Taxing conditions? (From York Press)

fraser/gunnell/merri
et, Clearly this sham organisation is merely a motley bunch of fairweather campaigners.

Is this the same Coun Fraser who resigned his cabinet position when the going got rough ?

Fairweather politician, who fell out with his motley Labour comrades, distancing himself from the controversial (dodgy) decisions and hidden travel expenses debacle.

He attempts to discredit this laudable organisation to distract attention away from the shambolic mismanagement of York Council by his own tin pot outfit.

Get your own house in order councillor, and criticise those who are milking York tax-payers money, not an organisation that wants to see the money better spent !

really have to laugh at this idiotic letter from a sham labour party member..

all along the sham met office and the ex sham nanny state were giving out warnings left right and centre not to travel when bad weather is predicted during their pathetic 13 sham year term, days before this protest was to happen, the met office warned of severe weather conditions in north yorks and york was included, so the tax payers alliance called it off , wether this was right or wrong thats up to you to decide,i myself would sack the met office , how many times can this sham organisation carry on getting the weather wrong? as for the sham labour organistion , how long will suckers fall for their line?

know this sandy 'sham the man' fraser.... i wont be voting labour next elections!! you and your sham party have lost my vote

very childish response from somebody i would expect to be educated!

First of all i have read your previous letter regarding the TPA and just to point out that anybody can join of any political persausion, and it can be a free membership or you can fund thru donations, i would expect an educated man to probably go on the TPA website and do a bit of homework.

I myself have been a life long Labour supporter up until 1979/2005, i didn't vote in the previous election, i find myself unable to vote for the Labour party anymore because the party is just a bunch of phoney's causing untold damage to this once pleasant city and country. I am also a fully paid up unite union member, and i work in engineering on the railways,my reason for signing up to the TPA is i'm sick of the council (this one and the previous one's) , putting up my bill and delevering less services year on end!

You will find that more and more citizen's of different political persausion's are taking an interest and signing up all the time.

As for the protest getting called off, the met office warned of severe bad weather for that friday , so rightly the TPA called it off, some of the campaigners would have been travelling in their cars on the motorways to get to York.

I think your main anger at the TPA is because they are onto people like you.

Scarlet Pimpernel wrote:
Is this the same Coun Fraser who resigned his cabinet position when the going got rough ?

Fairweather politician, who fell out with his motley Labour comrades, distancing himself from the controversial (dodgy) decisions and hidden travel expenses debacle.

He attempts to discredit this laudable organisation to distract attention away from the shambolic mismanagement of York Council by his own tin pot outfit.

Get your own house in order councillor, and criticise those who are milking York tax-payers money, not an organisation that wants to see the money better spent !

The TaxPayers' Alliance was set up as a limited company in 2003 by Matthew Elliott, a 25-year-old political researcher for Conservative MEP Timothy Kirkhope. Interestingly its non executive director director Andrew Heath does not pay any UK tax at all !

Furthermore, the bulk of the TPA's funding comes from 'wealthy donors, many of whom are prominent supporters of the Conservative party'. Sixty per cent of the donations come from individuals or groups giving more than £5,000. The Midlands Industrial Council, which has donated £1.5m to the Conservatives since 2003, said it has given around £80,000 on behalf of 32 owners of private companies. Tony Gallagher, owner of Gallagher UK, a property company that gave the Conservatives £250,000 in 2007, is a member of the MIC, as is Christopher Kelly who owns the international haulage firm Keltruck, and Robert Edmiston who owns IM Group, a large car importer.

The TPA publishes abbreviated accounts which means income and expenditure are withheld. The last time it published full accounts was in 2006, when it recorded an income of £130,000. But the current organisation has ten full-time staff across two offices.

The TPA has every right to call for transparency when it comes to the use of public money, but equally the public including local councillor, have every right to challenge the lack of TPA's financial transparency and its obvious political bias!

What does it matter if it has a biased political support ?

If it exposes wasteful, beaurocratic mismanagement by councils or government, it's doing a worthwhile job !

perplexed wrote:

Scarlet Pimpernel wrote:
Is this the same Coun Fraser who resigned his cabinet position when the going got rough ?

Fairweather politician, who fell out with his motley Labour comrades, distancing himself from the controversial (dodgy) decisions and hidden travel expenses debacle.

He attempts to discredit this laudable organisation to distract attention away from the shambolic mismanagement of York Council by his own tin pot outfit.

Get your own house in order councillor, and criticise those who are milking York tax-payers money, not an organisation that wants to see the money better spent !

The TaxPayers' Alliance was set up as a limited company in 2003 by Matthew Elliott, a 25-year-old political researcher for Conservative MEP Timothy Kirkhope. Interestingly its non executive director director Andrew Heath does not pay any UK tax at all !

Furthermore, the bulk of the TPA's funding comes from 'wealthy donors, many of whom are prominent supporters of the Conservative party'. Sixty per cent of the donations come from individuals or groups giving more than £5,000. The Midlands Industrial Council, which has donated £1.5m to the Conservatives since 2003, said it has given around £80,000 on behalf of 32 owners of private companies. Tony Gallagher, owner of Gallagher UK, a property company that gave the Conservatives £250,000 in 2007, is a member of the MIC, as is Christopher Kelly who owns the international haulage firm Keltruck, and Robert Edmiston who owns IM Group, a large car importer.

The TPA publishes abbreviated accounts which means income and expenditure are withheld. The last time it published full accounts was in 2006, when it recorded an income of £130,000. But the current organisation has ten full-time staff across two offices.

The TPA has every right to call for transparency when it comes to the use of public money, but equally the public including local councillor, have every right to challenge the lack of TPA's financial transparency and its obvious political bias!

Regarding Andrew Heath, is that because he's a retired teacher? And previous to that had he not lived and worked and paid tax in France ? That's a bit of a non story

Scarlet Pimpernel wrote:
What does it matter if it has a biased political support ?

If it exposes wasteful, beaurocratic mismanagement by councils or government, it's doing a worthwhile job !

As I say the TPA has every right to challenge public spending . However, surely it would be more transparent to the electorate to acknowledge that it was created by right-wing, libertarian Conservative anti-state and anti-tax voices as an anti-spending political campaign. What is so absurd is the claim to speak for and to represent the interests of all taxpayers.

If it is truly independent would it not be better to put up candidates on this platform at the next election and, if enough people agreed with them then run the country? Except of course that it is not an elected party but a politically backed limited company.

Furthermore if as stated above the purpose of this limited company is to expose waste and mismanagement, why not come clean about the Charity Commissioners tax investigation into its charitable arm? Furthermore while it may be a small point, whatever the party or 'limited company', I would like to think that those who hold tax spenders rightly to account, themselves contribute to the exchequer of that country! I am sure you will agree it is an ethical observation which should apply to all parties irrespective of who they are!