In The News I Heard...

Anger at doomed Yorkshire quango dinner bill - Yorkshire Evening Post Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the Taxpayers' Alliance said: "It is unbelievable that Yorkshire Forward has spent tens of thousands of pounds on this awards ceremony, when it – alongside other Regional Development Agencies – is set to be scrapped." From what I've been told the CBF was an annual event. Has, bandwagon jumper, Matthew Elliott, tutted and wagged his finger every year about this event? I'm still Googling for the answer. I think the highlighted, identifies what Mr Elliott is all about... "chief executive Matthew Elliott was presented with the Conservative Way Forward ‘One of Us’ award by shadow foreign secretary William Hauge. However, the TPA is not all squeaky clean. Is it Mr Elliott? The most scandalous of these being his own admission that one of the TPA's directors Alexander Heath had not paid any British taxes for several years. Oooh I say! I await to see how man

Regional development agencies failing to help local enterprise - Telegraph Matthew Elliott, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance called for George Osborne, the Chancellor, to use this week’s Budget to abolish them altogether. He said: "The Regional Development Agencies are hugely wasteful and ineffective, and they should all be abolished." It seems Mr Elliott has an axe to grind here. His organisation has clearly ignored the last NAO report on the RDAs and the view of the LSE . It is clear that TPA's report is based on the "glass is half empty" philosophy. It is also written with a "sweep-all-with-one-brush" mentality and large doses of insinuations by use of examples, that all RDAs are the same. Certain RDAs, if not all, produce a draft regional strategy which goes out to public and private bodies for consultation and input. It is also available to general public. Did the TPA ever got itself involved in helping to shape any of the reg