THE TAXPAYERS ALLIANCE





I pay tax. When I was employed full time I paid a considerable amount in tax. Even if you do not pay income tax you are liable to pay VAT on certain goods. To a greater or lesser extent we are all taxpayers. So what could make more sense than a group of concerned citizens banding together to keep watch, applying pressure to ensure that our taxes are not frittered away. Seeking to ensure for example that cash set aside for the health service goes on patient care not self serving bureaucracies or that our elected representatives do not indulge in extravagant living at our expense. You might think that The Taxpayers Alliance is just such a group. You would be wrong.

The TPA has now become the default mouthpiece used by the BBC whenever issues of tax and spending are under discussion. However it is not all as it seems.

‘The same group that speaks out against government waste on Newsnight and in the pages of newspapers also runs a campaign against radicalising schoolbooks published by the Palestinian Authority and has formed an alliance with a Slovakian rightwing group’[1]

The TPA's proposals have included scrapping the secondary school building programme, child benefit and Sure Start centres for the youngest children. Its spokespeople, all with the air of outraged taxpayers come on programmes like Newsnight to propound a right wing ideology that has at its heart a a desire to see draconian reduction in the provision of services provided by the state such as libraries and community centres.
However as the Guardian points out;

‘The range of its work reflects how influential the group has become in a relatively short space of time, but also raises questions over how it manages to pay for what has become a £1m a year operation. The alliance refuses to publish details of its income or its benefactors.[2]


I think one might reasonably conclude that this lack of transparency from the TPA somewhat undermines their credibility as a campaign group calling for greater tax transparency. Some conclusions, however, can be drawn from what is known about their funding sources.[3] Firstly this is not a group of concerned taxpayers merely lobbying for value for money, nor is it free from party affiliations, being strongly linked as it is with the right wing of the Tory party, but is funded by and represents very wealthy people. In short it is a front to promote the extremely selfish interests of a small coterie, as well as what might reasonably be called the interests of multi-national corporate capitalism.[4]
Along with the right wing ideologues of the Institute of Economic Affairs[5] the TPA is now rarely off our screens or airwaves peddling their particular brand of right wing snake oil, with varying degrees of subtlety. Given my commitment to free speech I would fight for their right to have air time, (though this should surely be more proportionate). However if the BBC is to spend taxpayers money in providing them with air time and hospitality it surely incumbent upon the BBC to clarify precisely who it is they are talking too and whose interests they are representing.



[3] http://www.spinwatch.org/-articles-by-category-mainmenu-8/48-lobbying/5503-a-closer-look-at-the-taxpayers-alliance-
[4] One source of its UK financial support is McAlpine, he of the Crossrail Blacklist fame. See my December post on this issue.
[5] For information on the background and funding of the IEA see http://thinktank-watch.blogspot.co.uk/2007/12/sir-anthony-fisher.html



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