Surely, the British are not predisposed to lying down en masse, except with the aid of superglue for some nutters. They may lay down the law, but massive, organised civil disobedience over living standards? Can't see it myself. We've been here before with vehicle fuel but not to my memory with vital domestic energy. I think the procedure, already potentially started. will be to pump money into the many fewer energy companies as and when desperately needed.
What I can't figure is how they'll accurately target those in greater need, unlike as at present. Maybe the energy companies' databases are able to distinguish these customers during the winter months? Maybe by customer application? They'll need to increase their call centre workforce to cope, I'd expect.
The council tax shitstorm was the last time people were on the streets that and warrant sales here in Scotland.
Opposition[edit]
Graffiti against the poll tax near
Huddersfield
The change from payment based on the worth of one's house to a fixed rate was widely criticised as being unfair, and needlessly burdensome on those less well-off. Mass protests were co-ordinated by the
All Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation, other national networks such as 3D (Don't Register, Don't Pay, Don't Collect) and by hundreds of local Anti-Poll Tax Unions (APTUs), which were not aligned to any particular political grouping. In Scotland, where the tax was implemented first, the APTUs called for mass non-payment. As the tax neared its implementation in England, protests against it began to increase. That culminated in a number of
Poll tax riots. The most serious of those was on 31 March 1990 – a week before the implementation of the tax – when between 70,000 and 200,000 people
[4]demonstrated against the tax. The demonstration around
Trafalgar Square left 113 people injured and 340 under arrest,
[5] with over 100 police officers needing treatment for injuries.
[6] There were further conflicts and protests, but none on the scale of the Trafalgar Square riot.
As the amount of the poll tax began to rise and the inefficiency of local councils in their collection of the tax became apparent, large numbers of people refused to pay. Local councils tried to respond with enforcement measures, but they were largely ineffective given the huge numbers of non-payers. According to the BBC, up to 30 per cent of former ratepayers in some areas refused to pay.
[7]
The anti-poll-tax organisations encouraged non-payers not to register, to clog up the courts by contesting local council attempts to gain liability orders, and ultimately, not to attend court hearings arising from their non-compliance.
[8] In November 1990, South Yorkshire police said they were planning to refuse to arrest poll tax defaulters, even when instructed to by the courts, because it would be "physically impossible for the police because of the large number of defaulters".
[9][
dead link]