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TaxPayers' Alliance Bulletin - 28th May 2008
Victory on MPs' expenses...
 On Friday the House of Commons finally buckled to a combination of common sense, public pressure and legal force and grudgingly published the detailed second home allowances of 14 MPs, including Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron. Naturally, the TPA was among the first in the queue to pick up the three boxes full of paperwork as soon as they were released. As Matthew Elliott said at the time, this is a great step forward for Parliamentary transparency, but it should never have taken three years of fighting, and Michael Martin should never have spent more than £100,000 of taxpayers' money in a desperate and flawed court battle to keep this information secret. It's our Parliament, they're our MPs and it's our money - we have a right to know, right down to the pergolas, painters and new kitchens that it turns out the great and the good have been making us pay for.
The TPA was widely quoted in the national and regional media welcoming the eventual publication of the details, and criticising the excessive and indulgent claims some of the MPs had made at our expense. Here is the national media coverage we achieved (numerous regional and local papers also reported the news):
...but more struggles to come
Some MPs still don't seem to get it, and are doing all they can to obstruct the advance of transparency in Westminster. First the Sunday Times revealed that some of Tony Blair's expenses records had been shredded "by accident". Then the Sunday Express reported that some MPs plan to use the Human Rights Act and the European Convention on Human Rights to circumvent the High Court ruling - as the Sunday Express put it "the move could delay publication by months or even years, and could result in a bizarre situation where British MPs are appealing to a European court to seek protection from freedom of information laws they passed themselves." It's clear that there is a minority of Parliamentarians who are simply too stubborn or too comfortable spending our money in secret to accept even the High Court's decision. Let's hope they have the decency to use their own money to fight any further appeals rather than expecting taxpayers to foot the bill.
The looming winter of discontent
A new research paper from the TPA, launched on Monday, warns that with the thirtieth anniversary of the previous Winter of Discontent that swept Margaret Thatcher into power approaching, may well prove to be riven by strikes as public sector pay deals are restricted, the pension time bomb ticks ever louder and public sector unions become more militant. In the last five years, public sector pay costs have grown by £50 billion, a percentage growth much faster than the wider economy. The most recent estimate for public sector pensions liabilities is that they have grown to £1,071 billion. Worryingly, in the last year public sector workers have gone on strike 100 times as much as their private sector counterparts. There is a very real possibility that Gordon Brown's premiership could be threatened by a crisis just as damaging as that which destroyed Jim Callaghan's government. You can read the report here. The report was covered by the:
Further coverage for the Unseen Government paper
The Unseen Government report that we announced in our previous bulletin, which identified 1,162 public sector quangos, agencies and other bodies employing almost 700,000 people at a cost of more than £64 billion attracted a great deal of media coverage, and was the subject of a number of opinion pieces and leader columns in the national press. In addition to the coverage we highlighted in our last bulletin, here are some further reports:
Norwich Council Tax Protest
Long-standing TPA campaigner Barbara Lockwood is being taken to court for non-payment of last year’s Council Tax increases. As always we’re organising a protest in support of Barbara outside the Norwich Magistrates’ Court. It’ll be held Monday 9th June, 9.30am at the Norwich Magistrates Court, Bishopgate, Norwich, Norfolk, NR3 1UP. Click here for a map to the courthouse. If you are coming please, first, inform our Grassroots Coordinator, Tim Aker, by emailing him at
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. Second of all, please bring some placards to show support. You can see previous protests by going to our grassroots page here.
Romford Action Day
The TPA staff are holding a big action day in Romford Market on Friday June 27th. Everyone from the TPA office in London will be coming down to get stuck in, so if you want to meet the team in person do come along. We’ll be meeting at Romford station at 10.30am. Click here for the map.
Islington TPA in the news
 The Islington TPA branch scored a big hit in the Islington Tribune slating the council’s profligate spending. Organiser Tim Newark (pictured, right, in the Tribune) laid the gauntlet down to the leader of the council to take up our 10% Challenge to cut Council Tax in Islington by £60, saying, “We have identified savings that could be made from some of Islington Council’s non-essential spending. For example, in 2006-2007, Islington spent £2,322,000 on publicity, £12,570,000 on middle management, and £22,085,000 on pensions. I know that the pensions are set but they also top them up, thanks to the taxpayer, and that doesn’t happen very much in the private world unless you are a fat cat. If just 10 per cent of this were reduced, that would make £3,697,700, a total of 7.1 per cent of your council tax revenue. This could reduce the band D council tax bill by £64, something I am sure Islington residents would very much appreciate.” You can read the full story here. If you would like to get in touch with our Islington branch please email Tim Newark at
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Hertfordshire TPA June meeting
Matthew Elliott in the Daily Telegraph's '50 Most Influential'
In the Daily Telegraph's recent feature on "The 50 Most Influential People on the New Right", Matthew Elliott, the TaxPayers' Alliance Chief Executive was listed as 43rd, describing the TPA as "a hugely effective pressure group for lower taxes and the abolition of government waste." You can read the full citation here.
Less snooping, more service
Plymouth Council have announced a new policy of delving into people's private information as part of the bin collection service. We need your help to lobby them to stop snooping on people and get on with doing their job. You can read the story and find councillor contact information on our blog here.
Pick of the blog
First of all, the ever popular non-jobs:
The TPA website also features a number of blogs on Better Government, Campaigning, Waste and Economics. Here's a selection of recent posts:
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