Labour reveals return to sender poll tax protest
By Auslan Cramb
A campaign aimed at blocking the Government’s plans to introduce the
community charge was launched yesterday on the eve of the Labour Party
conference.
Supporters of the Scottish Campaign Against the Poll Tax (Stop It) believe
they have found a loophole which will allow taxpayers to protest legally and
at the same time cause a paperwork nightmare for the local councils which
have to introduce the new system.
Stop It plans to distribute up to one million leaflets advising people to
send back the forms they will be asked to fill in for a poll tax register,
with a request for more information.
The return to sender plan has been welcomed by Labour leader Neil Kinnock who
described the idea as “different and positive.”
At the campaign launch in Perth, Shadow Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar said
the complexity of registration and collection threatened privacy and
individual liberty.
The Government itself had provided the opportunity for a successful protest
campaign, said Mr Dewar.
However, Environment Secretary Mr Nicholas Ridley said last night that if
people failed to provide the relevant information within 21 days they would
be in breach of the law.
“This is the effect of what the Labour Party are telling them to do.
“We have come to a sad pass when the Leader of the Opposition encourages
people to act unlawfully.”
Next month registration officers will start sending out forms to individuals
believed to be the “responsible person” in a household with a duty to supply
information for the poll tax register.
Government regulations state: “…if for any reason you consider that you are
not a ‘responsible person’ please let me know and return the form to me
without completing it.”
Stop It wants people to take up this offer by writing to ask if they should
be the “responsible person” and suggests they ask who will have access to the
information supplied and why the authorities require exact dates of birth.
The implementation of the tax was dependent on an accurate register and the
protest campaign could make the register “wildly inaccurate,” said Mr Dewar.
Labour MP
Brian Wilson, chairman of Stop It, said: “It is a campaign of obstruction
within the law that does not lead people to incur the substantial penalties
that are built into the legislation.” The aim was to have the legislation
amended or abandoned.
He claimed that many Tories were coming to believe that the poll tax would be
“the rock on which Mrs Thatcher finally founders.”
The new tax, a flat rate for every adult replacing domestic rates, is due to
be introduced in Scotland .
Mr Eric Milligan, vice-president of the Convention of Scottish Local
Authorities, said Cosla backed the campaign,
although he was aware that it could cause a bureaucratic nightmare for
registration officers and local government workers.
He said: “Scottish local government is almost unanimous in its opposition to
the poll tax. It stretches right across the political spectrum and it reaches
communities that do not think of themselves as political.”
There are a number of motions on the poll tax for debate in Perth this
weekend, although Mr Dewar said he would be very surprised if the conference
endorsed a policy of non-payment.
According to a poll broadcast last night on Scottish Television, one in three
Scots is prepared to break the law by refusing to pay the community charge.
The System Three poll was carried out
and
involved a sample of 948 adults throughout Scotland.
Mr Michael Connarty, chairman of Scottish Labour’s local government
committee, said the party had to be prepared to give “full blooded support”
to people who refuse to pay the poll tax.
An Early Gambit in the Poll Tax Resistance Battle
