Very nearly beyond parody: According to research by the TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA), there are currently 16,980 EU acts in force and between 1998 and 2007 there was a net gain of 9,415 EU laws. In 2007, 3,010 EU laws became UK law, while only 993 EU regulations were repealed – […]
Read MorePost Tagged with: "Bureaucracy"
The CPS on benefits, reform, big government and data
I am an Associate Member of the Centre for Policy Studies and I always enjoy reading their pamphlets: they remind me I am not alone. I caught up with the following four yesterday on the train. The theme? Putting humanity back into our society. Click the images to download the […]
Read MoreTreasury announces ‘bonfire of quangos’ to save taxpayer millions – Times Online
Via Treasury announces ‘bonfire of quangos’ to save taxpayer millions – Times Online : Liam Byrne, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, has written to Whitehall departments demanding an urgent review of all quangos to assess which can be abolished, merged with other bodies or taken back directly into their ministries. […]
Read MoreUK ‘needs emergency Budget’ – Telegraph
The Policy Exchange has advised the next government that it must be prepared to make radical and immediate cuts to spending plans or face a serious risk of a full-scale sovereign debt crisis. In a new paper, it has also shown that only a third of the impending surge in […]
Read MoreGordon Brown: Labour’s dilemma | Editorial | The Guardian
Even The Guardian has had enough of Gordon Brown: Political reform can no longer be put aside as an abstract idea, of appeal to dreamers but not to voters who face the harder realities of life. The public is calling furiously for a better system. People want an honest parliament. […]
Read MoreDavid Cameron: “It is not enough for Labour to lose this election”
David Cameron lays out the Conservatives’ radical ideas for giving people the power and responsibility to help themselves and one another: That’s what we mean by the post-bureaucratic age: the satisfying clunk-click of political philosophy matching contemporary reality to produce a genuinely historic shift in how we organise our affairs. […]
Read MoreFor your ease and convenience: car tax
Apparently, the ease and convenience of the online car tax system means that DVLA in 2007 took 25% more online every day than that retail leviathan, Tesco. Apparently: In July 2007, our Electronic Vehicle Licensing (EVL) service was awarded the Orange Best Use of Technology in Business Award (Wales & […]
Read MoreNewspeak 2009
The Centre for Policy Studies has released The 2009 Lexicon, A guide to contemporary Newspeak. Some random examples: Dialogue (meaningful): the pretence of genuine two-way conversation. Equality: sameness. Absence of diversity. Joined-up government: excuse for cross-departmental initiatives which will centralise and increase government intrusion into everyday life. Radical (of reform): […]
Read More“The Plan: Twelve Months to Renew Britain”
After first reporting on the book here, I have finally returned to read it in detail; it is Cromwellian: ‘I find the country bleeding, nay, almost dying,’ Oliver Cromwell told MPs in 1644. what made him angry was not simply that people were suffering, but that Parliament was part of […]
Read MoreLabour’s Class Law
An end to equality before the law? Every public body will have to take class background into account when making decisions under radical new legislation unveiled by the Government today. The law means that all public authorities – from Whitehall to local councils – will be subject to an over-arching […]
Read More
