Tax overhaul should not burden the poor
RE: ‘Call for overhaul of council tax’ (Aug 24). Yet again Councillor Glenn Williams wants to take us back to the days of Margaret Thatcher.
Has he really forgotten that her policies led to the loss of 60,000 jobs in Coventry in just one year alone. With 10,000 of those lost in one day!
Has he also forgotten that Margaret Thatcher’s policies of the poll tax, which he seems to want to bring back, led to riots in cities and towns all over the country? And, has he also forgotten that it was this policy, more than any other, that led to the Conservative Party getting rid of her as their leader?
I suppose the only good thing that came out of that was the number of Conservative councillors on Coventry City Council dropping to just four members.
Of course, Cllr Williams describes himself as an independent councillor, whereas he was never elected as such. He was elected as a Conservative councillor but resigned from the party. The honourable thing for him to have done would have been to resign his seat and seek re-election as an independent.
Now we read that Cllr Williams seems to think that it is perfectly okay to charge a family of four – all on a low-income – the same amount as a millionaire living alone on a country estate should be charged. However, I do agree with Cllr Williams when he says that the system is out of date. It is. He is absolutely right. The system was brought in 27 years ago, and since then house prices have escalated. I would suggest that we need a re-evaluation of house prices and an increase in the number of bands.
As pointed out in your article, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) argues that currently poorer families spend a far greater proportion of their income on council tax than the
Bad memories of Thatcher’s poll tax
I WAS horrified to read ‘Call for council tax shake-up’ (Aug 24) regarding Councillor Glenn Williams’ call for a complete council tax overhaul of the current system, seemingly suggesting it be replaced by former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s poll tax of 1990.
I was one of the millions of citizens all over the country who demonstrated against that alternative but outrageous tax.
I suggest the councillor would be more gainfully employed taking his council tax crusade to this rotten Tory government’s door and encourage them to end ten years of ideological austerity cuts which have left so many councils on the verge of bankruptcy without government support.
The councillor also suggests Margaret Thatcher was our greatest ever Prime Minister who understood the council tax system. What she did not understand was the effect her poll tax would have on the country and was the catalyst to her downfall. Notwithstanding, I believe Thatcher to be the worst ever Prime Minister. We should never forget how the West Midlands, and in particular Coventry, took a terrible beating by a PM who always told the country she never believed in society.
I will be interested to see when Cllr Williams next asks for election backing in Bablake ward if his newsletters include his ‘crusade’ to introduce Thatcher’s poll tax. Eamonn Mahon Wyken
Concern over fate of new post boxes
SO the Post Office is due to launch large rectangular post boxes to allow parcels to be posted without the need to visit a post office.
This is said to be the most significant change to post boxes since their launch some 160 years ago.
Will these new post boxes with a large opening for parcels become the repository for rubbish when local bins are full? Fred Foster Radford
Let’s honour pets killed during WWII
I UNDERSTAND that in World War II there was an estimated two million pets who were put down by vets or destroyed by bombing.
It would be nice to have a memorial to pets who have perished, in the ruins of the old Cathedral as a City of Culture tribute. Ian Harris Radford