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How much is enough? Thatâs the question the TPA team asked ourselves this week. It certainly feels like no matter how much money the government chucks at something, thereâs always someone on hand to claim itâs not enough. So with the UK supposedly so niggardly and potentially âviolating its international human rights obligationsâ, weâve looked at the facts and it certainly seems like we pay our fair share.Â
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As part of our Global Quangos Uncovered campaign, TPA researchers looked at some of the claims from leading quangocrats and politicians and called out the nonsense assertions. From aid and clean water to green initiatives and benefit spending, the doomsters seem to love downplaying and undermining the UKâs efforts.
In 2021 the UNâs Office for Humanitarian Affairs claimed temporarily reducing foreign aid to 0.5 per cent of GNI rather than 0.7 per cent was âtarnishing and diminishing the UK in the wider world.â Of course what they failed to say was that we remained the fifth largest aid spender on the planet 2022. Indeed, spending actually increased to $16.8 billion! You can read our findings in full here.
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Our chief executive, John OâConnell, certainly didn't mince his words: âTaxpayers are sick of paying billions into the coffers of the global quangocracy with no gratitude in return.â As Brits struggle with a 70 year high tax burden and a cost of living crisis, itâs high time their generosity was given the recognition it deserves.
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With more council leaders signing our pledge ruling out dodgy four-day week experiments in their areas, our team hit the road to pay a visit to one of those refusing to do so.
Arriving in Welwyn Garden City, home to Welwyn Hatfield borough council, the TPA pitched up outside the town hall. Local council leader, Paul Zukowskyj, branded the idea that his staff should work full-time âpopulist right wing nonsense.â
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Unsurprisingly, local residents didnât seem to share his views. Handing out leaflets and speaking to locals, our team urged taxpayers to demand their council focus on maintaining vital services and back our pledge to rule out a part-time council.Â
The failing trial in South Cambridgeshire shows just how damaging four-day weeks can be for residents reliant on services. If youâve not already done so, be sure to use our tool to urge your council leader to sign the pledge!
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TaxPayers' Alliance in the news
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Shirking from home?
Following our revelations last week that hundreds of council staff have been given permission to work from abroad, our head of campaigns, Elliot Keck, joined Andrew Doyle on GB News to discuss the findings in detail.
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Speaking live from the studio, Elliot explained: âIâm not sure itâs the best thing for taxpayers⊠if you take a local council, you need people in that local council to understand the issues of their area and you need them in the office to know theyâre actually picking up the phones.â Quite right!
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The globalisation of sin taxes
Nannying policies have been a policy feature for governments of all colours for many years. Using the tax system to punish people making the âwrongâ choice is nothing new (think sugar, alcohol, and tobacco taxes). But little thought is given to the influence of international bodies pushing these policies and spreading them across the world.
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In an important op-ed for the Critic, our policy analyst, Tom Ryan, has examined the role of the World Health Organisationâs Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), pushing sin taxes across the globe. As Tom says: âThe FCTC is a perfect example of the misguided nature of a far-too-powerful and unaccountable global quangocracy. While costless solutions to health problems caused by tobacco smoking present themselves, the WHO remains committed to promoting â and crucially, extending â sin taxes which punish the poor worldwide.âÂ
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London ambulance serviceâs lost tablets
Since 2020, the London ambulance service (LAS) has spent ÂŁ3,315,475 on 6,857 iPads. TPA analysis has shown that LAS staff managed to lose 70 of them in just three months in 2021 / 2022 and more than 400 in 2022/23.
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TPA researcher, Jonathan Eida, called out the medics misplacing tablets when he told GB News: âStaff must take better care of expensive tech and remember who is paying for it.â Spot on.
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Aid to the Palestinian Authority: what is the foreign office trying to hide?
This weekâs blog is guest written by Jeremy Havardi, director of B'nai B'rith. Jeremy explores the role taxpayersâ money is playing in supporting the Palestinian Authority (PA) and why the foreign office are so reluctant to talk about it.
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The Palestinian Authority has a notorious scheme whereby it pays Palestinian terrorists locked up for murdering Israelis monthly stipends, with the level of the stipend linked to how many were killed and how many family members the terrorist has.
Yet the FCDO cannot provide cast iron guarantees that taxpayers' money is not being redirected into this scheme. Jeremy argues: âThe manner in which FCDO civil servants are fighting against being subjected to basic scrutiny is truly shocking, and a matter which should be of concern to all.â There are clearly questions to be answered and itâs high time foreign office officials came clean.
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Having hiked council tax by 5 per cent earlier this year, you might think councillors in Edinburgh would be striving to make sure every single penny was being spent providing vital services to ratepayers.
Sadly, that doesnât seem to be the case. Councillors and officials are set to shell out ÂŁ2,000 on a âhot fork buffetâ at the expense of residents. Local taxpayers will be left with a bad taste in the mouth from this latest extravagance.Â
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Benjamin Elks
Operations Manager
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