According to an article in the Edgware Times yesterday, Barnet Council has allocated a £107,000 budget for the Leader Listens programs. How important does Council Leader Mike Freer consider this program to be? Well in the same budget he's raising the cost of burying dead children by 9% raising less than £5,000 and adding £100 to the cost of funerals for bereaved parents - so it's more important than that. He's cutting the wardens from Sheltered Accomodation saving hundreds of thousands of pounds, so it's more important than that as well.
In the past, I've always criticised people who withhold their taxes, on the grounds that we've elected the regime democratically and the services are universally available to everyone. You may not like the product of democracy, but things are openly discussed, votes are cast and that's the end of the matter. PAY YOUR TAX.
I am now in the position where I am seriously considering withholding my Council Tax. As I said, we all voted in the Council election, but what happened next? Well Brian Salinger was the Leader of the Tories. He lead them into the election and secured an increased majority. Immediately after the election, he was deposed by the Tory group and they elected Mike Freer as leader. He is now imposing a manifesto which is completely different to the one Salinger set out. Millions are spent on Consultants to draw up mass privatisations under the Future Shape scheme. Hundreds of thousands are being spent on Social media schemes. How can we square this with the concept of "no taxation without representation"? I could possibly understand this palace coup if Salinger's program had failed after a couple of years and they needed to repair the damage(as Freer's is currently), but they'd stood shoulder to shoulder with him on the hustings shortly before they knifed him. Don't get me wrong, I don't like Salinger, but if I have to have someone I don't like at least they should be the bloke who is elected.
Even though I am deeply suspicious of what happened in Freer's Palace Coup at Barnet, that alone was not enough to make me consider withholding my council tax. What has happened in the last few days has. As I stated in the first paragraph, The Barnet Council Taxpayer (ie me) is funding the Leader Listens program. Now whilst I think that this program is a waste of cash at times when it could be spent on better things, that is not enough to make me withhold my tax.
What has convinced me that I should withhold my Tax are the comments made by Mike Freer on a Podcast this week. Here is what Mike Freer had to say :-
Interviewer: "How do you deal with the comments, the responses back? Sometimes they can be a little bit direct or off topic."
MF "There's a couple of ways of handling it. If someone is clearly trying to be provocative, it depends on what their motivation is, erm... I have a group of followers what I call the 'one handed bloggers' erm, I'll leave it to your own imagination what the other hand is doing. But it is largely because they are seeking to attack the Council's record, now that fine if it is a genuine resident, but when you have got two or three people who are just following a vendetta, I now ignore them so I moderate them out. If it is a genuine resident who's got a beef - great! it allows me to respond directly and I do respond, Dominic does not do my responses i do them all myself and if clearly something comes through for moderation I will sometime say "no, I know this person, it is just an axe to grind - we will not respond". But most people get a fairly blunt response...
So there you go. Anyone who has followed this blog will note that I've mentioned many times that Mike Freer won't post my comments on the Council Funded Leaderlistens.com website. What are his grounds? Well, I've got a copy of every comment I've ever posted. The only grounds for not posting are that they disagree with his policies. As such, I am funding a council service which I am excluded from using. Freer has said this in black and white. Not only that, but he clearly suggests that I sit masturbating in front of my children, because as you will see my blogs are usually written at times when the kids are in the front room where we have our computer.
I don't mind people calling me names. I'm a big boy, I post uncomplimentary blogs about political figures, so I expect a bit of flack. If Freer was posting on blogspot as in his capacity as a private individual, fine. I do object to paying him to call me a W****r via a council funded medium. I object to being excluded from using the Leaderlistens.com service on political grounds as Freer clearly states. Why on earth should I pay to be insulted and excluded from a Council service just because I am a public critic of Mike Freer? Mike Freer believes this service is more important than wardens for the elderly or child burial, yet I am excluded from it.
Click Here for Mike Freer's leaderlistens.com Website where he links to his podcast.
Click HERE for Mike Freer's Podcast.
Rog
ReplyDeleteI have never supported the idea of withholding tax as a protest because that simply gives the authorities an opportunity to divert attention from whatever it is you are protesting about, and you could end up with a criminal record to your name.
Far better is to vote people out of office at the next election.
However, there is an argument that withholding tax could be lawful if the amount you are withholding relates to unlawful expenditure by the state. The Proceeds of Crime Act prohibits anyone from profiting from crime, so why should a council or the government be any different?
Perhaps this is why Labour refuse to disclose the advice received over the legality of the war in Iraq. If it was unlawful, then the government should refund the extra tax we have paid towards the cost of funding it.
Well, I have only posted one comment on the leaderlistens blog and since my profile is hardly as big as yours Rog I suggest that Cllr. Freer is simply censoring negative comments from all and sundry. Meanwhile keep up the good work Rog, you're the only real opposition around here!!
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