Tag Archives: taxpayers' alliance

TaxPayers’ Alliance: opponents of tax cuts suffer from “sexual jealousy”

1:08pm Mon May 21st

A new report from the TaxPayers’ Alliance and Institute of Directors claims that those disagree with them are suffering from “sexual jealousy”. The publication makes the case for an extension of austerity to the year 2020, followed by tax cuts for the rich.

But the report 417-page tome, edited by City AM editor Allister Heath (pictured above with sexy ladies), drifts off into bonkers evolutionary psychology by page 91:

“It was still the same in early agricultural societies: the man with the most corn or cattle had the most wives or concubines. And it is still true today … the man with the most money still gets more sexual opportunities than the man with the least money”

Apparently, the liberal intelligentisa object to large tax cuts because they can no longer “flirt with the best women”. We are not making this up.

“So no wonder we dislike inequality. No wonder we want tax to take that money off a Vanderbilt before he grabs all the best women.”

Pursuing the likes of TPA director Matthew Elliott evidently doesn’t leave much time to do any work: just one of their 19 commissioners is female.

Guido Fawkes’ selective memory on dodgy Gift Aid donations

3:29pm Thu December 8th

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Is the December circuit of boozy Westminster receptions already affecting Guido’s memory? After Scrapbook exposed the reluctance of the TaxPayers’ Alliance to discuss the level of subsidy its charity arm may be receiving from the Treasury, the doyen of attack blogging emerged in the comments:

Guido: nothing wrong with Gift Aid!

Could he have forgotten his war with the Labour-linked Smith Institute, which was subject to an investigation by the Charity Commission over the appropriateness of its links with Brownites. As well as questioning “what kind of charity” the Smith Institute was, Guido repeatedly described the organisation as a “slush fund” and donations enhanced with Gift Aid as “kickbacks”:

“Who knows how much the Smith Institute gets in kickbacks from the Treasury as rebates for “charitable donations” from secret donors … Legal, but not exactly transparent or a good example of open government.”

Cognitive dissonance 2.0.

TaxPayers’ Alliance refuses to reveal “taxpayer subsidies” from charity

3:05pm Wed December 7th

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A charity funding vehicle set up by the right-wing TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA) has refused to reveal whether donations to the controversial campaign group have been enhanced by, erm, a subsidy from the tax-paying public. As their own press officers might say: “It’s outrageous that taxpayers could be expected to stump up for this”!

The Politics and Economic Research Trust (PERT) was set up by the TPA in 2006. The charity’s latest accounts reveal 100% of 18 grants totalling £325,000 were given to the Alliance for “research”. Three weeks ago, Scrapbook emailed PERT to ask them whether they had used the government’s charity Gift Aid scheme to boost donations with a top-up funded by the Treasury. We have, to this date, had no response.

Donations from the charity PERTto the TaxPayers' Alliance

Despite the close links between the Alliance and its charitable progeny (which was formerly called the TaxPayers’ Alliance Research Trust), the TPA refused to provide a telephone number in order that we could pursue the matter with PERT.

One wonders what the self-proclaimed guardians of transparency are trying to hide.

Controversial “charity” gave 100% of £325k grants to TaxPayers’ Alliance

12:03pm Mon November 14th

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A supposedly “independent” charity with close links to a string of right-wing campaigning organisations gave 100% of its funding to the TaxPayers’ Alliance, accounts filed with regulators reveal. The Politics and Economics Research Trust (PERT), purportedly founded to “advance the education of the public”, gave 18 grants worth £325,000 to the pressure group.

Despite strict controls on political campaigning conducted by charities, PERT gives the near entirety of its funding to a small clique of campaign groups in the libertarian hinterland of the Conservative Party and UKIP.

“To be a charity an organisation must be established for charitable purposes only, which are for the public benefit. An organisation will not be charitable if its purposes are political.”

But the TaxPayers’ alliance freely admit they are a politically partisan organisation. This slide from a presentation given by TPA chief Matthew Elliott characterises the organisation as part of Britain’s “conservative movement”.

The new accounts are likely to reignite controversy over whether the charity is being used to launder money into TPA coffers by leveraging preferential tax arrangements. As a registered charity, PERT would likely be eligible for thousands of pounds in Gift Aid subsidies on donations it receives from individuals.

An investigation by the Charity Commission conducted in the wake of a Guardian exposé found “no evidence” that the charity had channelled donations enhanced with Gift Aid to the TPA. But a carefully-worded statement from the campaigners did not deny that their charity had received money under the scheme.

The grim fate of Liam Fox’ Atlantic Bridge operation should provide PERT trustees pause for thought.

Government suggests scrutiny role for “independent” TaxPayers’ Alliance

11:28am Mon July 18th

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A Cabinet Office white paper, published on Friday (while no-one was looking) promises wide ranging and controversial reform of essential public services. Specifically it calls for the opening up of services to private providers, so as to tackle the “unfairnesses” of the public sector.

So what happens when the commissioning process goes awry, and the wrong provider is chosen? Who do we turn to when inevitable happens, and the profit motive gets between the taxpayer and a decent public service? Never fear, say the Cabinet Office, for the commissioning process will be scrutinised and held to account by an “independent champion”.

Section 5.25 of the document was highlighted to us by NHS blogger Richard McCarthy:

“Commissioners can be held to account for their decisions by users (whose rights of redress we are strengthening), by independent audit and inspection bodies (for example, the National Audit Office) and by independent champions (such as the TaxPayers’ Alliance).”

This suggests new definitions of the words “independent” and “champion”, of which Scrapbook had not previously been aware. Last we heard, the TaxPayers’ alliance was an openly right wing pressure group, founded by former Tory councillors, researchers and activists and devoted to dramatically cutting public services. Not only that, but it can’t promise its directors actually pay UK tax at all.

Is this some sort of joke?

TaxPayers’ Alliance claim cutting speed cameras will resurrect the dead

10:54am Fri May 20th

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As well as hitting the phones to their friends in the media, the TaxPayers’ Alliance also produce highly dubious “research” to support their right-wing agenda. As this excellent video from the Other TaxPayers’ Alliance demonstrates, however, Matthew Elliott and his libertarian chums have been caught with their pants round their ankles:

A so-called study into speed cameras available in the “Economics 101″ section of the TPA site uses “statistics” to show that banning cameras would actually reduce road deaths:

“A statistical test – the Chow test – confirmed that there is a statistically significant difference between the two periods and had the 1978 – 1990 trend continued to 2007 we would expect there to be over 1 million fewer casualties than actually occurred.”

Sounds impressive, eh? But the statistical model used by the “research” actually implies banning speed cameras would eliminate road deaths by 2013, after which the dead would rise up from the earth.

See me after class, Matthew.

TaxPayers' Alliance in "bunch of Tories" shock

9:11am Mon November 29th

10 comments

On ConservativeHome this morning Mark Wallace has a rather unimaginative pop at the (Labour) leader of his native Lambeth. As Adam Bienkov observes, ”It’s good to see the former campaign director of the Taxpayers’ Alliance is no longer hiding his party allegiance”. Naturally, Wallace’s former boss in Tufton Street cut his political teeth working for a string of Conservative MPs and was awarded the Conservative Way Forward “One of Us” award in 2007.

So the TaxPayers’ Alliance are a bunch of Tories.

In other news, a bear was seen entering a wooded area this morning.

Leaked TaxPayers' Alliance guest list is a Who's Who of the conservative right

11:06am Tue May 18th

46 comments

The document below underscores the central role of the TaxPayers’ Alliance within the Conservative/libertarian right in the UK. The pressure group not only provides tediously repetitive quotes to lazy journalists (“this is a slap in the face for taxpayers blah blah” ) but organises regular off-the-record round table discussions for its right-wing friends.

Much of the guest list for the central-London symposiums reads like a Who’s Who of British Tea Party movement types drawn from politics, business, the blogosphere and think tanks. Daniel Hannan MEP, Douglas Carswell MP, Donal Blaney, Paul Staines (aka Guido Fawkes) all feature alongside less colourful characters such as YouGov founder Stephan Shakespeare, who chairs proceedings. The apparent presence of CCHQ’s Sam Coates and the Liberal Democrats’ former head of comms Mark Littlewood may cause some small embarrassment in the blue and yellow corners while a smattering of business types (including BP’s director of government affairs) provide a Bilderberg flavour to the meetings.

At the very least, it’s an interesting snapshot of the conservative right-wing hinterland in 2010 and yet another reason why the media should qualify statements from the “Rent-a-Quote Alliance”.

Let’s see what this throws up.

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