Blair's Poll Tax? - 5 comments
I've heard a number of references to Blair's Poll Tax in recent days. The conventional theory is that ID cards will fill that role, though 30 seconds Googling reveals no fewer than eight issues which have been deemed to fit the bill - at one point or other - by some headline-seeking individual or organisation:
- "ID cards are Blair's Poll Tax"
- "... Iraq as Tony Blair's poll tax"
- GM Crops: Tony Blair's "Poll-Tax"?
- "... a member of the audience asked if the ban on foxhunting would turn out to be Blair's poll tax"
- "... top-up fees could be 'Tony Blair's poll tax'"
- "The Lib Dems say council tax has become Mr Blair's 'poll tax'"
- "...pensions could turn out to be Tony Blair's poll tax."
- Charges for social care could be Blair's Poll Tax
Update: Without wanting to entirely preempt Part 2 of this series, I intend to tackle the issue of why "Poll tax" (rather than "Black Wednesday") has become a synonym of "cataclysmic political event" and "rocky outcrop against which one's political dreams are dashed to pieces", despite the fact that ( 1997 - 1990) = circa 7 years, and hopefully finding time to connect this to the stranglehold the Tories were able to gain in Wandsworth and Westminster during the 1990s.
![[Valid Atom]](http://www.bloggers4labour.org/images/valid-atom.png "Validate my Atom feed")
5 comments so far...
You write: ``To cut a long story short, if you ever say "Blair's Poll Tax", we'll assume you're an idiot.''
But this assumption does not follow from the fact that you managed to identify 8 issues that have been put forward by various people as a possible "Blair's poll tax".
If there's genuine reason to believe the issue concerned would back-fire on Blair in the way the poll tax did on Thatcher, then it is a reasonable point to make.
Of course some of those making this point may believe this out of hope or may be trying to make a sound bite, rather than having concluded it through a solid analysis of the issue.
Also, there is another point that people might be making regarding the identity cards bill specifically, and a point I myself made in the past. A poll tax is a tax on existence. Given that the government intends that eventually the cards will be compulsory to own and, apparently, intends to charge people for obtaining the cards, such a charge would be a poll tax in this sense, just as the community charge was.
Ok, it doesn't logically follow that those people must be idiots (not the first ones anyway), but "B's PT" is just one of those lazy things people say to pin this on Blair personally, exploit public hostility to him, and gradually drain the term Poll Tax of any meaning, except as a cipher for a policy that ought never to be mentioned or discussed.
Perhaps you're right about the charge being an example of a poll tax, but I doubt many of the "B's PT" brigade have given it much thought, or even checked a dictionary.
I think what real Labour MPs are calling it is the "plastic poll tax"...
Still, it may be the other kind of poll that will do for it - it's only got a +3% rating as of now, with support in free-fall.
Meanwhile, I look forward to your explanation as to why I have to have one but my wife, who is a Belfast lass and has exercised her right to a green passport, won't.
Don't know about "real" Labour MPs, though it's hard to imagine why loyalty would come first on such an issue.
If they (the cards) were made useful on a day-to-day level I'd recommend you get one, but this doesn't appear to be the case. If the security aspect was to be taken seriously then there's your reason for them to be compulsory, unless you simply adopt a rule that nobody boards a plane, etc. without having one. Obviously the limitations of the technology is just one reason nobody can ever be 100% sure that someone is who they claim to be, and that being the case, even 100% coverage doesn't solve the problem, and there's the reason against compulsion.
You do have a point in that BPT is a cliche. However, a compulsory ID card that everyone (except those on very low incomes) has to pay a flat-rate charge for is a poll tax in exactly the same sense that Thatcher's Community Charge was. So to refer to ID cards as BPT makes a lot more sense than if it is some generic Labour policy that the speaker doesn't like.
Post a Comment
<< Home