31 years ago today | Vital Football

31 years ago today

Buddha

Buddha

Vital Football Hero
The working class fought back and so began the defeat of the hated Poll Tax.

Never underestimate the power of an angry people. When we stand united, we can never be defeated.
 
Interesting subject Buddha.

If we accept that someone somewhere has to pay for local services like waste collection and disposal then how would you like to see it collected ?

We could do it through central taxation e.g. PAYE or we could do it via local council collection

IIRC Poll tax meant each adult paid the same price irrespective of whether they used services or not.

Council tax is based on an arbitrary band that your house sits in based on its value from years ago and again you pay whether you use the services or not

My house has 5 adults, my neighbours house has 2 adults but for some bizarre reason they are a band higher. My other neighbour has 2 adults and 2 kids and is a band lower than mine and two bands lower than the other neighbour.

We all pay a different fee but get access to the same council services. How is that fairer than the poll tax ?

We could change to a service where you opt in to council services and pay accordingly for things like waste collection. I'm worried that would lead to even more fly tipping that costs more to clean up

My bill this year is £2254 of which :
£210 is adult social care
£100 is for fire brigade
£266 is for the PCC (that boils my piss)

Presumably everyone would have to pay those before selecting what other "optional" services to opt into. Probably more mandatory ones as well so always going to have to pay something.

In that scenario the poorest in society suffer more as services like leisure centres, festivals and libraries are cut if people opt out.

The richest can afford their private gym memberships and festivals and don't rely on council subsidised events or facilities

In all honesty the poll tax seems the fairest of them all to me

Please don't say the community could come together to manage all services Free of charge. That's great in small groups and I envy the community spirit you are part off. That wouldn't realistically work in Medway with 300K inhabitants though.

i am interested though how would you do it?
 
markinkent said:
Interesting subject Buddha.

If we accept that someone somewhere has to pay for local services like waste collection and disposal then how would you like to see it collected ?

We could do it through central taxation e.g. PAYE or we could do it via local council collection

IIRC Poll tax meant each adult paid the same price irrespective of whether they used services or not.

Council tax is based on an arbitrary band that your house sits in based on its value from years ago and again you pay whether you use the services or not

My house has 5 adults, my neighbours house has 2 adults but for some bizarre reason they are a band higher. My other neighbour has 2 adults and 2 kids and is a band lower than mine and two bands lower than the other neighbour.

We all pay a different fee but get access to the same council services. How is that fairer than the poll tax ?

We could change to a service where you opt in to council services and pay accordingly for things like waste collection. I'm worried that would lead to even more fly tipping that costs more to clean up

My bill this year is £2254 of which :
£210 is adult social care
£100 is for fire brigade
£266 is for the PCC (that boils my piss)

Presumably everyone would have to pay those before selecting what other "optional" services to opt into. Probably more mandatory ones as well so always going to have to pay something.

In that scenario the poorest in society suffer more as services like leisure centres, festivals and libraries are cut if people opt out.

The richest can afford their private gym memberships and festivals and don't rely on council subsidised events or facilities

In all honesty the poll tax seems the fairest of them all to me

Please don't say the community could come together to manage all services Free of charge. That's great in small groups and I envy the community spirit you are part off. That wouldn't realistically work in Medway with 300K inhabitants though.

i am interested though how would you do it?
Click to expand...

That’s it, change the subject 🙄
 
Buddha said:
The working class fought back and so began the defeat of the hated Poll Tax.

Never underestimate the power of an angry people. When we stand united, we can never be defeated.
Click to expand...

I went to court over that, and was in there for over three hours. Nothing to do with the pubs shutting from 14:30-18:00 back then lol
 
I was living in Dulwich Herne Hill area the poll tax was massive. I was the only person in the shared house to register.i had moved to Lewisham council area before it was due to start.A fraction of the tax costs.A badly thought out tax because people unlike houses move around. A local income tax would have worked.That could have been staggered depending on income.
 
Poll Tax was the right idea badly implemented. Markinkent's example was spot on, everyone adult should pay the same amount with obvious allowances made for those on benefits, pensions etc. Then the Government should have looked at the number of adults in an area and told that Council they had a budget of that number of adults times the Tax amount per adult. End of.
 
With any form of tax there is always complaints that the system is not fair to particular sections of the taxpayers. Even income tax which is considered "fair" as it is dependant on income is often critisised on the basis that the various tax rates, tax bands and income tax free allowances benefit some sections of the workforce more than others.
 
Poll Tax ?? Great idea !! Trouble always was [and would be] in enforcing it. People move around, but houses dont. Personally I think '' the rates '' were better. Why ?? Because there was no upper limit on the amount of local tax that could be demanded. With the council tax, no matter how big your home you will never be asked to pay more than double Band D. Under the rating system there was no upper limit, and hence Thatcher's desire to abolish it.
 
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