‘Flawed analysis’, they called it. For years, we at the TaxPayers’ Alliance have been forecasting the ultimate cost of the Covid Inquiry. And on pretty much every occasion, the inquiry has completely dismissed our warnings, saying it was based on ‘hypothetical future expenditure and an imaginary end date’. They’re right in one sense. We don’t […]
Arms-length bodies, which form a major part of the quango state, directly cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of pounds a year. £353.3 billion in 2022-23, to be precise. And excluded from this are a number of organisations which undoubtedly qualify as quangos under any reasonable definition, such as the Financial Conduct Authority. For the first […]
The Institute for Government was sceptical, to say the least, in its initial response to Pat McFadden’s bonfire of the quangos. As it stated, ‘the number of bodies is the wrong measure of success’, given that it is ‘an easy metric on which the media can focus’, but which can ‘create an illusion that major […]
It can be infuriating making the case for free markets. Too much time has to be spent batting away obviously terrible, tried-and-failed ideas. Proposals for a wealth tax are just the latest iteration requiring many a wall to be bashed with many a head. Just in the last few days, a group called ‘Patriotic Millionaires’ […]
Spare a thought for the Chancellor. She’s going through a tough time. The headlines at the moment are brutal. While Number 10 has now backed her to remain as Chancellor for the rest of the parliament, the fact that the question arose in the first place was an indication of how grim things are. She’s […]
Agricultural relief, national insurance, VAT on private schools. It’s clear that tax rises, and the particularly pernicious nature of many of these tax rises, have caused the biggest rows of Labour’s first Budget back in power. That’s completely understandable. I don’t need to persuade CapX readers about why tax rises should always be one of […]
On paper, the four-day week sounds marvellous. Who wouldn’t be tempted, after all, by the prospect of working fewer hours for the same salary? Its proponents share an almost messianic zeal for the idea, which has become a totem for progressive, modern working practices. For those hoping to expand this practice to the public sector, […]
The public sector is often told to learn from what works and what doesn’t in the private sector. So when considering plans by South Cambridgeshire District Council to launch a four-day working week for staff, it’s worth asking if this is something that works for businesses. Having looked at the evidence, we at the TaxPayers’ […]
