Looking at 2025, skiving public sector workers and APD
Release Date: 01/03/2025
Town Hall Rich List 2025: HUGE wages for fat cat bosses
a nation of taxpayers
Podcast host Duncan Barkes is joined by TPA researcher Jonathan Eida and Councillor Matthew Goodwin-Freeman. Together they go through the TPA's Town Hall Rich List for 2025 and pick over some of the vast salaries paid to council bosses in the UK. Read more here: Councillor Matthew Goodwin-Freeman:
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Spring Statement: Is Reeves Reaping What She Sowed?
a nation of taxpayers
Podcast host Duncan Barkes is joined by Darwin Friend, Head of Research at the TPA and Fred De Fossard, Director of Strategy at the Prosperity Institute. Together they pick over the contents of the Spring Statement from Chancellor Rachel Reeves. Show notes:
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Andrew RT Davies: Welsh politics & the rise of Reform UK
a nation of taxpayers
Podcast host Duncan Barkes and the TPA's Elliot Keck are joined by Andrew RT Davies, the former leader of the Welsh Conservatives. Andrew explains why he resigned last year and outlines the current state of the political scene in Wales. He also gives his view on the threat of Reform UK in next year's Senedd election and whether or not he might join them.
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Mike Graham talks journalism, Reform UK, Net Zero & more
a nation of taxpayers
One of our most opinionated episodes ever! Fleet Street legend and presenter of TALK's Morning Glory, Mike Graham, joins podcast host Duncan Barkes and the TPA's Elliot Keck. They talk about the state of today's political journalism, scrapping the BBC and the current spat raging within Reform UK. Mike also chats about his time in Fleet Street and about his ratings busting radio show.
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Hyper mass immigration is destroying our country
a nation of taxpayers
Podcast host Duncan Barkes and William Yarwood from the TPA are joined by political commentator Patrick O'Flynn. Patrick is also a former UKIP and SDP MEP. They talk about his time in UKIP and the SDP, how the Conservative Party needs to stop being a 'broad church', whether or not the rise of Reform UK is a blip and how mass immigration is destroying Great Britain.
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Reeves' Budget will close care homes and people will die
a nation of taxpayers
Podcast host Duncan Barkes is joined by the TPA's Elliot Keck. Their guest this week is Dr Robert Kilgour. Robert is a business leader, entrepreneur, investor, property developer and philanthropist. He is also Executive Chairman of Renaissance Care in Scotland. Robert talks about the negative impact the Chancellor's Budget will have on the care sector, along with his other thoughts on the current government.
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Is the right too splintered to unite to beat Labour?
a nation of taxpayers
Podcast host Duncan Barkes is joined by Elliot Keck of the TPA and Ben Habib, Chair of Great British PAC. Ben talks about the creation of and its plans to unite the right. He also talks about his time as a Brexit Party MEP, why he quit Reform UK and how he views Nigel Farage*. Ben was a Deputy Leader of Reform UK as well as standing as a candidate for the party. *This episode was recorded before Nigel Farage announced he was handing control of Reform UK to its members and giving up his shares.
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Why does the UK hate the rich so much?
a nation of taxpayers
Podcast host Duncan Barkes is joined by Daniel Lilley, Senior Researcher at Civitas and Max Marlow, Director of Research and Education at the Adam Smith Institute. They discuss the new Civitas research paper entitled 'Balancing taxes and benefits: Starting the public conversation on net recipience'. Max also talks about the ASI's Millionaire Tracker that reveals a growing number of millionaires are leaving the country. They also ponder why in the UK there appears to be a hatred of those who have become wealthy and successful.
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Esther McVey MP - The Voice Of Common Sense
a nation of taxpayers
Conservative MP Esther McVey joins podcast host Duncan Barkes and Elliot Keck of the TPA. Should there be an electoral pact between the Conservatives and Reform UK ahead of the next general election? What would it take for Esther to defect to Reform UK? Why did the Conservatives take such a drubbing at the last general election? Find out her answers to these questions and many more. There's also chat about EDI roles, the BBC and some solid common sense talking.
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Defunding The BBC!
a nation of taxpayers
Podcast host Duncan Barkes is joined by Darwin Friend, Head of Research at the TPA and Rebecca Ryan from . Rebecca talks about the campaign and explains how you can legally cancel your BBC licence. Darwin outlines the TPA's position on future funding of the BBC as it heads towards its charter review in 2027. There's also discussion on what the BBC should or should not provide in terms of content and the ever-present topic of journalistic bias. Plus, there's a bit of chat about the latest TPA polling on abolishing inheritance tax.
info_outlineIt's the first episode of 2025!
Podcast host Duncan Barkes is joined by Elliot Keck, Joanna Marchong and Darwin Friend from the TPA.
They talk about what the future holds for the coming year.
Plus they cover some recent examples of public sector waste including the growing numbers of local council workers being allowed to work from overseas. They also chat about the rising stealth tax that is Air Passenger Duty.