Poll Tax Demonstration BBC Report

[Pringles352]

Thugs attack police, Police charge thugs. Yes! Police are doing their jobs, what they get paid for, what they swear an oath on, to protect and serve under the law created by legally elected politicians in the countries interest. Good job police.

[shahideurope]

Very interesting how the police officers were dressed, British police don't dress like that anymore, they never wear a tunic unless they are going to court. Now it's a stab-proof vest or high visibility jacket.

[checl1two]

same old BBC just the same as during the Miners strike

[lozington95]

When you hve someone like thatcher (or Cameron) in power, I'm afraid violence is the ONLY way to defeat them!

[jamminjuk]

maggie maggie maggie out out out

[tateytate1]

stupid effintories havent a clue how to run a country no wonder it went tits up under them

[BamItsRosa97]

The Woman Who Got Run Over By The Horse Is My Mum! x

[jimmyass]

to be honnest if there wasnt the violence would it have made such a political impact?

[jimjimbob123]

@jimmyass Quite possibly, Gandhi managed it.

[BIGPABS100]

Just goes to show you the bias in the BBC. And this wasn't even a generation ago.

[johnfox3]

@BIGPABS100 lolz, what a nobish comment

[9407113678]

Don't vote at all. Democracy is on the streets.

[kerazeee]

If violence was the only answer then so be it. She wouldnt listen to the miners, took away their professions and left our mining towns for dead.

This time she couldn't be tolerated, and I'm grateful to all those there who said no, enough is enough.

[fuckwithfire1984]

Fucking pigs.

[beenhereforhours]

Geegee, stfu, you sit there in your 500k house going on that violence is not necessary. Plenty of governments throughout he ages have been overthrown for less reason than the poll tax, lots of times it ended with the ruling classes being slaughtered. I think the rulers of Britain circa 1990 got off lightly. It's just human nature to fight for what they believe in, take that away and we are sheep.

[lordagamentikuz]

we in the us generally think of europeans as being pretty soft, but this video proves that when pushed hard enough, the old british bulldog will put up one hell of a fight. i was so happy to see the ole limeys standing up and telling maggie to sod off. her response was priceless; "these people clearly do not care about democracy." a REAL democracy would never have allowed such an unjust and classist law to have been passed.

[H4rryF]

lordagamentikuz" :"we in the us generally think of europeans as being pretty soft."

--------------------

That's because we in europe don't have gunlaws that allow people like cho heung sui to buy guns legally.

[sannsere1976]

I hated the Poll Tax,but these people are scum if want to demonstrate do it peacefully then your point is better made.

[shafters10]

It's a trait of the ruling class to applaud non-violence in it's oponnents whilst smashing them over the heads with truncheons. Could the point about the poll tax have been brought home more effectively. this riot was a culmination of a build up of direct action across Britain, anyone who thought it would not explode was probably naive. Add to the fray cocky arogant policing and bang!!!

if we'd banged drums and sung songs held hands and danced we would have done ourselves an injustice.

[GeeGee3374]

I agree completely, this sort of riotous, thuggish behaviour can never be justified. The Police seemed to react with true professionalism to this level of violence that had never before been witnessed in London.

[neilandfi]

Sorry my friend, but I was there. I went with peaceable intent, never raised a hand against anyone, but I saw plenty of thuggish behaviour, 99% from the boys in blue. What sickened me was that they seemed to be enjoying themselves as they battered anyone unlucky enough to be in their way, including pensioners and pregnant women. They were shameful. Get your facts straight.

[johnfox3]

@neilandfi one word "ballshit", do not even try and pretend a peaceful protest took place and Police turned up for a fight.

[neilandfi]

@johnfox3 Either you weren't there and therefore aren't qualified to comment, or you WERE there and you were in uniform.

Either way your ignorance speaks volumes.

[johnfox3]

@neilandfi I don't even need to justify myself, its just Liberal trashy ballshit to suggest otherwise, why did people set fire to buildings and loot shops its jsut becuase people like to riot, I don't blame them for it but its just obvious that the crowd provoked the violence.

[neilandfi]

@johnfox3 Same answer as before. You're ignorant and not qualified to comment. Your data analysis also provides further evidence of an impoverished mind.

[johnfox3]

@neilandfi no your just being childish. I'm not saying the police are always right and use the perfect balance of 'appropiate' force, but its just absolutly abserd to think a mod of police turend up and attacked a crowd. Therejust donig there job, ok they probebly like a nice riot like everyone else in that crowd yet they are always far more restrained than the riots I'm sick of this liberal shite the police get, the same thing happened voer tuition fees, just kids wanted to riot for fun.

[neilandfi]

@johnfox3 Liberalism or not doesn't enter the equation. I was an eye-witness and I'm reporting what I saw. I'm wasting no more time on your babbling. Ignore.

[fluffiebuggie]

And when that changes nothing, what then? Just bend over and take it?

There comes a point when those in power take liberties and try to stomp on the people, and asking them to stop does nothing. The only option left for the people is to remind those in power that we CAN and WILL drag them from their golden seats and string them up unless they listen.

The Poll Tax was intended to rob the poor and pay the wealthy.

What would you have done to fight it?

Would you have paid it?

[chewinggum2001]

I would have paid it, it would have benefitted me.

[petroleum10000000]

my god eighteen years ago ,i can see me throwing a stick in the video .me and my friend were in the square when all hell broke loose and a wave of mounted coppers and debris burst into the square/i remember going home on the train it was full of looters there was a guy sitting opposite holding a tuba and a trombone that hed looted /what i cant figure is that gordon is just a much a tyrant as thatcher with his council tax yet no riot we just keep on paying year in year out.

[asdffd]

"there was a guy sitting opposite holding a tuba and a trombone"

LMAO! That's awesome that you were there. That is one of the all time great riots.

[asdffd]

By the way, are you the guy at 2:03 throwing the stick? If so rock n' roll. Sucks about the guy getting his tuba and trombone stolen though. It's amazing the stuff people steal when chaos breaks out. I remember seeing footage from the LA riots of people making off with all sorts of crazy shit.

[akava77]

Anyone thinking of voting for David Cameron at the next election should take a look at this video and think again.

[annatoria]

Damn right. All this shit about Cameron being a caring conservative is bollocks. Just wait til he gets his foot in the door of Number 10, and I doubt he'll be the compassionate conservative he claims to be.

[moshabee]

Err... that's the problem we have now. Too much compassion with free houses for pregnant teenagers, handouts and other freebies while they lie around on their fat arses doing nothing but creating more babies with their jobless chav boyfriend with his trackie bottoms.

I'm absolutely sick of having £9,000 of my annual salary swallowed up in tax - of which a large proportion goes to keep scroungers scrounging and foreigners coming to this small island in their hundreds of thousands every year!

[desh79]

akava77: "Anyone thinking of voting for David Cameron at the next election should take a look at this video and think again."

Aye, but the problem is that Labour are just as bad these days.

[AmericanPunx]

hahaha look at the coppers run

[redidris]

i was there in the square that day we only retaliatited after we were attacked talk about bbc bias we achived our aim though poll tax forgoten lets hope the bitch is

[stoner59]

This is pretty one sided, the police charged first then the demonstators rioted, however on the news the film footage was reversed the give the opposite impression! So much for the impartial news!

To redrob67 It must be great to see the unedited footage!

[gdw1234]

margret thatcher was the worst primeminister this country has ever seen. she only cared for the upper class and the rich and didnt give 2 shits bout the poor. fucking best riot iv ever seen

[caffa]

im from liverpool UK, you dont need to tell me.

[moshabee]

if you'd bothered to have done well in school and got a good job you wouldnt be poor.

most people are poor due to being either unintelligent, lazy or lacking ambition.

you make your own success/happiness in this world - don't bother blaming the government for your own misfortunes because you're either too thick or lazy to have done anything worthwhile with your lives.

[NeatFreak01]

im not poor im inteligent enough to make my own money im not filthy rich or really poor im jst normal lol. im jst speaking on behalf of the poor.

[annatoria]

Sorry, I don't agree at all.

Actually give people the fucking oppertunity to better themselves rather than just saying "go sort yourselves out" without offering any support.

Thatcher was sectarian, she didn't give a shit about the poor or the working class. By the time of the poll tax riots, people had enough and rightly so. I'm glad she met her political demise, because few benefitted, and many suffered under her. We are still feeling the effects even now.

[clashcityrokkker]

yea when the police took the mike and told everyone to clear the square it was impossible then straight away he said we will use riot squads people where just laughing at him why use riot police on a peacefull protest? then the horses trampled that poor girl and the shit hit the fan by the time it reached the west end saturday shoppers became rioters . redrob67 is bang on with his understanding of what happenend scary stuff!

[chinup71]

I watched the police getting cranked up on speed in the vans & then charge out to push the crowed into a suffocating crunch .. when a disabled guy wanted to get out .. screaming let me out, let me out .. the people called to the cops to open a way for the guy in a wheel chair to get out .. cops said STFU .. the crowed lost it

[redrob67]

Incredible how biased and unbelievably 'pro-police' this BBC report is. This riot, which is what it indeed became, was planned and instigated by the police themselves. I'm not just saying that. I still have the Channel Four documentary that meticulously showed how a peaceful protest was hijacked by 'agent provocateurs' placed in the crowd by the police and successfully turned into a full-scale battle between the forces of good (the police and the state) and evil (the protestors). Be warned.

[revoltingpeasant]

March 1990

[edsurfer]

when was this?