I know a lot of socialists had quite a few problems with this, mostly because it cost them more. I can't help but think that this may be deliberately worded in a specific way as to provoke an angry response, but either way, it's a classic example of a Tory rewrite of history.
Take off your blinkers for one moment and look at the reality of the situation; the poll tax was
grossly unfair. With such a portrayal as the one above you are patronising people from lower income backgrounds who unjustly would have had to pay the equal amount as, say, someone earning twice as much. And for what? For the
priviledge of
living. Which is basically what it was. The financial implications of the poll tax pale, they mean nothing, compared to the sheer vile principle attached to it.
Furthermore, it wasn't so much the policy itself which caused rancour, but Thatcher's arrogant and unconsolidatory demeanour throughout.
It didn't work in the 14th century when it was first installed (and it caused riots then), so how could
anyone possibly conceive that it would work in this day and age?
It must be very comforting to imagine that it was just Socialists who opposed this policy, but the Poll Tax demonstrations, as with the Iraq protests, attracted people from all walks of life.
You also appear to be implying that people opposed the Poll Tax for purely selfish reasons. Perhaps some did. But others, unlike most Tories, have a simple sense of fairness and cannot stand to see the weakest members of society being bullied by the strongest. The poll tax was another symptom of such excessive Darwinisn, which Thatcherism often encouraged, and which has no place in a modern civilised society as far as I'm concerned.
It caused
riots, for crying out loud!
As for the rest of your post, Realpolitik already addressed everything that's necessary, and possibly better and more eloquently than I could have done (I don't necessarily share his
hatred of Thatcher though; you'll be pleased to know I generally don't regard her as the Medusa figure she is often portrayed as).
