The early 90s was a time of change in the UK. Well, not entirely but in some ways. For one, 1990 was the downfall of the Iron Lady herself after her highly controversial "poll tax" led to mass riots in London. However, what actually was poll tax?
The Community Charge, or the poll tax as it was lovingly nicknamed, was a system of taxation introduced by Thatcher which introduced a single, flat-rate, per-capita tax on every viable adult. This meant that every legal adult paid the exact same costs in tax, a number which was set by authorities, no matter their class or income. Of course, those of lower incomes were furious with this choice, understandably labelling it as "unfair" and gathering to protest. The biggest of which was on Trafalgar Square.
In March of 1990, people gathered on the square in protest. The number was anywhere between 70,000 and 200,000 and resulted in chaos. 340 people were arrested at the scene and 113 were injured. Of course, the news at the time avoided the fact that the police were provoking the crowd and pushing them into causing more chaos and anarchy. No protests were quite on the scale of Trafalgar Square but the message was clear. The people did not want the poll tax and they wanted Thatcher gone.
As time passed and the poll tax's implementation eventually came to pass. Many blatantly refused to pay it. Local councils tried their best to create enforcement methods, but none were effective due to the simple fact that there were too many who weren't paying. Some South Yorkshire police officers even said they planned to refuse to arrest those who didn't pay
Of course, the poll tax wasn't the only factor of the huge civil unrest. One was the recession of early 1989 and the early 1990s, primarily caused by the Cold War coming to an end in the late 80s. This led to mass unemployment, which had already been a severe problem under Thatcher's government throughout the 1980s, primarily in the North. As well as this, homelessness had become a serious problem in the 80s and 90s, leading to hostility building more and more against Thatcher and the Conservatives in general
The fallout got to a point so bad where inner conservative party members tried to have Thatcher removed from her role as Prime Minister, just to remove the poll tax and ease the civil unrest of the time. Eventually, Thatcher did resign on November 23rd of 1990, replaced (unfortunately) by John Major and the Conservatives once again, despite close competition from Neil Kinnock of Labour
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