On 08/04/2013 15:46, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Andy Cap wrote:
Nothing wrong with the Poll tax, it was just that it dragged in a lot of
young earners who get their services for free and had loud voices. The
Council tax is really unfair to people living on their own.


You've got no idea, have you? The purpose of the poll tax - like just
about every other piece of Tory legislation - was to move taxation from
the rich to the poorer. No matter how they dress it up.

My widowed mother lived alone in her own modest house that she'd lived in
and owned since the '30s. Only had the old age pension and a tiny annuity
as income.

When the poll tax was introduced, she paid *more* than previously under
the rates. So exactly the sort of person so often quoted as being
penalised by the old rates was penalised more by the poll tax.



But that was probably the council bumping up their spending.
Mine did exactly that, a 25% increase under the pretence that they
wouldn't be able to collect the poll tax and they would only get 80% of
what was due to them.
They were actually collecting 97% and didn't give it back, they just
wasted it on gay groups or something.


BTW pensions and benefits were increased by enough to cover the
25%(IIRC) that people on low incomes had to pay. So with an average
spending council they would have paid *nothing* extra.