Annetje

He actually should give back his MEP pension since he hardly ever was in Brussels.
Further he's just an irrelevant person.

philat98

At least he can celebrate Brexit. I wonder if that is EU wine? He doesnt waste money on books.

Annetje

This picture should really be hidden (spoiler) and come with a warning.
Off to rince out my eyes ....

Lion in Winter

Indeed. The UK at its best? I think not.

Nasty little man appealing to people's worst instincts while drawing a fat salary for no work.

Remember his bigotted fake invasion? Off to obscurity with him.

BristolUK

Yes, I remember.

I wouldn't necessarily describe it as catching fire. 37% of the electorate with many of those having since regretted it? Where were the poll tax riots equivalents?

That aside, the two things you're comparing have major differences. When the government made their reasons for the change from the old rates system known and with all the associated statements about how fair it was, when the bills started landing on the doormats and 73 year old Elsie across the street was in court and then prison for non payment, 'the people' could immediately see they'd been misled.

The current 'enthusiasm' - if it really does exist - continues to be based on false information. Even now we keep seeing lies repeated like how the UK was able to speed up getting vaccines ahead of the EU when the same rules still applied to the UK and the same rule the UK used could have been used by any of the EU countries. People are still falsely making the claim that "Brussels" blocked it all and there's no equivalent of the poll tax bill landing on the doormat to contradict the misinformation.

DaveLovesDee

The Poll Tax, for me, was a good idea, poorly executed. My next-door neighbour had five adults living in the house and paid the same rates I did for the same size house. The Poll Tax brought in a per person element.

Few paid serious attention to Farage before the east European A8 countries joined the EU, and the UK was only one of three EU countries to grant A8 nationals immediate free movement.

Farage got where he did by telling people what they wanted to hear, that someone else was to blame for their problems. But instead of being yet another small voice in a big pond opposing the government of the day, he blamed the EU, who were the only ones actually putting money into UK areas in decline due to government policies of the 80's and 90's.

Had the government spent as much time and effort in schools showing how the EEC then EU worked to benefit UK nationals as they did trying to recruit soldiers straight from school, maybe people would have had a different mindset.

I doubt it. UKIP was pretty much forgotten as soon as Farage ditched them to form The Brexit Party, which he then used that to fleece prospective election candidates of £600 each then refused to let most of them to stand so he didn't split the Tory votes and allow Labour to win. This is part of why the Tories have an 80-seat majority.

Did those candidates ever get their money back?

I'm not sure what you've read you consider as poison.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm not specifically anti-Farage, I'm anti-lying, anti-racism, and anti-corruption. And in the latter respect, not only Farage fleece prospective BP candidates, he also had to pat £35,000 of EU funds back that he'd paid an assistant who wasn't working on EU matters. Other UKIP MEPs had to pay other sums, including one who employed Farage's then-wife. Nigel Farage among Ukip MEPs accused of misusing EU funds

That's a very good summary.

The fallout from Brexit is going to take at least 2-3 months to start being really felt. And it'll still be blamed on Remainers.

BristolUK

It was certainly a difficult one. I lived alone while others in the same street had maybe 2 to 4 people who may have been working.

They could have used the library 4 times as much as me. Or maybe they produced 4 times as much garbage but since the truck had to pass along the street every week anyway, it probably didn't cost 4 times as much to collect their rubbish as mine.

But perhaps the most important thing was I never had to wait for the bog or bathroom to become free

Lion in Winter

The problem with the poll tax was, like all flat taxes, it was regressive. It represented a far larger burden on those with less income than on those with more.

DaveLovesDee

Back then, we were probably producing a black bag of rubbish per adult, per two weeks. And yes, the garbage truck would have been passing, by for everyone else who only put out a bag or two, why should I pay the same for my two bags as they do for 4 or 5?

And living alone, yeah, no queue for the bathroom, but I was the only guy in a house with my wife and two children. There was a queue.

I don't think rates or the Poll Tax were designed to take income into account, other than benefits. But it should definitely have been better linked to income via HMRC.

dave_j

I mentioned the Poll Tax as an example of a stupid idea but one that should never have got past the "I've got a great idea" stage highlighting the lack of common sense existing within the political arena.
The major issue was that it was people based and people, unlike buildings, tend to move around making implementation difficult.
An interesting summary of the issues is here. https://mwmblog.com/2019/06/03/marga...-the-poll-tax/ and concludes that in the end it was Thatcher's blinkered approach to replacing the Rates that resulted in her leaving office. Interestingly it also contains a postscript commenting on Cameron's approach to the referendum stating that he should have learned from Thatcher's failure.

EnglishRed

Using your argument, I didn't have kids and still don't, why should I pay that part of the tax that goes to education?

I don't resent it as it is for the benefit of the whole of society.

Fredbargate

I am in a similar position.
I was and still am in favour of the Poll Tax, I am in favour of people being self sufficient, living within their means and not sponging off others.
If you can not afford it either go without or get your finger out and work harder to achieve your desires.
However I do understand there will be some who will need help but our present system encourages this behaviour.

KJMW

Presumably though you went through the education system!! Maybe some paid for you who didn't have kids!!

EnglishRed

Maybe they did but maybe they wern't so narraow minded and selfish.

KJMW

Well, you said it!