Poll tax
The Poll tax was Margaret Thatcher’s way of replacing domestic rates in Scotland, Wales & England. It provided funds to local authorities as it imposed a compulsory fee per person which the same amount was set at a fixed rate for all adults. Many saw this as an unfair way of raising revenue for local councils as it now meant that every adult had to pay instead of just the owner of the household. Low-income individuals and families found it hard to pay as the tax took a larger percentage of low-income individuals than high-income. Furthermore, the collection of Poll taxes was more difficult as it couldn’t reach all adults in the UK as easily as domestic rates.
1990 homelessness:
In 1990, the number of accepted homeless people was 150,000 with the overall population of the UK being over 57 million. Many of the homeless at the time were young people as they were disadvantaged living in local communities. Suffering from economic and policy upheavals, many had no choice but to live on the streets. Under Thatcher’s rule homelessness was a growing problem due to under-investment in housing and the operation of the policy of tight to buy council tenants. Even if housing was available, it was too expensive and lacked many basic amenities such as toilets. Over 30,000 were forced to live in temporary accommodation. This contributed to civil unrest during the time as London at one point was even referred to as ‘cardboard city’ since many homeless slept in cardboard boxes. As the nation was going not only through poll tax, criminal justice act and the recession, this further strained how people were able to live and only further channeled their anger.
Criminal Justice Act
On the 27th of January 1990, over 10,000 people gathered and partied in central London. This was to protest the heavy-handed policing of raves and aiming to curb the freedom of the Second Summer of Love movement which encouraged raves. In 1994 the Criminal Justice Act & Public Order Act was introduced which would ban parties and raves of the Acid House days. This means police could shut down any gathering they deemed to be illegal. This tension between ravers and the police further the civil unrest that the public felt towards the government.
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