spend taxpayers’ money on lobbying? - Even after they were bailed out it has been revealed that RBS and Lloyds are spending taxpayers' money on lobbying government Grassroots: Council use tax rise to appoint more senior staff - In his first blog for the TPA, Neill Harvey-Smith highlights the local authority that is hiking Council Tax while sacking staff, but yet has found the money to create new six-figure senior posts Grassroots: Sheffield Council cuts leaflet gets the thumbs down from residents - After Sheffield Council posted 230,000 letters asking for ideas for how to make savings, only 0.8 per cent of people replied Grassroots: 87 per cent of Warwickshire councillors receive special allowances - Andrew Allison questions the prevalence of special allowances among Warwickshire county councillors and wonders if the system is being used to top up income rather than pay for extra responsibilities