In this new age of sackcloth and political parsimony, it is only to be expected that something like The Other Taxpayer’s Alliance would be set up to counterbalance the media-savvy operation of the earlier self-appointed public spending watchdog – and to raise similar questions as our own about its crypto-tory undertones.
As pointed out in the Guardian last month, the Taxpayers Alliance director Alexander Heath lives in a farmhouse in the Loire and has not paid British tax for years. The outfit’s chief executive Matthew Elliott has stated that the group’s annual income from donors is about £1m. When the TPA last published its accounts - in 2006 - it declared an income of just £130,000.
The paper also revealed that 60% of TPA donations come from individuals or groups giving more than £5,000 and that the near-clandestine Midlands Industrial Council says it has given around £80,000 on behalf of 32 owners of private companies.
But whatever your views on ‘independent’ groups setting themselves up as guardians of the public purse, the OTPA is worth a visit – if only for the very useful media guide.
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