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We're back from Manchester after another fantastic ThinkTent at Conservative party conference. This was our seventh year in partnership with the Institute of Economic Affairs and it's become a staple of the fringe scene.
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TaxPayers' Alliance grills the chancellor
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We had a packed schedule with 19 events over 3 days culminating in our chief executive John O'Connell grilling Rishi Sunak over the government's big-spending, high tax policies.
This was very much the highlight of ThinkTent (and the only public fringe event that the chancellor spoke at) - John asked the questions that millions of taxpayers want answers to. Namely, will there be more tax rises and when will taxes go down again?
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Rishi made it clear he knows that tax rises are never popular, saying "there's no easy or good way to raise taxes". He added he opted for a rise in national insurance to pay for social care because he tried to make the tax hike "as fair as possible".
He didn't specifically rule out more tax rises but admitted that "people would like to have lower taxes" and that the government must be "disciplined, focussed and prioritised" when it comes to spending.
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When pushed by John on how he will ensure money from the NI rise is spent wisely the chancellor didn't mince his words, "... we have to strive for every single penny and every single pound to be really well spent and get maximum value for it."
Encouraging words but we're a long way from the high-wage, low-tax economy this government keeps championing. Brits want to know how ministers will achieve this. That's why the TaxPayers' Alliance will continue to hold their feet to the fire as we make the case for much-needed tax cuts.
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Making the case for cutting taxes and spending
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From the very first event on Sunday to the last on Tuesday evening, ThinkTent was filled to capacity. In some instances, we had to turn people away as there wasn't even standing room left!
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The vast majority of our events zeroed in on tax policy, from saving the British high street to the quango state and will the government's aim of net-zero carbon emissions punish the poor? We hosted journalists, politicians, academics and business leaders to discuss the key issues facing the nation.
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Everyone I spoke to was full of praise regarding the quality and breadth of subjects up for discussion at ThinkTent. But we made sure that people not at conference could still watch our events. Using his technological wizardry our digital campaign manager Joe Ventre live-streamed every TPA event on Twitter and YouTube. He informs me that over 10,000 people tuned in!
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Wall-to-wall media coverage
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Once again our events at ThinkTent continued to spawn many column inches in Britain's biggest newspapers. Every single national newspaper ran stories relating to TPA panel discussions. Many cited how the Conservative Party was failing to address the fact that the tax burden is now at a 70-year high.
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But it wasn't just in print where we dominated. Political pundits on the BBC, Sky, GBNews, talkRadio and LBC (to name just a few) were talking about what was being said at ThinkTent.
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Our message for eradicating wasteful spending and championing lower taxes reached tens of millions of people across the country. At last count, we had close to 1,000 media hits!
Ahead of the budget at the end of the month, we'll ensure that our aims continue to be promoted in the British press.
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The best of ThinkTent 2021
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I'll wrap up by saying a big thank you to everyone that made ThinkTent possible, from all our speakers and audience members to TPA operations director Sara Rainwater who ensured everything ran like clockwork.
There were so many great events that it's hard to pick a favourite. But for our blog this week we asked team members to choose the one they enjoyed most.
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It may come as no surprise that John picked his conversation with the chancellor. As he puts it, "Rishi was across the detail and it was fantastic that he chose a session at ThinkTent as his only Conference fringe event. I hope I was able to represent our thousands of supporters in posing some challenging questions to the man responsible for taxpayers' money." I think John did exactly that and we'll keep the pressure on the government in the coming weeks, months and years.
As Britain's waste watchdog and champion of lower taxes, we'll keeping fighting for taxpayers!
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Harry Fone
Grassroots Campaign Manager
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