Meeting of the Parliament 19 February 2015
The debate is not about the principle of paying taxation; it is about the final burying of the poll tax. Like many members in the chamber, I have recently filed my income tax return and have paid my income tax. Although I was not ecstatic, I was happy to do so because the tax took cognisance of the ability to pay, it was banded, and it went towards the protection of necessary public services.
The poll tax was an entirely different entity. It was a political tax that was brought in by the Conservatives and was brought in a year earlier in Scotland, with Scotland being used as a guinea pig for the taxation despite the best endeavours to advise better and wiser counsel on Margaret Thatcher, even including some efforts from within her own party. The tax ultimately bit the dust and she finally fell with it.
I was proud to take part in the can’t pay, won’t pay campaign, which was about ensuring that those who could not pay would never have to pay. We defeated this iniquitous tax, and this bill finally puts to bed the issue of the last few individuals who are being pursued for it.
The tax was certainly iniquitous. It was a tax on the poor and the vulnerable, and it did not take into account people’s ability to pay. It was all about marginalising people in society. The attitude was, “I don’t have a child at school, so why should I pay for education? I am fortunate in being healthy, so why should I worry about those who are afflicted?” It was about dividing and divvying up, and it was about the privatisation of our society, which, I am sad to say, has been continued by more recent Governments.
It was also about undermining local government services. The points that Alex Rowley made in that respect were appropriate, but we should, as I mentioned in the stage 1 debate, remember the gearing effect. Councils had either to ratchet up the poll tax to an unaffordable level or to privatise or simply dispose of services. That is why the tax had to go.
Will a few individuals who probably should have paid escape? Sadly, there are probably a few, but the overwhelming majority will be people who, for 20 years, have not been able to afford to pay. How do we know that? There were expedited powers associated with this tax; I know that Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs has expedited powers to deal with those, whether they be MSPs or others, who do not pay their taxes. That is only right but, as John Mason has correctly pointed out, accountants, tax avoidance and, sadly, tax evasion kick in with income tax and other more complicated forms of taxation.
The system of expedited powers was imposed by local authorities on the ordinary man and woman in the street who had to struggle to pay their community charge. We should remember, for example, the summary warrant process, which was an expedited procedure that did not require the council to raise any particular action. The warrant was simply printed off on a computer and passed to sheriff officers, who, at one stage, could use the threat of a warrant sale to intimidate people and get money.
For the overwhelming majority of people, however, the situation was dealt with through a bank or earnings arrestment. As a result, those who have still not been able to pay and are being pursued for the tax are those who simply cannot pay. Councils have tried to pursue them, but they have not been able to get anything from them, because, in the main, those people do not have the wherewithal to pay. To seek to pursue them would be fundamentally wrong.
This bill is not only about protecting the poor but about dealing with those councils that, shamefully, wish to intimidate people and put them off going on the electoral register. After the outstanding sign-up campaign and politicisation of people during the referendum, there was a brazen political attempt by Tories, in particular, to do to people what has been done in other jurisdictions and dissuade them from exercising their democratic mandate.