Support the General Strike!
Following the strike by local government workers on Tuesday, the agitators at the TaxPayers' Alliance are calling on supporters and fellow taxpayers across the country to join a retaliatory one-day Council Tax strike on Saturday (tomorrow).
Guido will definitely be supporting this General Strike.
The TaxPayers' Alliance has emailed its 10,000 supporters, urging them to withhold 1/365th of their council tax for the loss of local services on Tuesday. The Taxpayers’ General Strike involves strikers writing to their local councils advising them that they will be withholding 1/365th of their annual bill when they make their payment next month.
Strike leader Matthew Elliott says: "Council taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for the local services they missed on Tuesday due to the strike action, so we urge taxpayers from across the UK to support the first ever Taxpayers’ General Strike. The principle is simple: no services, no council tax. Join the strike this Saturday."
Guido will definitely be supporting this General Strike.
The TaxPayers' Alliance has emailed its 10,000 supporters, urging them to withhold 1/365th of their council tax for the loss of local services on Tuesday. The Taxpayers’ General Strike involves strikers writing to their local councils advising them that they will be withholding 1/365th of their annual bill when they make their payment next month.
Strike leader Matthew Elliott says: "Council taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for the local services they missed on Tuesday due to the strike action, so we urge taxpayers from across the UK to support the first ever Taxpayers’ General Strike. The principle is simple: no services, no council tax. Join the strike this Saturday."
24 comments:
I look forward to my day in court when I can defend myself against a council who will have done their best to keep taxes under control but have been stitched up by John Prescott for having the gall to be southern and tory.
I'm in.
Well I know of people who are not paying Ken's large share of the council tax merely paying their local council tax. I hope this spreads. Ken doesn't deserve a 13.5% increase in his share of my council tax.
Sounds a fair deal to these ears.
No, no, no.
You are targetting completely the wrong people.
Councils are struggling to manage the tighest and most stringent budgets ever. The local strikes have not been aimed at the Councils. They have been aimed at the Govt. Therefore any Tax Payers retaliatory action should also be aimed at the Govt, otherwise things will just get worse at the point where nothing can be done.
Please think. Penalise the Govt not the Councils.
Ah, I love being a student. What's tax?
Personally I'd like to see a few people as possible employed in the extortion funded sector.
Can I opt out of paying for all the council services I don't use, want or have a need for?
Ah Henry, Durham...
What's rotting teabags, shit dope and bog loads of debt...
dying to hear...
Since they took Tuesday off and have not bothered to collect the refuse since presumably they failed to negotiate an overtime deal to clear the backlog....good !
They ought to put them on performance contracts to emply the dustbins weekly on a set rota and then open them up for tort when they fail to perform, or simply privatise. It seems inevitable that more and more services will be outsourced. With the police and fire precept largely serving to fund the pension deficits rather than provide services, it is getting absurd that Brown has looted private pension funds to finance his public spending jamboree and now those in the public sector expect their pensions and jobs guaranteed in a world of change and insecurity
I didn't actually notice the strike on Tuesday - it had less impact on my life than the partial eclipse on Wednesday. Bring them on.
Again, the intrusion of your personal politics spoils an otherwise leading edge blog.
Give it a rest and keep on the ball...
Eldude,
Politics on a political blog? Whatever next?
Naturally, though it'd be better journalism if it was scoops/dirt and not just you banging a drum for your own cause on what are obscure issues compared to funding etc.
who's side are they on then?
surely the aim of the strike is to cause as much chaos as possible, so lauching a campaign against local towns halls will only further the aims of the strikers wont it?
always knew they were a bunch of old trots over at the taxpayers alliance
taxpayers of the world unite you have nothing to lose but some very expensive liabilities
Rick,
When the hell is this govt (and any other for that matter) ever going to learn that privatisation means more expence not less. Privatisation creates middle men, large amounts of them, who all want their share of the money driving up the overall costs for councils, the railways, NHS trusts, etc. It's cheaper to keep as much as possible in house but it does make the accounts more difficult to calculate...
best not let the tories do it then, word is cameron's lost 5 million
Nbay
What services got more expensive after privatisation?
Airlines? No
Telephones? No
Gas? No
Electricity? No
Fill me in here.
Bishop Hill - you forgot railways
They are really expensive - as is The Tube. You may not notice but as the taxpayer I seem to have a lot of bills for these disasters just as I will get when they privatise Sellafield - conveniently raising the value by awarding a £56bn cleanup contract to the winning bidder
'Airlines? No
Telephones? No
Gas? No
Electricity? No'
'you forgot railways'
As you do!Well,let's renationalise!
Unfortunately the Government has a hybrid - the public has the liabilities and Network Rail has the enormous £500.000 salaries without normal commercial risks
Leave it out, Bishop - the BA pensioners currently being conned out of their promised rights because the company chose to run up a £1bn hole in their pension fun in the (comparatively) good years (i.e. giving the money away to shareholders & directors) are unlikely to be any more impressed by talk of low fares than most of their customers. (Old joke: How do you make a small fortune in the airline business? - Start with a large one).
What a ridiculous idea. As a senior Councillor in a London borough, I'm sorry that the TaxPayers' Alliance is damaging its reputation by promoting this.
i) It will not stop Counci's pursuing defaulters through the courts: absorbing even more valuable resources from those of us who will continue to pay
ii) Most Council facilities remained open anyway
iii) Our overtaxed residents need a voice (especially now the Conservatives have gone a bit quiet on tax-cuts); the Alliance will lose any credibility in debates if it is seen as having damaged the services provided to some of the neediest in society
iv) Finally, pre Congestion Charge there were thousands who allegedly were going to "opt-out" of this tax and still drive around in central London. In practice, it was all hot air and most pay, or carry the consequences on themselves.
Rant over.
Idiots.
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