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As TPA research has shown, the tax burden is at a 70 year high. This week, new treasury figures helped put a number on what that means for your household. Since April, households have, on average, handed over an extra ÂŁ821 to the chancellor, an increase of 10 per cent on the previous year!
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In comments to The Telegraph, our chief economist Duncan Simpson, rightly pointed to the government’s decision to freeze tax thresholds as dragging hard working Brits into higher and higher tax brackets. As Duncan said, these figures are “further proof of the dangerous course taken by HM Treasury. Freezing thresholds and bouncing people into higher thresholds is an easy way to increase revenue but is unfair on millions of middle earners.”
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Sadly, even these record levels of tax aren’t enough for some. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, decided to sermonise on his belief that we should all be paying even more! John O’Connell, our chief executive, leapt to the defence of hard-pressed households telling Sun readers: “Taxpayers will be praying these calls are ignored. Overburdened Brits are already on their knees. The government should rule out further tax hikes.” Preach!
With these huge increases in the tax take, you might be forgiven for thinking the services we all pay for would be second to none. Unfortunately, anyone who’s tried to get a passport, see their GP, or even speak to HMRC knows they aren’t. That’s why we’ll keep fighting to reduce the sky high tax burden and eradicate waste at all levels of government. Click here to chip in to our campaign!
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A TPA investigation has revealed the NHS continues to hire equality, diversity, and inclusion officers, despite ministers pledging to crack down on these right-on roles. Since the 5th January, the health service has advertised for no less than 19 non-jobs, with combined salaries over ÂŁ1 million!
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John summed up the situation perfectly, saying: “Taxpayers are sick to the back teeth of NHS non-jobs. Time for health chiefs to focus funds on the frontline.”
We’re calling on NHS bosses, and all public sector organisations, to ditch these diversity demagogues once and for all. Click here to sign our petition!
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TaxPayers' Alliance in the news
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Rude Rishi
When the prime minister implied that those calling for an easing of the burden on families through tax cuts (good folk like you and me) are 'idiots’, we weren’t about to take it lying down.
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Our digital campaign manager, Joe Ventre, took to TalkTV and highlighted that: “billions upon billions of pounds of taxpayers' money is wasted every year… we’re supposed to just not acknowledge that these things happen.” Perhaps before the prime minister takes aim at ordinary Brits, he should get a handle on his government's spending!
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Off the rails
We all know HS2 is already well over its budget, but even we were shocked to see just some of the examples of wasted cash that came out this week.
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John gave the ridiculous sums both barrels, blasting: “These runaway costs suggest that the HS2 budget is coming off the rails. Bosses have shown a complete inability to get a grip on their finances, with the estimated costs of the project constantly on the rise and millions spent on spin and non-jobs.”
This white elephant can’t be scrapped soon enough - before even more money is wasted!
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The anti-cake coalition
When the chair of the Food Standards Agency suggested people should stop bringing cake into the office, we were only too happy to call out this latest nannying nonsense.Â
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Elliot Keck, our investigations campaign manager, told Times Radio listeners: “The food standards agency does not exist to provide advice on obesity and what you should or shouldn’t be doing in the office.” Quite right!
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The poverty of globalism
In this week’s blog, TPA researcher Dr Mike Jones takes a look at the increasing role, and costs, of global quangos.
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In this detailed piece, Dr Jones exposes the staggering increase in taxpayers' money being handed over to the UN - a whopping 257 per cent since 2018! As Mike says, “when unaccountable global quangos push particular agendas, that  comes at a large cost: every pound the UK government spends on this global bureaucracy is one less pound for the British taxpayer.” Click here to read more.
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This week’s war on waste story comes to us from TPA subscriber Brad, who highlights the case of Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole council which managed to lose £176,000 in just four weeks when they opened their own restaurant!
Just what made town hall bosses think they were qualified to run a restaurant, we’ll probably never know. But it’s high time this reckless gambling of taxpayers' money came to an end! |
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Benjamin Elks
Operations Manager
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