Sunday, April 30, 2006
Council Tax hike plans
Council tax bills 'to rise by over 40pc
By Patrick Hennessy, Political Editor, The Sunday Telegraph
30/04/2006
There are three areas of public life worthy of a revolution: the NHS, education and the bleeding (as in 'its a bleeding up by the back-door tax) Council tax.
When I write 'revolution', I do not mean get out there with a stick and bash a police man type revolution, but using the power of the internet to let the 'powers that be' (one of those ridiculous phrases which it is necessary to use when in full sarco-mode) know enough is enough: if they don't sort it we will.
This would mean an integrated, sustained campaign to get the government to do what we want rather than what civil servants dream up.
In the case of local government, where the proportion needed to run councils is so highly weighted towards pension provision they can think of nothing else, members of revolutionary committees would be dispatched forthwith to the treasury with a plastic carrier bag for the money needed to run the council. In the meanwhile everyone would be told to stop paying council tax.
The internet is the best place to start such a grass-roots campaign. I would humbly suggests the first stage is for more people to start start contacting other like-minded people, start weblogs, write to the government websites concerned, flooding the system with emails.
Then, using the NHS as an example, tell them that if they don't do what we want, we will walk into the hospitals taking them over ourselves, sacking all the little shiny suiters, and appointing predominantly medically trained boards to run the places as if they were not part of the greater NHS, but simply franchise operations. Someone necessarily will have to make laws for the operation of this 'franchise'. We will surround Parliament in vast numbers till the greasy policians do it.
During this revolutionary period there will be great turmoil for hospital staff and management, civil servants and politicans, but the patients will be properly looked after. There will be no more nursy can't be bothered to check if Mr. Jones has finished on the loo.
There will be no more agency staff, they will be sacked en mass to help bring back the requisite ethos. If necessary volunteers will help to plug the gap in staffing till more nurses can be found.
