Abolishing NHS England was a good start – now tackle the rest of the quangos March 19, 2025 The abolition of NHS England sets a welcome precedent, but unless we get rid of the laws and regulations that spawned these quangos in the first place, nothing will change, says John O’Connell Nothing ever changes. How many times have you heard that phrase when talking about the state of the nation with friends and [...]
Why wealth taxes always fail October 29, 2024 Almost every country that has tried imposing wealth taxes has later abolished them, with good reason says John O’Connell Rachel Reeves’ problem tomorrow is a simple one to describe, if not a simple one to solve. How does she raise the revenue needed to fund the spending binges of her colleagues, without raising taxes on [...]
The real ‘black hole’ in the public finances is the debt July 31, 2024 The Chancellor is right, the public deserve to know just how bad the economy is – so she should be honest about the millions of pounds a day that are added to the national debt, says John O’Connell Reeves’ tone was one of righteous fury on Monday as she bellowed at the opposite benches for [...]
The Notebook: John O’Connell on corporation tax, rail subsidies, and dangerous books February 21, 2023 The Notebook is where interesting people say interesting things. Today, it’s John O’Connell, the chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, who riffs on corporation tax, 4.99 per cent council tax hikes and the books that have a little more spice than they used to The economy is doing slightly better than expected. Which, to be [...]
The Notebook: Reforming the NHS, how the world got rich, and tax breaks for the over-50s January 16, 2023 The notebook is a place for interesting people to say interesting things. Today, it’s the turn of John O’Connell, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance Reforming the NHS no longer so unsayable? As the NHS endures its annual winter crisis – before it moves into its inevitable summer crisis – thousands of doctors are reportedly [...]
DEBATE: With Alistair Darling standing down from the House of Lords, is it time to consider term limits for peers? July 31, 2020 With Alistair Darling standing down from the House of Lords, is it time to consider term limits for peers? John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, says YES. The House of Lords needs to be reformed. It is too big, too opaque, and too expensive. With Alistair Darling deciding to stand down from the [...]
The chancellor should deliver tax cuts, not more spending October 1, 2019 Sajid Javid used his major conference speech yesterday to announce a raft of new spending pledges. The chancellor’s focus was infrastructure and rural areas, with money promised for bus networks, roads, and the rollout of 5G. This sits alongside the strapline of this year’s Conservative party conference itself, which focuses on spending more on the [...]
Forget glitzy vanity projects like HS2, here’s what we could do instead August 28, 2019 Until recently, Crossrail was cited as an example of that miraculous phenomenon: a government infrastructure project running on time and on budget. We now know that Crossrail has run off track; it is £3bn over its 2010 budget, and will open more than two years late. The much maligned HS2 project came with none of [...]
The NHS needs reform and automation, not a politically motivated bidding war June 19, 2018 It was the worst kept secret in Westminster, but we finally heard over the weekend that the NHS will receive a funding boost of around £20bn a year. As with public sector pay increases, the Conservatives perhaps feel that they have to loosen the purse strings a little, given the scare they got at the [...]
Philip Hammond’s self-employment tax hike marred a refreshingly mundane Budget March 9, 2017 It took just a couple of hours for the chancellor’s Budget to come under heavy fire. He set out changes to Class Four National Insurance contributions, increasing them from 9 per cent to 11 per cent over a couple of years. This breaks a Conservative manifesto pledge ruling out VAT, income tax and NI increases, his [...]
