It was another busy week on the four day week front. Whilst the private sector starts to pull back, the public sector seems intent on ploughing ahead.
Krystal, a London based internet services company, scrapped its trial citing staff becoming more stressed trying to complete five days work in four, and service standards falling - issues eerily familiar of South Cambridgeshire district council’s own experiment.
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Sadly, other parts of the public sector don’t seem to be paying attention. Civil servants at South of Scotland Enterprise have been chosen by ministers north of the border to be Scotland’s canary in the coal mine, embracing a four day week for the next 12 months. Not mincing his words, our head of campaigns, Elliot Keck, blasted: “As more public bodies prepare to clock off early, it’s taxpayers who will suffer from poorer, more expensive services.”
Following up in City A.M., Elliot left people in no doubt about just why these dodgy experiments do not belong in the public sector: “It’s all well and good for a private company to implement these sorts of ideas, and burn through their capital doing it, but to risk the quality of people’s day-to-day services is another matter entirely."
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Standing up for council taxpayers is a year-round effort, and we're always looking to shine a light on the issues that affect people closest to home. On a recent visit to Kidderminster, our intern Olivia O'Mahony filmed this grassroots update on Worcestershire County Council continuing to splash the cash on executives despite a widening black hole in the local authority's finances.
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As Olivia says, "it’s ratepayers left picking up the tab" - an age-old truth! If you haven't done so already, please sign our petition calling for an end to council tax rises.
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TaxPayers' Alliance in the news
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Answering the big questions: Is achieving net zero a waste of our money?
With net zero seemingly at the heart of every government policy, our media campaign manager, Conor Holohan, took to the pages of the Times to answer the question: Is achieving net zero a waste of our money?
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Speaking up for taxpayers, Conor made clear: “When cleaner alternatives are sufficiently cheap, hard-pressed Brits will choose them. Until then, we should dismiss calls to achieve political targets on the backs of the poorest.”
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Sunak’s smoking ban will make children of 40 year olds
In this week’s blog, I’ve taken a look at the prime minister’s proposed smoking ban, why it might hit the pockets of every taxpayer, and why non-smokers should think twice before cheering it on.
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Whilst no one wants to see their kids take up the habit, the infantilisation of adults should give us pause for thought and wonder what it says about our claims to be a liberal democracy. As I argue: “The effective prohibition of tobacco that the prime minister longs for represents an attack on liberty that even the darkest of dystopian and science fiction writers didn’t dream up. After all, even Orwell’s Winston Smith in 1984 still received his cigarette ration! In Asimov’s Foundation series, ‘atomic ashtrays’ are commonplace.”
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Always keen to give credit where it’s due, I am delighted to give an update on a story we featured here a few weeks ago following a tip off from bulletin subscriber, Ian.
Regular readers will recall the case of Canterbury council who wanted to increase the number of councillors by 25 per cent. Despite voting through the plan, the local government boundary commission has slapped down local bosses and blocked the proposals. Scrapping the move could save local taxpayers £100,000. A clear victory for common sense and residents!
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Benjamin Elks
Operations Manager
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