Council Tax the next battle ground

[Eric the Half a Bee]

This is an easy one to get people angry about. They see their local services continually being cut while council tax keeps rising. People will rightly question why they get less for the money they pay.

It's amazing how few people realise that council funding from Westminster has been cut by as much as 70% in recent times. Raising business rates, council tax etc is hardly going to cover that sort of shortfall. Yet it enables people to get angry about their local services and think there are better alternatives to the council.

One such example came from Bridgend, where a number of residents were up in arms over a decision to collect black bags on a fortnightly basis. A local waste entrepreneur had an idea of offering a service for £10 a week to collect any black bags the council wouldn't collect. I saw plenty of interest in this on social media. When I suggested the council charge £10 a week (exactly the same) so you could have black bin bags removed weekly with no limit on how many, people were aghast.

It's amazing how brainwashed and/or dimwitted many people really are.

[Organ Morgan.]

I don't encounter people who are angry about Council Tax increases or anything else other than consistently directing their ire at those they perceive are inferior to them who scratch a miserable existence via the welfare system. What I do see are beaten down, cowered citizens who find comfort in being docile. Sure, some get their hair off for a few hours on learning of above inflation rises in CT, energy bills, bus and train fares, etc, then it's a shrug and back to gazing at some kind of screen. A sense of hopelessness abounds.

The government has cut central funding to councils, councils cut spending and reduce services (pay more for less) whilst hiking CT to help bridge the shortfall. It's a backdoor tax courtesy of Westminster for which councillors are blamed by the uninformed. Maybe Labour controlled councils should refuse to set a budget which would compel the Tories to step in and with it get deserved blame for their skulduggery.

Another aspect of CT is a great many householders pay little or no part of it depending on their financial circumstances.

[Heathblue]

We gorra Royal Wedding coming up You know, time to backdoor a couple of nasties, no one will notice.

[Organ Morgan.]

Last November, 20 minutes after the royal engagement was announced, the government quietly released a press statement revealing millions of benefit payments would be frozen for another year effectively making recipients - already society's poorest - even poorer every day in real terms. What they're doing is even more vicious and insidious than Thatcher's Poll Tax which provoked serious civil disorder. But as stated in an earlier post, passivity and hopelessness prevails nowadays.

[Auntie Andy]

Last November, 20 minutes after the royal engagement was announced, the government quietly released a press statement revealing millions of benefit payments would be frozen for another year effectively making recipients - already society's poorest - even poorer every day in real terms. What they're doing is even more vicious and insidious than Thatcher's Poll Tax which provoked serious civil disorder. But as stated in an earlier post, passivity and hopelessness prevails nowadays.

Add to that the Tories despicable attacks on the sick and disabled and you have the nastiest, vile government ever.