20 Years Since Poll Tax Riots in Trafalger Sq

[wykikitoon 19293]

Looking back this was a pivotal moment when a pi$$ed off country told the government of the time it had had enough.

Linky.

Some interesting comments under the story, what chances of this happening again?

[JawD 99]

You'll need a webby for that link like

[Christmas Tree 4433]

Can't remember too much about this as a newly married 24 year old with a bairn and a mortgage.

 

Wasn't the idea that a house with 5 working adults in should pay more than an identical household with 2 working adults, and if so, what was wrong with that principal.

 

Was it not that Labour councils used the new tax to try and get much more money in than they'd being getting by setting daft bills?

[Monkeys Fist 41318]

Can't remember too much about this as a newly married 24 year old with a bairn and a mortgage.

 

Wasn't the idea that a house with 5 working adults in should pay more than an identical household with 2 working adults, and if so, what was wrong with that principal.

Was it not that Labour councils used the new tax to try and get much more money in than they'd being getting by setting daft bills?

 

Protesters complained that the tax shifted from the estimated price of a house to the number of people living in it, with the effect of shifting the tax burden from the rich to the poor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Charge

 

I was a non-payer, and proud of it.

[Guest alex]

Pay no, pay no Poll Tax!

Pay no, pay no Poll Tax!

La, la, la, la.

 

Best thing about it is it more or less finished Thatcher.

[Christmas Tree 4433]

That's as clear as mud mr fist (and no, I haven't launched wikipedia on the I Phone).

 

I take it I'm right and in particular would have thought all the lefties would have liked to see each household paying it's fair share??

[Monkeys Fist 41318]

That's as clear as mud mr fist (and no, I haven't launched wikipedia on the I Phone).

 

I take it I'm right and in particular would have thought all the lefties would have liked to see each household paying it's fair share??

The opposite on both counts.

It had nothing to do with fairness- the poor got hammered and the rich,surprise surprise, got richer.

But as Alex says, it did finish the Witch.

[Monkeys Fist 41318]

(and no, I haven't launched wikipedia on the I Phone).

should just open up in Safari anyway, no?

[NJS 4252]

I think it was internal Tory party polling in the wake of the riots rather than the riots themselves that convinced them to drop it.

 

It should also be noted that that's when they increased VAT to 17.5% as a temporary measure to produce a "one off" reduction of £150 (which would incidentally mean most people would be worse off over a year).

 

It sounds fair in principal but the sudden shift from rich to poor was a bit too instant imo - personally I'd support a local income tax - though I think the argument that house value was an unfair measure of wealth was bollocks - they always used to use the example of someone who'd inherited a house but who wasn't well off work wise - well sell the fucker then.

[PaddockLad 16505]

My mate is in charge of collecting council tax and business tates for a large town in the south of England. In 89/90 he was the office junior in the same department and he says the thing that killed the poll tax was the amount of non payers clogging up the court system and making the day to day running of the Magistrates Court system in this country virtually impossible. It was basically making other cases in front of the court near on impossible to be heard. Thats what killed the Poll Tax, not so much a big riot in London where a load of gribblies hurled scaffold poles through the windows of police vans.

 

It was a huge nail in Thatcher's political coffin...she was gone by November 1990. Stabbed in the back by her cabinet, Which is what Browns collegues would like to do, but frankly haven't had the collective balls to do so. What a bunch of lilly livered twats.

 

And I didn't pay either... the pol tax meant The Duke of Northumberland payed the same as his gardner..And don't think, just before an election in 2010, that the tories have change that much

[Craig 6576]

What did surprise me was to learn that it was a central policy in their '87 election manifesto and still people voted them back in on it...

 

MF is right in that it benefitted the rich - they effectively taxed your right to vote which surely is in opposition for what democracy stands for? IIRC many elected not to register as voters in order to avoid the authorities catching up with them - effectively ensuring that the registered electorate were largely in support of Thatcher. Criminal IMO

 

As NJS touches on, I think the downfall of Thatcher herself was those inside her party turning against her rather than the riots themselves but it's safe to say that 'poll tax' was the reason behind it - Heseltine, Howe & Major were all supposedly against the idea.

 

What surprises me more than anything is that it didn't get replaced until 1993 when Major brought in the council tax which we still have. When you consider that the tories won an election before that date it does make you wonder how one-sided the introduction of poll tax had made the electorate.

[Rob W 0]

I'm not sure it was CENTRAL - Mrs T was in favour but a lot of others thought it carzy (or to use a Toryism "a badly presented policy")

 

there was a BBC program on the radio a few years back and basically it came up in Cabinet a couple of times - once was the day old hesletine threw a wobbly over Westland and walked out and the other was some IRA bombing - it sort of slipped through without anyone noticing -and then hell broke loose

[Craig 6576]

Ken Baker was the brains behind it... says it all really.