2/19/2008

The selfishness of the Council Tax non payers

Let's get one thing straight immediately. I don't like the Council Tax and I want to see it replaced by a fairer system based on people's ability to pay. What else would you expect from a Liberal Democrat.But I do object strongly to people who deliberately refuse to pay their council tax in order to "make a point".

I say this in relation to a gentleman in Norfolk who is now being sent to prison for 34 days because he has again refused to pay his council tax.

If this man had a genuine problem paying his council tax, I would have every sympathy with him but he does not have a problem paying it, he simply refuses to in the belief that it is unfair.

His supporters paint the gentleman as "an ex soldier", which well he might be, but as someone who defended democracy it seems odd that he now feels the best way to deal with his concerns is defy the deomcratic will of the country. Like it or lump it, that's the coice. As lots of people are so keen to tell immigrants, if you come to Britain, then follow the rules.

Perhaps though, for me, the most hypocritical thing about the serial non payers' arguments is the line that they are "doing it for other pensioners". I guess these other pensioners are those who are having to pay ever more council tax (and taxes) in order to fund the councils efforts to collect the owed tax, the letters, the legal fees,the council staffing costs, the solicitors, the barristers and the court costs that have all been accrued due to the non payment of the tax in the first place because despire the council tax rebels liking to act as the heroes of the day, they are the villains of the show who actually cause our council tax to be higher than it should be due to their very non payment.

If people do want to make a stand against council tax then they should lobby their MP, join a pressure group, become a member of a political party that opposes council tax or do everything they can to ensure that the political party they support knows their conerns.

But don't refuse to pay, don't add to the burden that everyone else has to carry by acting like some sort of unwanted martyr claiming you are doing it for everyone else. It's simply self pitying and self indulgent rubbish.

9 comments:

Tristan said...

Many Liberal Democrats do not want something based upon ability to pay but on land value.

LIT will penalise the young and productive in society to subsidise those who are not earning but are sitting on a pile of wealth. It will make the housing problem even worse.

Nich Starling said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nich Starling said...

The whole point is I ant a fairer system and Council tax is NOT a fair system, There are many fairer systems, but the one I prefer is actually party policy. LVT has its merits, but I am not convinced it is better than LIT. But this debate is for another thread, not this story.

Anonymous said...

Part of the council tax goes towards propping up un wanted regional assemblies.Many councils refuse to tell people how much is given to these assemblies resulting in one old lady refusing to pay until they told her, this resulted in a threat of prison.
Direct action seems the only way to make arrogant politicians listen.

Nich Starling said...

And again hitting the wrong target and costing us all.

Local councils have no choice about paying towards a regional assembly, this is dictated by central government. By not paying your council tax you are actually putting peoples council tax up (as I have explained).

Your argument seems to be around blaming the council for everything that is the government's fault. It's akin to slapping your mother because you don't like that woman down the road and makes no sense at all.

Anonymous said...

There you go then, why have councillors if they merely mirror what government wants. what is the pointof having them if they just step into line as they have done with regional assemblies?

Anonymous said...

At the end of last year about £750,000,000 worth of council tax remained uncollected across Britain. £1,131,000 of that in King's Lynn. Up by £99,000 on the year before. Why aren't these people, owing this vast amount of money sharing a cell with Richard Fitzmaurice?

Nich Starling said...

Anonynous, again you lash out at councillors. Where is your anger at the government for this ? It is non existent. By constantly attacking councillors you highlight your complete ignorance of the pwers councillors have which is significant in certain areas, which is why we have them), but their powers are also limited to specific areas.

Anonymous said...

More importantly, anonymous, you've developed an obsession with regional assemblies at precisely the wrong time. They're being abolished next year anyway.

Of course that means there's nobody to check up on what the Regional Development Agencies are up to, but I guess since Councils don't fund them, that's fine.

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