The current coronavirus crisis has highlighted the hard work and dedication of many front line staff who rightly deserve praise. They are doing a fantastic job and everyone at the TaxPayers' Alliance thanks them for their efforts.
At a higher level, the pandemic has shone a light on serious problems with the quangocracy, particularly Public Health England (PHE). There has been a noticeable unwillingness by this bloated agency - financed to the tune of £4.5 billion of taxpayers' money ever year - to involve private industry in preventing shortages of vital medical equipment.
Very high paid nanny state employees have been caught sleeping on the job. For too long they've focused on lecturing the public about what to eat and drink. At the same time, PHE has failed to heed the warnings from previous outbreaks such as SARS and Avian flu.
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This crisis should make the government revisit PHE's purpose and refocus on preparing for real public health emergencies. Many public health bosses are well remunerated in order to be ready for crises like this. They’re not paid to worry about what we eat or what adverts appear on television. Executives who underperform should be sacked, healthcare professionals on the front line deserve better.
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TaxPayers' Alliance in the news
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MPs can claim £10,000 to work from home
MPs are entitled to receive an additional £10,000 to their existing office budgets to assist them while they work from home. According to The Times, "The extra budget can be used to buy equipment such as laptops and printers for MPs and their staff, or to cover additional electricity, heating and phone bills."
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Concerns have been raised though that there is nothing in rules, set by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, to prevent members claiming it for themselves. £10,000 does seem very generous, given that a suite of computer/office equipment can be purchased for less than £1,800.
Our political director James Roberts gave his thoughts to The Times, “While it’s reasonable for MPs’ staff to have access to the equipment they need to work from home during this crisis, politicians should take care to use the cash properly and avoid it being seen as a personal equipment slush fund.”
We'll be monitoring how MPs use the extra cash in the coming months.
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Going off the rails
It was recently reported by The Mirror that Network Rail are spending £12 million surveying rail users. The project will take six years and include a number of online surveys as well as "pedestrian counting" and "day-to-day reputation management".
Our research director Duncan Simpson told the Mirror's Alan Selby, “Splashing cash on surveys we can guess the answers to is a dreadful use of taxpayer money. Network Rail should focus on getting trains running on time.”
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It's worth remembering that as our own research showed, two thirds of rail delays are caused by taxpayer funded Network Rail.
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Pint of no return
More ridiculous news as we learned that scientists from Stirling university have been awarded £400,000 of taxpayers' cash to investigate why football fans get drunk. It's fair to say whoever came up with this idea must have downed a few pints beforehand.
Our campaign manager Sam Packer expressed his dismay to Sun reporter Michael Hamilton, saying “It hardly requires thousands of pounds for brainboxes to examine why footie fans enjoy a tipple.”
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Another week of lockdown and another excellent series of blogs from the TPA team. Sticking with alcohol, grassroots assistant Kieran Neild has penned an excellent piece on the case against minimum unit pricing. He argues that it is a worrying case of paternalism that punishes sensible drinkers. Pour yourself a glass and read more here.
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Our policy analyst Jeremy Hutton has laid out why the foreign aid budget should be diverted to fighting coronavirus. The UK currently commits a substantial pot of money, £14.6 billion to be precise, to overseas aid. With the exception of humanitarian development operations, funds from the budget should be used to tackle the current crisis at home. Read the full piece here.
This year’s budget was anything but typical. With measures to tackle the coronavirus outbreak understandably dominating the media’s attention and the wider economic picture in flux, many of the less immediate elements seem to have slipped through the net. Our digital campaign manager Joe Ventre has outlined five such features you may have missed.
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Tidy motors
A fire service in Swansea is spending taxpayers' money to lease luxury vehicles including a Range Rover and a Mercedes Benz. The Mid & West Wales Fire authority has confirmed it spends nearly £157,000 per year to lease 32 cars for staff and senior officers. One of the vehicles on lease is a Range Rover Sport HSE Dynamic, costing almost £75,000 according to Land Rover.
It comes in the wake of the fire authority approaching Swansea council for an additional £770,000 of funding. Speaking at a recent meeting one local councillor rightly said: "I don't think we should be asking members of the public for over £750,000 when we've got the chief fire officer driving around in a car worth over £100,000."
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The TPA has long called out the use of expensive motors for public officials but it appears they are not listening. Taxpayers' money should be focused on vehicles that fight fire not ones with massage seats for already well remunerated fire chiefs.
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Finally from everyone at the TaxPayers' Alliance we wish you and your family a very Happy Easter! We hope you are keeping safe and well during this difficult time.
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Harry Fone
Grassroots Campaign Manager
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