Alfred Ridley Released!
Alfred Ridley Released!
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hedders

Original Poster:

24,460 posts

277 months

Tuesday 4th October 2005
quotequote all
They just let him out.

What a disgrace! As an Englishman I am completely ashamed that we are now imprisoning pensioners for not being able to pay Council Tax :Mad:

More here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/northamptonshire/4221728.stm

JagLover

46,785 posts

265 months

Tuesday 4th October 2005
quotequote all
No exceptions should be made in law, if you wilfully do not pay your taxes or fines then you can have no complaints about being sent to jail.

hedders

Original Poster:

24,460 posts

277 months

Tuesday 4th October 2005
quotequote all
How on earth are people on a fixed pension supposed to find money to pay a tx that is going up faster then the pension though?

Ok, so this guy *may* have been able to afford it but stood up for his rights.
How come unemployed people don't have to pay it but pensioners do?


viggen114

259 posts

283 months

Tuesday 4th October 2005
quotequote all
No exceptions.......................

Where I live you can get Council Tax rebate if you have a low income,
but not if you have NO income.
They have no means of dealing with this situation.

Work that one out then.

spaximus

4,365 posts

283 months

Tuesday 4th October 2005
quotequote all
JagLover said:
No exceptions should be made in law, if you wilfully do not pay your taxes or fines then you can have no complaints about being sent to jail.


That is true and some pensioners are able to pay the increases, however it is unfair to have councils increase the taxes as they see fit way over inflation. If the waste was sorted in the councils we could have a rebate.
I feel the thing that upsets me is here is a man who has injured no one, has not caused damage in the area, has not been antisocial and yet he is jailed. Why when the magistrates let many offenders off with warnings community punishments they see fit to jail a man who, except for this issue, is a law abiding person of good conduct. It would be fair if they treated the scrotes with the same firmness, but O guess an attack on the establishment is a far more hineous crime than any other in Blairs Britain.

JagLover

46,785 posts

265 months

Tuesday 4th October 2005
quotequote all
spaximus said:

however it is unfair to have councils increase the taxes as they see fit way over inflation. If the waste was sorted in the councils we could have a rebate.


The reason for the rise in council tax has very little to do with the local councils, it is a result of government madated spending which is not fully funded and of changes in the system for allocating local government funding.

Plotloss

67,280 posts

300 months

Tuesday 4th October 2005
quotequote all
hedders said:

How come unemployed people don't have to pay it but pensioners do?




Not all unemployed people dont pay council tax.

They are only allowed to swerve it if a council tax benefit award has been made.

Took them 9 months to process a mates claim, he got the award but not the backdate so hes got to find £1000 back council tax that never should have been billed to him.

Its all just a cunning ruse to keep bone bloody idle civil servants in employment.

Kentish

15,169 posts

264 months

Tuesday 4th October 2005
quotequote all
To jail a pensioner for protesting that his POLL TAX has increased considerably more than his pension is criminal in itself.

My Father (a pensioner too) complained about poor service to a company called Oakfield Propery Management a few years ago and the slimey little body builing peanut headed sh!te who worked for them assaulted my father and pushed him to the ground and in front of witnesses who also gave statements to the Bib and yet this thug was let off with a warning.

Is that just?

spaximus

4,365 posts

283 months

Tuesday 4th October 2005
quotequote all
I agree with you to a point however there has been years of waste built into the system, My wife used to work as an accountant for a large northern council where every January the departments wanted to see how much was left and went on a spending spree to use up the money before the end of the finacial year. There was equipment bought which was not required, but the budget process relied on every penny being used and the next years spending based on the previous.
My other point however was my main concern

simpo two

92,838 posts

295 months

Tuesday 4th October 2005
quotequote all
They can't assess cases on an individual basis because...



... they are too stupid to do so. It's what I call 'traffic warden mentality' and it suits idiots and jobsworths very well.

JagLover

46,785 posts

265 months

Tuesday 4th October 2005
quotequote all
spaximus said:

My other point however was my main concern


In answer to your other point of course we should have stronger punishments for criminals, but that does not mean that jailing the man in this instance was wrong.

Kentish

15,169 posts

264 months

Tuesday 4th October 2005
quotequote all
I can understand a council tax increase with a justification such as a policy to psend more on roads within a given county but this generally isn't the case.

We now pay £400 odd more than last year but no more has been spent on our amenities. Our rubbish collection has been reduced to every 2nd week. The local council won't cut back overgrown trees, we have to pay them extra for this even though they aren't on our properties and at our own cost.

I think it's a good thing that people are brave enough to stand up and say "NO".

We hear all the time about increases in our taxes and new taxes being introduced, where will it end?

Why should we all bend over and take it?

My cost of living increase this year was somewhere in the region of 0.7%, is that in line with the real cost ....like feck it is!

staceyb

7,107 posts

254 months

Tuesday 4th October 2005
quotequote all
I dont see the point in jailing him because at the end of the day its costing the tax payer more money to imprison him. If he had to be punished, which i dont think he should have been, it should have been something along the lines of community service which actually benefits the tax payer instead of taking more money away from them.

I dont know the details of the above case, but I do know that the little old lady (Sylvia Hardy?)who owed council tax for the pricely sum of £53.71 actually cost the tax payer over £700 due to being in jail and that doesn't include court costs, I mean where is the sense in that?

>> Edited by staceyb on Tuesday 4th October 13:21

chippy17

3,740 posts

273 months

Tuesday 4th October 2005
quotequote all
has there ever been a Coucil Tax decrease for any reason?

viggen114

259 posts

283 months

Tuesday 4th October 2005
quotequote all
Is it right then to cause a situation whereby a person is forced into hardship, whereby they have to sacrifice their health and welfare and when a person in such a position dares to speak out about it, they are punished for it.

Welfare state, only for those who have done nothing for themselves or are susceptible to bribery.

Remind me, which year is it that we live in and is the government a socialist one.

kes was mentioned in another thread, those of us that remember such times find the abuse by councils abhorent. Even if you stand as a councillor, the influence that you have is overruled by the fixed employees. Civil servants are neither civil nor act as servants to the public. they only have a self interest at heart.

BliarOut

72,863 posts

269 months

Tuesday 4th October 2005
quotequote all
It seems there are a few misunderstandings here...

Firstly, the pensioners aren't refusing to pay their council tax, they are merely refusing to pay the percentage above that which their pension has risen.

Since 1997 their pension has risen 35% and the council tax has risen by 70%. It is the portion above this years rise that he refused to pay.

The guy in question has no truck with being sent to jail, he considers it part of a legitimate protest and accepted that he was going to jail.

What does concern me though is that he was sent to a maximum security jail with murderers and rapists. Surely a vicar of pensionable age would be better suited to an open prison?

Bliars Britain. Hard on protesters, hard on the causes of protesting

Kentish

15,169 posts

264 months

Tuesday 4th October 2005
quotequote all
I did understand all of that Rob and I don't think we are misunderstanding anything.

As you say, "since 1997 their pension has risen 35% and the council tax has risen by 70%. It is the portion above this years rise that he refused to pay"

I don't see anythng wrong with this at all and I think to jail anyone because of an affordability protest (perhaps not for him but other pensioners) is grossly unjust.

Our government are only interested in targeting the ones who are easy to punish and make an example of.

I think everyone here will agree with my sentiment, the enormous example I can use and that we all have a common interest on here is of course the we are enthusiastic motorists.

Cameras in accident black spots my fragrant @rse!