There is plenty of talk at the moment of a "Robin Hood Tax". In my experience, Barnet Council are far more likely to look to a more recent example from the annals of the Criminal world. The CPZ is just one example of what I like to think of as a Reggie Kray tax. This is something which you are lumbered with paying because of your postcode. We are in the grips of a Gangsta Council, who decide taxation policy on who they can squeeze hardest and who won't fight back. The CPZ is a fine example. It hits families who can't afford mansions with huge drives, but who have cars and have to park on their streets. They have just enough money to be squeezed, but not enough to donate millions to the local Tories.
Money is taken from these motorists and spent on all manner of crackpot schemes. Perhaps my favourite scheme is the one where councillors give themselves a free parking permit, so they don't have to pay if they are unlucky enough to find themselves in a CPZ !
Last year, as the Coalition cuts started to bite, the then Tory Leader of Barnet Council, Lynne Hillan announced "we are all in it together". Not in a CPZ, we're not. Those of us who live in the real world (to quote Brian Colemans comments) have to pay for the privelige. Please feel free to give us any other examples of Reggie Kray taxes in Barnet.
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