Comments on: Taxpayer’s Alliance: It’s a Conservative Party front organisation with a director who doesn’t pay tax in Britain

By: Liberanos

Liberanos — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:03:10 +0000

The Tax Payers’ Alliance is an oppositional organisation.

It will need to find a reason to attack Tory tax policy once they are in power.

Shouldn’t be difficult.

By: Karl

Karl — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 21:40:48 +0000

I used to work at the Telegraph, and there were days when it would quite happily, and unashamedly, run three TPA stories on the front page alone. Ain’t journalism great?

By: Julian H

Julian H — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:22:02 +0000

Hopefully we’ll see after the next election (assuming a Dave win) that the TPA will remain equally zealous in their exposure of misused government funds.

I should say, also, that I once attended a TPA fundraiser, and Matthew Elliot was quite blunt when addressing the room, clearly stating that the TPA do *not* support or even favour any political parties.

By: ForFreeMarkets

ForFreeMarkets — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:59:06 +0000

But don’t all think tanks have an agenda of sorts that aligns them with one of more of the political parties? The point of a think tank is to present their own point of view on certain issues and to make people think and debate – for or against – those issues. Furthermore, by discussing the TPA both positively and negatively online all of you are contributing to marketing them and their cause. The TPA are one of the most talked about think tanks in the UK for this very reason. The people who I know at the TPA are free market leaning and often disagree with all political parties. They will, no doubt, be as critical of the Tories as they are of Labour when the Tories come into power next year.

By: PoliticalHackUK

PoliticalHackUK — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:56:48 +0000

Can I suggest that you join Prezza’s campaign to have the BBC add the suffix ‘an organisation with close links to the Conservative Party’ to any references to the TPA?

They are not independent, as so many of their senior members also have very close links to the Conservative Party – a number in the West Midlands have identified links to the Midlands Industrial Council, which directly funded the Party.

They have traded for years as some sort of independent think-tank, when they are neither independent, nor a reservoir of thought.

By: JackP

JackP — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:47:03 +0000

Aha! If you’re unhappy with the TaxPayer’s Alliance, you should consider lending your backing to the TaxPayers’ Rebel Alliance…which I will be unveiling on the blog tomorrow!

By: Quietzapple

Quietzapple — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 10:47:41 +0000

Don’t we all wish they could be prosecuted? Or those who quoted them as though they bore the Holy Grail from on high could be forced to publish details of their shameful nature when they quote them?

But as the billionaire “press” and the following media keep schtumn re the tax affairs of their masters and publish quite inadequate corrections of their frequent lies only when the courts insist after a successful libel action I shall not disturb my normal pattern of breathing.

The next Labour Government should sort these, tax haven closures would help.

If “newspapers” are VAT free while propaganda is not then a case might be brought . . . . .

By: Quietzapple

Quietzapple — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 10:42:45 +0000

By: Mathew Cain

Mathew Cain — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:06:53 +0000

I think the real scandal of the Taxpayers Alliance is the amount of unquestioning media coverage they receive. More than one article per day in the Daily Mail last year: http://blog.matthewcain.co.uk/taxpayers-alliance-a-case-stud-of-poor-journalism/

By: Perry de Havilland

Perry de Havilland — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 10:50:18 +0000

No, it is actually it is a libertarian front organisation that appeals to the 10% of vaguely libertarian folks who make up the Tory Party, the 10% of vaguely libertarian folks who make up the LibDems and the 1% of vaguely libertarian folks who make up the Labour Party. If only you knew what the TPA folks *really* thought of the Tories… I’d tell you but then I like them more than I like you