PMs Question Time-1990

20th March 1990. Prime Minister Magaret Thatcher answered questions in the Houses of Parliament about the unpopular Poll Tax. The Community Charge was a poll tax to fund local government in the United Kingdom, instituted in 1989 by the government of Margaret Thatcher. It replaced the rates that were based on the notional rental value of a house. The abolition of rates was in the manifesto of Thatcher's Conservative Party in the 1979 general election, and the replacement was proposed in the Green Paper of 1986, Paying for Local Government based on ideas developed by Dr Madsen Pirie and Douglas Mason of the Adam Smith Institute. It was a fixed tax per adult resident, but there was a reduction for those with lower household income. Each person was to pay for the services provided in their community. This proposal was contained in the Conservative Manifesto for the 1987 General Election. The new tax replaced the rates in Scotland from the start of the 1989/90 financial year, and in England and Wales from the start of the 1990/91 financial year. This caused civil unrest and was instrumental in toppling Margaret Thatcher in 1990. Her replacement, John Major, replaced the Community Charge with the Council Tax, similar to the rating system that preceded the Poll Tax. The main differences were that it was levied on capital value rather than notional rental value of a property, and that it had a 25% discount for single-occupancy dwellings. PUBLIC DOMAIN News item.

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[britishjohn04]

The community charge was actually quite fair because it taxed consumption and not property. Why should a pensioner living alone in a house she has worked for all of her life, pay more than a welfare family that keeps spitting out new kids and consuming more local services? The poll tax was almost a semi-privatisation of local government, which could have been a success if properly promoted by government.

[plagalcadenze]

@britishjohn04 Absolutely agree

[NaMgKCa]

I cant get over how young Robin Cook, Ken Clarke and the now First Miniser Alex Salmond look here!

[TheJaaysog]

i wanted to give thatcher a state funeral years ago........

[RJWooller]

@britishjohn04 Oh was it. Try telling that to an old man or woman who doesn't have any money.

[daPlumber702]

@spackhollogay Nowhere does this happen unless that hard working family is itself made up of millionaires. The rich pay an extreme bulk of the taxes that are collected everywhere on earth. I'm wondering what would make you happy.. would it be if anyone making more than you were taxed until their income were the same as or less than yours? Seems like.

[daPlumber702]

@unfad1ng Wrong correlation. Consumption =/= production. You need jobs for people to be able to buy things and in order to have things to buy. Just buying things would not necessarily produce jobs.

[daPlumber702]

@asiq1987 I doubt you know BritishJohn04 on a personal enough basis to say that. And even if you did and he didn't know what it was like it wouldn't mean he's wrong. arguing using an emotional trigger like class warfare is teh stuff of children.

[seananthonyh]

@plagalcadenze I agree too. A major problem where I live in London is that many of the homes are sub let to sometimes more then ten people (often illegally)in a house next door to a single old widower. The council still receives the same amount in council tax despite the usage being 10 times the amount.

[asiq1987]

@britishjohn04 you dont no what's it like living with no money

[rabthe45bravo]

@spackhollogay The millionaire has a better accountant.

[dylanlowe456]

alex salmond isnt fat there. ironic the community charge is still with us... council tax

[DougPatton1]

The un-British mandaTORY fraud-market Poll Tax - a 1381-reborn facist Head-Count/Totalitarian Register. Leading to G rim B ritain now with more monitoring/surveillance/CCTV than anywhere on Earth except Totalitarian Terror-State North Korea!

[unfad1ng]

@britishjohn04

but isnt it better to encourage consumption , because that increases consumption which creates new jobs.

[plagalcadenze]

@britishjohn04 Good point!

[britishjohn04]

@spackhollogay Well because the possessions you happen to own have no bearing on the services you consume. You people always use the millionaire example but why should a middle class family, who already pay 40% income tax, pay more because they happen to have a bigger home, that they have earned through hard work, especially when there are underclass families with lots of children, picking up a welfare handout? 

[spackhollogay]

@britishjohn04 And why should a millionaire living alone pay less tax than an extremely hard working family?

[dlk1dlk1]

@britishjohn04 A pensioner would also have paid the same as a Duke.

[bismuthcadmium]

@NaMgKCa

You can see Eric Heffer in the background when Salmond is asking his question. He's been dead now for 20 years!

[MrSocialDemocrat]

It seems a lot calmer in the chamber in 1990 than today. You can actually hear the questions, even the controversial ones.

[getmadgetmad1]

@Marnerbanana She was referring to the excessive layers of middle management, large bureacratic systems and overspending; local govt spending and rates rises were well above economic growth. As she says, Lab councils were charging almost double nextdoor Tory ones were.

The police were always seen v. favourably under the Thatcher govts and were rewarded duly. Waste removal also became much more efficient after privatisation, so those two are wrong. And which tax cuts for the "richest estates"?

[Marnerbanana]

"extravagances" of labour councils.

i'd hardly think it extravagant to give the most needy social housing and to provide vital things such as waste removal and community policing. in fact "extravagant" is exactly the word i'd use to sum up the huge tax cuts that the richest estates and banking community received at the hands of this conservative government!

[jctutsa]

Donillini, "Poll Tax" was a misnomer, not what it sounds like, just a type of local tax that became very political. It did go through but didn't last for long until it was replaced with a slightly modified version

[nemesis700]

poll tax didnt go thru. massive demos. they tried to pass it tho.

[Donillini]

Poll Tax? Isn't that illegal in the USA? I am a bit shocked if the UK has or had a poll tax.

[sweetypie000]

says today there will be no increase 'across the board in this current political term'

piz$takers, they should be abolishing it. This is nothing less than a draconian tax that screws people out the best part of £100 a month. SCUMBAGS.

When will the public learn