The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Local Government – which has Tory representation – has called for massive tax-raising powers to be handed to local authorities. Nicely timed with devo-mad Burnham’s entry to No10…
The newly published proposals:
There is a striking proposal to let all authorities raise taxes by however much they want:
“One example is removing the referendum principles, which place a ceiling on the percentage of council tax local authorities can raise… Ministers could restore this autonomy simply by choosing not to issue referendum principles for 2027-28, restoring the position before the Localism Act was introduced…if councils facing acute financial pressures can be trusted to set higher council tax rates – some because of their own poor leadership – why can’t all local authorities do so?”
The APPG is made up of two Labour MPs, a LibDem, and even Tory MP Simon Hoare. Everyone is scampering to offer Andy Burnham ideas on how to make the tax burden even worse for Brits…
Statement by Paul Dacre, Editor-in-Chief of Associated Newspapers Limited, following Harry’s loss in court today:
“Prince Harry wrote a sad book which boasted about his killing of 25 Taliban, his drug-taking and, in cringe-making detail, how he lost his virginity. There isn’t a laundry in the cosmos big enough to wash all the dirty linen he has aired about his own family. For him, to complain about HIS privacy being invaded takes, not just the biscuit, but the whole tin. Poor Harry. I feel sorry for the way a confused and angry young man has been drawn into this case. The bitter irony is that his mother, Diana, liked the Mail. We were her paper. We took her side in her acrimonious break up with Charles. She and I would speak and meet. The Mail’s superb royal reporter was her friend and confidante. The truth is that this trumped-up action – which has cost well over £50 million and wasted a huge amount of valuable court time – should never have been brought to trial. That it did, raises profoundly disturbing questions about the conduct of elements of the legal profession. Today’s verdict is not just a victory for Associated’s magnificent journalists – several of whom have had a terrible toll imposed on their health and lives – but a free press generally. Make no mistake. This was a conspiracy, supported by Hacked Off, to destroy a paper. Financed by the orgy-loving, racist Max Mosley and involving the actor Hugh Grant, it was also a sinister bid to resuscitate Leveson Two and impose statutory regulation on the press which, even now, is rearing its ugly head in Labour’s Media Green Paper.”