MPs in the South-West have joined the growing wave of anger against the government’s proposed tax on static caravans. Cornish MPs Dan Rogerson and Andrew George have both signed a parliamentary petition against the VAT hike, seeing it as a tax on holiday park caravans—a key part of the West Country’s tourist industry.

So far, the cross-party petition has been signed by 49 MPs, many of them coming from the north of England where the tax increase will effect the manufacturing of caravans, but now MPs see a direct impact on tourism too. ‘It’s clear that the industry is very concerned about the impact this change will have on jobs,’ says Rogerson, North Cornwall’s MP. Continue Reading

After weeks of heavy rain, the sun shone in Nottingham at the weekend where TPA activists were collecting more signatures for our petition calling on the city council to publish online spending above £500. Perhaps it was an omen, as the disinfectant of light certainly needs to shine through the corridors of power. Recently, Jeannie Packer, a former Lord Mayor resigned from the ruling group. This is part of what she had to say:

I believe the council is poorer for the way it is governed. More needs to be done to make the council more democratic and accountable. The council lacks transparency and proper scrutiny. I find Nottingham City Council to be a secretive council…

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Southampton City Council, in common with many others around the country, changed political colours last week. Shortly after the empty ballot boxes were locked away, a report in the Southern Daily Echo entitled ‘What now for the red city?’ contained a quote from Cllr Richard Williams, the new leader of the council:

I want to empower all the portfolio holders to work in their area- I want it to be decentralised. That team could include more Cabinet members drawing the additional £11,000 allowance than the previous six Conservatives. There could be a different-sized Cabinet.

With all the problems Southampton faces, it seems rather strange that one of  Cllr Williams’ first announcements after becoming council leader was to propose more full-time politicians! Continue Reading

Public sector workers are out on strike again today but in much smaller numbers. The unions taking part today are the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), the largest civil service trade union; Unite, representing NHS workers, Ministry of Defence firefighters and others; the University and College Union; the Immigration Services Union; Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union members in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, and the Northern Ireland Public Services Alliance.

While the unions portray the changes to their generous retirement packages as “attacks” on their pay and pensions, the reforms they oppose are both moderate and necessary. Despite a £4.5 billion black hole in public sector pensions, firebrands like Len McCluskey and Mark Serwortka appear more interested in confrontation than negotiation.

They have wilfully misled their members by pretending that reform is not overwhelmingly necessary and will yet again repeat a number of pension myths in a vain attempt to justify strike action that is out of touch with both the realities of generous public sector pay deals and the pressures faced by ordinary taxpayers. When we last saw strike action in November 2011, our Research Director John O’Connell dissected the pension myths here.

The latest Office for National Statistics data shows that the difference in average hourly earnings between employees in the public and private sectors rose to 8.2 per cent in 2011. Despite the union spin to the contrary this INCLUDES accounting for gender; age; occupation; the region that the job is located in; and factoring in qualifications.

What that 8.2 per cent doesn’t include are the generous pension deals that the unions are doing their utmost to ensure remain untouched. Our online pension slider makes clear just how much those pension deals are worth:

Taxpayers are being asked to tighten their own belts, so it is only fair that those who will enjoy these generous retirement packages are asked make a contribution more reflective of the benefits they will enjoy in later years. In their current form public sector pensions are neither fair to taxpayers nor sustainable in the long run.

And don’t forget, while ordinary taxpayers struggle with the fallout from these disruptive strikes those same taxpayers are funding the unions to the tune of well over £113 million.

Public sector workers need to stop the union militants and accept moderate and necessary reforms. Otherwise all taxpayers, including them, will be left paying for it for generations to come.

Cornwall Council’s recycling collection incompetence, reported recently here, continues to cause distress to local taxpayers. Not only are residents being baffled by a complex array of colour coded bags and boxes, which change from area to area, but the contracted refuse collectors are not even removing the recycled rubbish on time—some left uncollected for over a month.

The situation has reached such a state that South East Cornwall’s MP has had to intervene after photographs in the local newspaper showed the streets of the pretty fishing port of Looe strewn with garbage. Continue Reading