The blog

• “Bright ideas to cut budget from the British Public”
  24 Aug 2010: Hilarious Taiwanese animation satiricising Spending Challenge (2 comments)
• Spending Challenge: back with a whimper
  19 Aug 2010: George Osborne's much-derided Spending Challenge website is back for more (5 comments)
• Gove’s legacy: scrapped playgrounds
  12 Aug 2010: Sorry kids, that Big Society we were telling you about just got a little smaller (3 comments)
• How soaring inequality fuelled the crash
  11 Aug 2010: Inequality is a cause, as well as an effect, of the crash. Guest post by Stewart Lansley (5 comments)
• Gove fails to respond to our Freedom of Information requests
  6 Aug 2010: By law the DfE should have replied by 5 August 2010. But it's not just us who have been kept waiting... (5 comments)
• Red Pepper: Countering the cuts myths
  5 Aug 2010: The new issue of Red Pepper magazine includes an essential guide to debunking the myths used to push public service cuts. (5 comments)
• Goat embarrasses government
  23 Jul 2010: After the government's Spending Challenge descended into farce, we thought: a goat could do better than that. In fact a goat has done better than that. (4 comments)
• “Hedge fund manager” – and other non-jobs
  22 Jul 2010: What are your suggestions for private sector non-jobs? (27 comments)
• New Schools Network: questions for Michael Gove
  21 Jul 2010: Gove needs to explain why he gave £500,000 to his friends in the New Schools Network, while everyone else suffers cuts. (11 comments)
• The elephant in the macroeconomy
  16 Jul 2010: The lack of an industrial policy is the elephant in the room right now, says Richard Murphy. Our choice is between paying for unemployment or paying for a Green New Deal. (11 comments)
• “I hate buses… the symbol of a socialist society where people rely on the state for transport”
  16 Jul 2010: Unabridged: The wisdom of Peter Roberts, the man behind the TPA's astroturf partners, the Drivers' Alliance (26 comments)
• Mitchell and Webb: Tell us what you reckon
  15 Jul 2010: David Mitchell and Robert Webb outline the thinking that inspired the government's Spending Challenge website. (4 comments)
• Spending Challenge: race hate meets comedy gold
  13 Jul 2010: For the most part the contributors to the Spending Challenge website give the impression that they have moved there directly from the Daily Express comments board (10 comments)
• “One hand on the wallet, one foot on the accelerator”
  10 Jul 2010: RoadPeace has blasted the TPA's latest anti-speed camera report, calling it "inappropriate", "biased" and "botched" (1 comment)
• Alan Budd on the Tories’ real motives
  7 Jul 2010: Sir Alan Budd's resignation from Osborne's Bureau for Rebuttal is the perfect moment to remind ourselves of his astonishing – but correct – analysis of Tory policy in the 80s. (3 comments)
• TPA spin transforms Dutch iPhone “innovation” into British “waste”
  6 Jul 2010: TaxPayers' Allliance comes unstuck promoting taxpayer-funded iPhone app in Netherlands, while attacking the same thing in Britain (Post a comment)
• Top pay restraint starts at home - but must include the private sector
  2 Jul 2010: One Society has issued an excellent response to reports of high wages earned by quango and union chiefs (Post a comment)
• 10 essential responses to a dismal Budget
  24 Jun 2010: We were going to write our own Budget summary. But then we became too depressed. Fortunately, the blogosphere did the hard work instead... (2 comments)
• Lowest-paid public servants denied Osborne’s £250 rise
  24 Jun 2010: Forget public sector "fat cats". 100,000 local government workers earn just £6.30 an hour - and are being denied Osborne's measly rise (Post a comment)
• Other TaxPayers’ Alliance website to relaunch
  23 Jun 2010: After a long and very poorly timed break, the Other TaxPayers' Alliance is back in action (6 comments)
• Here are three ways to respond to Tory cuts
  23 Jun 2010: The unpalatable truth is that while the left have been talking about not letting a crisis go to waste, the right have been getting on and doing it. (1 comment)
• Taking a break
  20 Apr 2010: Apologies for the lack of updates... (3 comments)
• Defending Sure Start against right-wing attacks
  19 Mar 2010: Shamik Das of Left Foot Forward rebuts Daily Mail and TPA claims that Sure Start has "failed" and "frittered away money" (3 comments)
• TPA to live rent-free among right-wing friends
  2 Mar 2010: TPA's new home will allow it "to develop cutting-edge campaign techniques in the coming year, including web broadcasting". You have been warned. (5 comments)
• Mutuals: Opportunities but also dangers for the left
  15 Feb 2010: Labour's love affair with John Lewis could end in heartbreak (6 comments)
• A race to the bottom in local government
  15 Feb 2010: Heather Wakefield warns of the cost of the cult of council tax cuts (Post a comment)
• The Robin Hood Tax
  10 Feb 2010: The Robin Hood Tax – turning a crisis for the banks into an opportunity for the world (2 comments)
• Europe: Privatised services back in public hands
  4 Feb 2010: Regions across Europe are buying back the utilities they sold to private investors in the late 1980s and early 1990s (3 comments)
• We can’t go on like this. Cut the deficit obsession, not the deficit.
  28 Jan 2010: The deficit debate needs to be reframed. We must resist the idea that cuts are necessary. (4 comments)
• The perfect pay storm
  27 Jan 2010: More than 1.5 million local government workers face a pay cut from 1 April this year. Everyone from the cleaner to the chief executive will suffer – though clearly not equally. (2 comments)
• Exposed: Secret Tory plans for massive privatisation
  16 Jan 2010: Lancashire County Council plots giant sell-off behind closed doors (15 comments)
• What a “no-frills” council looks like
  8 Jan 2010: Brilliant image from Unison (5 comments)
• TaxPayers’ Alliance: Give It Back
  21 Dec 2009: The TaxPayers' Alliance should give back the thousands of pounds it has claimed in tax relief (3 comments)
• Right-wing think-tank demolishes public spending myth
  8 Dec 2009: We should be grateful to Reform for demolishing the myth that we can combine deep public spending cuts with protection for front-line services (30 comments)
• Massaging the figures: the Public Sector Rich List
  4 Dec 2009: Some public sector executives are paid too much, but the TPA is using its Rich List to undermine the public sector in general (Post a comment)
• PR for the rich
  1 Dec 2009: Clifford Singer investigates the TPA for Red Pepper magazine (2 comments)
• Our submissions to Power2010
  30 Nov 2009: Two suggestions for improving democratic accountability (Post a comment)
• Happy birthday to us!
  26 Nov 2009: Today is our first anniversary. Many thanks to all of you who have visited, sent tips, left comments and blogged about us. (3 comments)
• Privatised rail: industry vs passengers
  23 Nov 2009: The success of the recently nationalised east coast rail service is reviving interest in an integrated network (10 comments)
• Anti-EU ad leaves the facts behind
  20 Nov 2009: Next time you go to the cinema be prepared for nauseating stereotypes and cringeworthy humour... (1 comment)
• Which TaxPayers’ Alliance should you join?
  19 Nov 2009: As the market for TaxPayers’ Alliances hots up, we ask which is the best alliance for you and your family? (16 comments)
• TPA: Experts on child abuse, sentencing, plumbing…
  18 Nov 2009: The Sun's Guy Patrick could have gone to Barnardo's, NSPCC or Kidscape for a quote. But he thought: "Sod it – I'll call the TaxPayers' Alliance" (2 comments)
• BBC admits errors in TaxPayers’ Alliance reporting
  6 Nov 2009: We asked who would be the first journalist to quote the TPA and its "partners" – the Drivers' Alliance and Big Brother Watch – in the same story? The BBC scored two out of three. (Post a comment)
• VAT: The Tories’ favourite tax
  22 Oct 2009: VAT is regressive and hits the poorest hardest. Governments should find other ways of raising revenue. (8 comments)
• Dirty politics: Michael Ashcroft and the TPA’s millionaire funders
  10 Oct 2009: The TPA denies Tory deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft is a donor. But his links to the TPA's millionaire backers – the Midlands Industrial Council – are no secret (Post a comment)
• TPA funding - we’re closing in
  9 Oct 2009: STOP PRESS: Tomorrow's Guardian includes some important revelations about the TaxPayers' Alliance's funders. (7 comments)
• Why councils must ban the Daily Mail
  24 Sep 2009: Councils are (possibly) allowing staff to visit the Daily Mail website at taxpayers' expense. It's (probably) a disgrace and must stop now. (8 comments)
• Through the looking glass
  21 Sep 2009: What would the TPA look like if it turned its guns from the public to the private sector? (6 comments)
• The millionaires’ club
  17 Sep 2009: The TaxPayers' Alliance yesterday published its annual review. But it forgot to include the bit about income and expenditure. (4 comments)
• The Astroturf Alliance: taxpayers, citizens, drivers
  15 Sep 2009: TaxPayers' Alliance, Big Brother Watch, Drivers' Alliance - we're losing count... (3 comments)
• Some citizens are more equal than others
  15 Sep 2009: Several commentators have welcomed the TPA's new civil liberties campaign. Here's one reason to be cynical (1 comment)
• Pensions: we must halt this race to the bottom
  9 Sep 2009: The TUC has provided a welcome defence of that ugly duckling of causes, public sector pensions (Post a comment)
• Watching Big Brother Watch
  6 Sep 2009: Next month, the TPA launches a new civil liberties campaign, Big Brother Watch. Its choice of staff doesn't bode well. (Post a comment)
• Media guidelines: Reporting the TaxPayers’ Alliance
  27 Aug 2009: Our latest essential tool for journalists tackling tax and public spending (5 comments)
• Matthew Elliott: disgraceful and outrageous
  27 Aug 2009: In his own words: TPA chief executive Matthew Elliott (2 comments)
• Keeping tabs on the tabs
  27 Aug 2009: Tabloid Watch has come up with a league table showing how many times the TPA was quoted in the national press over a two-week period (1 comment)
• The man with the inverse midas touch
  18 Aug 2009: The TPA is again plugging the views of Dan Mitchell of the Centre for Freedom and Prosperity, the man with the inverse midas touch. (Post a comment)
• TaxPayers’ Alliance holiday reading
  9 Aug 2009: Bloggers and sloggers take on the TPA (Post a comment)
• In praise of merit, talent – and a juicy inheritance
  28 Jul 2009: The TPA's latest report stands up for buccaneering entrepreneurs. Just don't mention silver spoons or huge inheritances. (10 comments)
• Top 10 blogs
  27 Jul 2009: Essential reading for economic progressives (and obsessives). (5 comments)
• Ill communication
  21 Jul 2009: The left has lost its voice. We must find new ways to take our message beyond the converted. (Post a comment)
• Those union wreckers
  21 Jul 2009: Imagine if the economic crisis had been caused by trade unions... (1 comment)
• Unlikely story proves most unlikely
  10 Jul 2009: "More evidence has emerged today of the popularity of cuts in the level of public spending, from the most unlikely source: Harriet Harman," claims the TPA. (Post a comment)
• John Denham: helping or hindering the cause of equality?
  6 Jul 2009: The communities secretary set alarm bells ringing when he rejected the "1960s version of egalitarianism" and called for "a more nuanced view of fairness and equality". (2 comments)
• Bankers and Tories: cashing in on anti-politics
  3 Jul 2009: A leaked memo gives an insight into how the Conservative right hope to "ride the wave of anti-politics". (1 comment)
• Your right to know
  3 Jul 2009: Heather Brooke is a brilliant freedom of information campaigner. But should she have teamed up with the TaxPayers' Alliance? (1 comment)
• Stupid quote of the month: July
  3 Jul 2009: Muslim "criminals", "law-abiding" tax-payers – it can only end in tears. (2 comments)
• Clever quote of the month: June
  3 Jul 2009: Public sector pensions – and why Vince Cable isn't God. (Post a comment)
• Is there nothing we can agree upon with the TPA?
  3 Jul 2009: Actually, there is something… (Post a comment)
• TPA publishes blacked-out accounts
  18 Jun 2009: Last month, the TPA filed its latest accounts. For the second year running, income and expenditure were withheld. What have they got to hide? (Post a comment)
• Bring back Simon Caulkin
  16 Jun 2009: Observer management editor Simon Caulkin's column has been extraordinarily perceptive. But just when we need it most, it's been scrapped. (1 comment)
• Paris Hilton: Britain’s best performing MEP
  4 Jun 2009: Is the TPA's latest report, "Could Do Better? Grading the Performance of British MEPs", its worst ever? Probably not - but it is breathtakingly stupid (4 comments)
• The Newcastle Consensus
  29 May 2009: Public services can drive innovation, efficiency and democracy without surrendering to the private sector - and Newcastle offers a blueprint (1 comment)
• An inconvenient whistleblower
  20 May 2009: When a teacher revealed how £1m of taxpayers' money had been paid in bonuses to senior managers at his school, the TPA stayed uncharacteristically silent (1 comment)
• Transparency: the TaxPayers’ Alliance must practise what it preaches
  19 May 2009: Why won't the TPA tell us who funds it? And how much has it received from the pro-Tory millionaire businessmen behind the secretive Midlands Industrial Council? (5 comments)
• Labour’s shame
  12 May 2009: The scandal of MPs' expenses isn't the only shocking story to engulf Labour in recent days (1 comment)
• Your views sought
  12 May 2009: Now that the TaxPayers' Alliance is apparently writing Conservative party policy, and public sector cuts loom whoever is in power, what should be our priority? (9 comments)
• The TPA brand detoxified
  2 Apr 2009: This is getting confusing. When we launched the Other TaxPayers' Alliance we thought we were up against just one TaxPayers' Alliance. Now we realise there were two (Post a comment)
• One of Them: The TPA and the Conservative Party
  19 Mar 2009: Whisper it: We know they're right-wing. They know they're right-wing. But the TPA still likes to huff and puff if anyone says it too loudly (2 comments)
• Pensions: gold plated vs tin foil
  6 Mar 2009: What does Sir Fred Goodwin's "gold-plated" pension (£700,000 a year) have in common with the average local government worker's "gold-plated" pension (£3,800 a year)? (Post a comment)
• Minister for a day
  24 Feb 2009: Whitehall & Westminster World asked Clifford Singer of the Other TaxPayers' Alliance to become business secretary for a day (Post a comment)
• Parenthood: a fringe interest
  20 Feb 2009: "It's a fringe interest programme and we'd like to know how much it's going to cost." That's the TPA criticising plans to improve antenatal programmes (Post a comment)
• Happy children, pharmaceuticals, tax havens and football
  6 Feb 2009: "It tells you everything that you need to know that they think youth centres, higher child benefit and better mental health services will increase children's misery" (Post a comment)
• TPA bullies score own goal against youth worker
  5 Feb 2009: I find the spectre of being shouted at by Derek Draper less menacing than the TPA's own sneering condenscension towards anyone involved in providing public services (Post a comment)
• Two simple words: “right-wing”
  13 Jan 2009: Full marks to the Shoreham Herald for its reference to the TPA in this sympathetic piece (Post a comment)
• Let’s have a heated debate
  22 Dec 2008: Have a Merry Christmas - assuming your killjoy local council hasn't banned it (Post a comment)
• Radio clash, public relations and pensions envy
  15 Dec 2008: We had to – as usual – rely on the blogosphere for any critical analysis (Post a comment)
• TaxPayers’ Alliance challenged on LBC radio
  14 Dec 2008: Here's a rare thing: the TaxPayers' Alliance being challenged in the media over its claims to be independent (Post a comment)
• Challenge the anti-tax lobby
  2 Dec 2008: Just when we were getting excited by New Mandelson – saving the Post Office and swapping boardroom for ballroom – Old Mandelson returned (Post a comment)
• TPA choke on higher tax band
  28 Nov 2008: You would think, with the global economic situation, that the Alliance would stop repeating the same mantra of the last 30 years (11 comments)