"Owain" wrote in message
...
Peter Crosland wrote:
I don't know why it was disliked. Bring it back!
I agree! However, the real problem was the ease with which it
was possible to avoid it. It is much easier to tax property
rather than people.

That's because it was an inefficient local authority based collection
system. Some local authorities are chronically inefficient in collecting
council tax too.


Back in those days ... we had a Parliament
wherein genuine debate occurred and Bills were scrutinised
line-by-line with Divisions occurring at any hour of
the day ... it's all been 'modernised' to become
'family-friendly' and MPs don't have be subjected to the
tedium of listening to nor attending debates - they can vote
on Bills, conveniently once a week - so, during the passage
of the 'Community Charge' Bill the (then) Labour Opposition
obtained a requirement that _seperate_ registers would be
maintained for the 'Poll Tax" which could _not_ be used
for any other purpose.

Collecting poll tax through the (a) Inland Revenue (b) Benefits Agency,
deducted at source (c) Passports Agency, requiring a certificate of
current contributions to be submitted with passport applications (d)
Education Authority, ditto certificate every term for every child in the
school (e) Criminal Justice, ditto certificate every time a person is
brought before the court for any other offence (f) Road Tax, ditto
certificate by the keeper of any motor vehicle to be shown when renewing
road tax at the PO ...

And I haven't even mentioned Entitlement^WIdentity cards :-)

Owain

All of Owain's suggestions were _specifically and explicitly_
enacted as unlawful thanks to the Labour Opposition.

BTW; the Labour Opposition insisted that 'Lottery' money
could not be used in lieu of Government money.

Have you heard about the 'School Food Foundation'?

--

Brian