blonde poker forum

...that 73 year old woman being sent to jail for 7 days for not paying her £53 council tax?

Was she right to protest or is she wrong and should have coughed up?

My views soon.

It's good that she has stood up for what she believes in.  That is what democracy is all about isn't it?  Not that we live in a democracy in the true sense of the word.

The irony of it all is it costs 'us' the tax payer more to jail her for this short period of time than the original amount she witheld from the council tax.

If she didn't pay the whole tax bill as a protest, then I think public opinion may be slightly different, but the fact is she payed the normal amount, and witheld the increase.  I would be asking what the council does with the money it gets in council tax anyway...They are meant to be run efficiently, and with all the outsourcing that they do to 'improve' service whilst maintaining a lower cost to the tax payer just doesn't seem to be adding up at the moment.

i think she should be jailed and then dragged thru the streets of newcastle in a horse and cart being pelted with rotten fruit and veg.

ok maybe just jailed infact i think anyone not paying there taxes should either be jailed or move to a country they dont have services that need paying for with taxes

Her age is irrelevant apart from the extra coverage it gets on the TV.  We all have to abide by the laws of the land - rather than spending 7 days in jail she could have spent that week canvassing for changes in the law or lobbying the right people. She cant lobby from a cell - and the magistrates are right - she's not a martyr - she just gets the publicity because of her age and the government will continue as normal - hasn't affected them at all.

The magistrates sent her to prison because she broke the law - the government love or hate them didnt force her to break the law. It's a cold approach but she could have gone about it a different way.

while I'm sympathetic to her point of view, simply deciding that you qill not obey a particular law is something that bothers me, whether thats paying a tax, speed limits, copyright theft (deep breaths ;) ) or anything else.

not sure what pommy means by "Not that we live in a democracy in the true sense of the word" compared to who or what are we un democratic?

making a stand will probably involve making sacrifices and paying a price. this is hers

My view is that its rather silly of this lady to take the stand she has against, what is effectively, a bill for services!

No doubt her gas bill has gone up by 15% in the past 12 months, her electric bill by the same. Why make a stand about this particular bill?

Having said that I do feel sorry for those pensioners who live on fixed incomes having to survive in todays economic climate. With more and more money being taken from them by way of this bill & that bill and little in the way of standards being upped by way of government pension payments its gonna be a hard life for those that can't make ends meet.

My advise is don't be caught short in your old age. As Sir Jimmy Saville once said...'Life is one big slot machine...you aint going to get nothing out at the bottom if you don't put anything in at the top'.

Start saving now folks!

Just because it's a law dosn't always make it right, if all the Jews in Nazi Germany obeyed the law they would have all just walked into the gas chambers and died

What about the 'crime' of being a witch, or a homosexual?

Or the one that says you cant buy into a poker comp by phone

I am not giving an opinion about this womans actions, I am stating that some laws need to be challenged

When was the last election held for the Head of State?

When were you last given the right to vote for the upper house of parliament?

fair comparisons with non payment of tax?

I too would dispence with the upper house and the royal family, but then I wish for a world government with a rolling presidency in my lifetime but it's an unpopular view it seems

No, and that isn't the point I was making Adam, I was just pointing out that the law isnt always right, and saying it's wrong because it's against the law isn't a good enough argument sometimes

I have no knowledge of, or opinion about this particular case

obviously, I completely agree with your statement about the laws you highlighted. No reasonable minded human being would disagree.

the old cliche is "two things in life are certain, death and taxes" (and obviously AA getting beat if you're all in on the bubble) and simply refusing to pay coucil tax because it's gone up more that the rate of inflation is selfish and small minded.

".....dispense with.....The Royal Family....."

RED CARD for Adanm, & if he repeats such a dreadful statement, off with his head.

I say "Up the Queen".

not nowadays surely?

she is still 20 years younger than him he has to have someone to dream about

Careful Mr End, HM reads blonde every day, & I don't mean Robert HM, I mean her Wonderfulness Lizzy. She's a blondeite, you know.

And Ironside is in a lotta troubl;e - don't foget HM The Queen owns you lot Iron. And your swans.

Ohh...ohhh...One is arriving!!

i adore HM thats why i fought for queen and country anyway she can lie about her age even if she has 2 birthdays a year she still 20 years younger than you

Good on 'yer Irion, & I'll ignore the age jibe just this once.

My Dad was the driver of the Royal Train. Want a few train stories?

Nap time grandad?

How you know THAT? As it happens, yes.

Wouldn't mind a few 'My Dad/Mam/Wife/Husband/Great uncle Oswald' stories from any blondites, funny or serious

My great great grandfather was Benjamin Hall. Who's he? I hear you ask

Well, he happens to be the bloke who designed Big Ben, which is how said clock tower was named

Every time  I see or hear those bells chime I think of my old great great etc etc

My great Grandad was called Trout, he took a size 13 shoe on one foot and a 14 on the other

Did he used to play at The Rainbow?

Whoosh!

I suspect it was subtle

Yeah, subtle as a house brick.

The penny has dropped

i like a bit of rainbow marrenated in a white wime sauce fried with chips and mushy peas

For Red's benefit, "Rainbow" is trout........ It's a species of fish.

Yes,yes, and here I was looking for something clever or interesting

When I saw this story I thought good for her. This is one tax I disagree with, but when I read the whole story I did'nt feel so inclined.

Councils pay good pensions to there workers and you dont need work for a council for a long time to get a good pension, a lot of council empolyees take early retirement and still get good pensions. The council pensions are payed for by conuncils. The only way councils can generate money to pay pensions is via the council tax. 'can you see the problem here'

I can only speak for my area, but my council is raising the council tax more and more every year just to pay council pensions, a lot of the services that we are supposed to pay tax for are being cut back to fund the pensions for there ex workers.

If you read the story about the said woman, she used to work for the council, she gets a combined pension of 270 pound a week, the majority of this pension comes from the council, so I think she is hypocrite but does'nt realise it.

Come on the revolution.

ps. this is my limited understanding of council tax.

I guess soon they'll be taxing our poker earnings...

A well-reasoned post sixpac - lateral thinking rules!

Mark will ruin this forum, its the only thing he is good at

well i still have to carry my rubbish bags out to the roadside and i pay stupid money in council tax for that priveledge.
As for councils paying employees and such, my pals wife has been off work for 2 years!!! with stress and she's still getting paid (council worker)
taxes in this country and especially this government are an absolute joke and yes snipster tax will be levied on poker.

Also they have just had to back down on changing the band our houses are in because yes it would mean a further increase in council tax on top of the 30 odd percent they will increase it anyway.

I think what this argument shows is that government have absolutely NO INTEREST in whether or not you can or cannot afford to live.

I retire in 16 years and I'm sure, by then, that the price of petrol will be at least £2 a LITRE (£9 a gallon). Council Tax will be at least TREBLE what it is today and the cost of living, day to day, will have a detrimental effect to the standard of living pensioners will have at this time.

As I said earlier...start saving now!!

most of us live a very comfortable, privilaged life style and even over the last 6 months having lost my job and my second child coming along, though it's been tight, we still probably throw away more food than some people have. I do wish people would keep in perspective what exactly 'hard times' are. an extra few quid here or there on your council tax, how many yards you are prepared to carry a bin liner, etc really should be kept in perspective

Tikay, you applauded sixpacs post but you can't have a revolution and keep your beloved royal family.

the point is nothing to do with my standard of living, it's what the hell are they doing to deserve extra money?
binmen used to fetch bags from your door now they expect you to, meanwhile i pay a shed load more for the priveledge of doing it myself.
It is an example mate that's all.

I know, I'm not having a go at you specifically, I'm just saying, to me thats an example of peoples lack of focus on what the real issues are. the hardship of carrying a bin bag 10 yards compared to the hardship of walking 10 miles to fetch food or water. just a general moan about how privilaged we are in this county.