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The permanent part-time council

We fought as hard as we could. Time and again, month after month, the TPA team were on the ground in the villages and towns of South Cambridgeshire, were pouring over reports, digging into details, publishing research. Doing everything we could to give the good people of South Cambridgeshire their full-time council back.
They can’t say we didn’t try. Almost one quarter of all submissions to the public consultation back in spring were made using our online tool. Our campaigning was mentioned by three separate councillors during Thursday’s meeting of full council. We were described across the political spectrum ([link removed]) as the leading campaigners against the four-day week. But sadly, two and a half years into what was supposed to be a three month trial, local councillors voted to make the four-day week permanent.

There’s no glossing this over. It was a miserable day for local taxpayers. Our head of campaigns channelled their fury in his rapid response, saying in comments picked up by the local paper ([link removed]) : “Local residents have made it clear the contempt they hold for the radical four-day week experiment, yet Lib Dem councillors have pathetically folded in the face of pressure from the senior leadership and voted to make the part-time council permanent.”

Elliot was straight into the broadcast studios the day after the vote, popping up on the Jeremy Vine show ([link removed]) on BBC Radio 2 where he locked horns with four-day week campaigner Joe Ryle. Elliot told Jeremy Vine’s listeners that “What we object to is a local council and local residents being used essentially as a guinea pig.”
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If there is one small encouragement, though, it’s in the fact that by fighting this hard, we have issued a clear warning to other councils thinking about moving part time. Indeed, when we went up to Bassetlaw after reports emerged that they were considering a trial, the leader there swiftly apologised and withdrew the plan.

But ultimately, it’s clear which way the wind is blowing. The next part time council is just around the corner, but we'll be there on the ground to fight the good fight. Who knows, it could even be yours.

Chip into the TPA’s fighting fund to help us continue to stand up for taxpayers ([link removed])
Should we leave the ECHR?

Podcast host Duncan Barkes and the TPA's Will Yarwood are joined by Karl Williams, Research Director at the Centre for Policy Studies for a fascinating discussion on whether Britain should leave the ECHR, in the latest episode of a nation of taxpayers. This follows the publication by the CPS of a new paper, 'Britain and the ECHR - Past Myths, Present Problems and Future Options' by The Right Hon The Lord Lilley. ([link removed])
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They also chat about the latest stats revealing how many foreign nationals are in receipt of Universal Credit in the UK. Have a listen to this episode of a nation of taxpayers on Apple Podcasts ([link removed]) , Spotify ([link removed]) , and YouTube ([link removed]) .
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Things can only get better…

It’s been a bruising week on the economic front. But then again, when isn’t it under this government. Data out this week revealed that both unemployment AND inflation are going up, which I’m reliably told by the TPA wonks isn’t supposed to happen. Usually, when unemployment is rising inflation is supposed to fall, and vice versa. It takes a special type of incompetence for both to happen at once. Back in the 1970s they called this phenomenon “stagflation.”

Pretty miserable stuff, but at least we’ve got you covered with the cutting edge analysis you need to make sense of it all. The TPA’s former chairman Mike Denham was back in our blog this week ([link removed]) with a piece examining how on earth Rachel Reeves is going to raise more revenue from an already over-taxed economy.

In fairness, the chancellor Rachel Reeves occasionally shows glimpses that she understands the scale of the problem. But they’re glimpses at best. This week, she gave a generally well-received speech laying out her plans to deregulate financial services in an attempt to boost growth.
In a well timed move, our researcher Jonathan Eida put together a fascinating dossier ([link removed]) of ten ways that regulators hamper economic growth. Journalists were straight on the phone asking for more detail and Jonathan followed this up with a piece in Conservative Woman ([link removed]) in which he warned “Britain’s quango-state has become a web of overlapping mandates, overzealous enforcement and bureaucratic inertia. If Rachel Reeves is serious about restoring growth, she must take the bold step of rewiring this regulatory machine.”

Keeping an eye on Britain’s quangos

Speaking of quangos, the TPA team has been busy this week on our Britain’s Quangos Uncovered project. Helpfully, the research team has welcomed its latest addition in the last couple of weeks, Anne Strickland. She gave us a helpful reminder of just why taking on the quango state is so crucial. In her blog she pointed out ([link removed]) that “the more state power is outsourced to quangos, operating at arm's length from voters, the more divorced from accountability that power becomes.”
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Elliot also found time this week, while not in South Cambridgeshire, to write two fascinating op-eds. Writing in CapX ([link removed]) , Elliot took a deep dive into the many quangos that are charging taxpayers for their service, only for that service to be hopelessly inadequate. As he points out, “where there are quangos raising significant amounts of money from sources other than taxpayers, it should beg the question: does it need to be state-run or state-owned at all?” And for The Critic ([link removed]) , Elliot took aim at the quangos clogging up our courts.
Britain’s Watergate?

As campaigners for transparency, we were horrified by this week’s revelations. The Afghan data leak, wherein a soldier in charge of vetting asylum seekers circulated an email including the spreadsheet containing the details of more than 100,000 Afghans connected to British forces, has already proven to be one of the most serious scandals in recent memory.

Yet instead of accountability, there’s been spin and even silence from those responsible. The culprit likely remains in post, a super-injunction gagged the press, and taxpayers could now be on the hook for up to £1 billion in compensation on top of the £7 billion already spent on the resettlement scheme.
Our chief executive, John O’Connell, pulled no punches in a piece for LBC ([link removed]) when he said: “To the civil servants who failed, the judges who gagged the press, and the ministers who covered it all up: shame on you.” ([link removed])
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Our media campaign manager, William Yarwood, echoed John’s remarks to GB News ([link removed]) when discussing how £1bn of taxpayers’ cash could be shelled out in compensation for this leak when he said: "Those who allowed this cover-up to happen should hang their heads in shame. ([link removed]) ”
Yet more trouble at the BBC

The Beeb has had a tough time trying to stay out of headlines recently, from biased coverage to inappropriate staff, the institution is tearing at the seams. Operating on an outdated business model, they are struggling to survive, yet seem oblivious to an obvious solution: cutting the sky-high pay.

This year's BBC rich list is telling; ‘stars’ have been rewarded with substantial pay rises on top of their already mega-salaries. Topping the list, unsurprisingly, was ex-Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker, followed by Zoe Ball.

After that, Alan Shearer, football pundit, made the list earning £440,000 - £444,999. That’s the minimum equivalent of a year's licence fee for 2521 people. Greg James, the Radio 1 Breakfast host, bagged between £425,000 and £429,999. The BBC’s annual report this year revealed more than bloated salaries; it also showed that the organisation is losing millions of pounds due to the growing number of people refusing to pay the licence fee. As the TPA’s Joanna Marchong put it in a piece in the Express, “If the BBC were any private business, the discussion would be whether it can survive the rest of the year.”

The BBC should consider this a wake-up call. It’s time to scrap the licence fee and move to a subscription-based model.

Click here to sign up to BBC Watch, a monthly email written by Duncan Barkes ([link removed])
What is a public good?

This week, Joanna, our investigations campaign manager, has taken a slightly different approach to explain the moral bankruptcy behind quango control. Published on the Adam Smith Institute blog ([link removed]) , she takes a step back to look at the bigger idea behind it all - public goods.
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She explains that what was once a noble idea has been quietly warped over time. Where public goods once meant education, shared knowledge and moral development, things that helped individuals grow, now it’s just bureaucratic code for something the state controls.

Instead of serving and uplifting the public, quangos now manage people, restrict freedoms, and shut down debate. Institutions like Natural England can impose huge restrictions on people’s lives with barely a whisper of consultation. Farmers in Cornwall found that out the hard way. “The Enlightenment vision of the public good, which emphasises the role and value of the individual and the responsibility of government to protect and further the rights of individuals, has been lost and quietly displaced. In its place is a system designed to control and manage. It's taxpayers who pay, and the bureaucrats who decide.”

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War on Waste

Spotted: another plum diversity job courtesy of the taxpayer. The Welsh Government is now on the hunt for a “Diversity, Inclusion & Outreach Lead” ([link removed]) , with a salary just north of £54,000, and that’s before you factor in the chunky 28.97 per cent pension contribution.

The successful candidate will be tasked with “championing” inclusive hiring and writing briefings for ministers on, you guessed it, diversity because nothing says frontline public service delivery like another well-paid post focused on buzzwords and box-ticking.

Please send me your examples of wasteful public sector spending (mailto:[email protected]) .

Benjamin Elks
Grassroots Development Manager

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