It's all in the language.

[islaydarkblue]

I remember at tha time, my friend in Manchester had a house similar to mine, his rates were £42/month and my rates were £96/m.
When the poll tax was introduced, I was then paying £54 / month.
Many people lost their right to vote rather than pay towards their residence, when the poll tax started.

In April 1992 I was working on the Bank of Scotland mobile bank in Perthshire.
On the Monday morning before the 1993 General Election we drew up at our stance in Stanley at 11am. John Swinney who was the red hot favourite for the Perth and East Perthshire seat was finishing being interviewed by Grampian TV. When his interview was over he came onto the mobile bank to ‘press the flesh’. He shook hands with the driver and then shook hands with me.
John Swinney then asked me if he could count on my vote.
I replied No.
John Swinney was taken aback. Nobody was allowed to say No to a prospective SNP MP.
He asked me why. I told him that I was a Conservative and Unionist voter and even if I had wanted to vote for him I could not because I lived in the Dundee West constituency.
I also told him that he would not get elected because he told his SNP supporters not to register for the Community Charge. As a result they were not on the electoral roll and they do not get a vote.
John Swinney did not win the seat and the political experts assumed that this was because of a surge in the Tory vote in Scotland resulting in John Major’s Conservative government remaining in power. I knew differently.
Sadly the following Monday morning John Swinney was nowhere to be seen when we drew up at the stance in Stanley. I was very disappointed as I was hoping that he might have been there to tell me that I was correct that he did not get elected.
These ‘missing’ SNP supporters were not on the voters roll until nearly one million people registered to be added to the electoral roll prior to the 2014 independence referendum.
These people should have paid back their Community Charge payments which they should have paid to their local authority and was basically theft. The local authorities still had these debts outstanding on their books but Alex Salmond after the 2014 independence referendum wrote off these debts using the money that the Scottish Government received from the Barnett Formula.

[Returnofrros]

Conservative thinking is actually quite widespread in Scotland. It does not translate into votes but perhaps more people will see now is not the time to strike out on our own. EU seems to be having problems so trying to sell a change of allegiance from being part of Britain to part of the EU seems a difficult call. Just imagine what kind of bribe the SNP could have got from David Cameron or Theresa May if they had been able to support their Conservative governments.

Social Conservatism is the biz.....I noticed the rainbow flags flying on the bridge today......flown more than the Jack in Scotland now.

Bringing the big Jack out of retirement for away games when I get back, compliment the Mr Hitchens flag very well.😁

[islaydarkblue]

Social Conservatism is the biz.....I noticed the rainbow flags flying on the bridge today......flown more than the Jack in Scotland now.

Bringing the big Jack out of retirement for away games when I get back, compliment the Mr Hitchens flag very well.��

Must be a gay wedding somewhere close by.

[Deeranged]

Must be a gay wedding somewhere close by.

Most weddings are gay occasions, until the uncles start fighting that is.

[Returnofrros]

It was Scottish Conservatives who wanted to adopt the Community Charge system. Lord Younger was the driving force. They were warned by Nigel Lawson that it would not work. He was right and Thatcher was wrong to allow the experiment to go ahead.

Scottish Conservative and Unionist party.

[Taintedice]

800 million coming our way.....guid auld Tories.😎

New golf courses in Tayside/Fife?

[Taintedice]

My point of view is that Scots should wait and see how Brexit works out for Britain

How it works out for Britain is irrelevant to Scots, who should only care how it works out for Scotland e.g. NHS sell-off next couple of years, same with Scottish Water, are matters they should consider, not Cornish fishermen going out of business.

[Taintedice]

The important thing is that this £800 million will spent on what it is intended to be spent on.
The SNP MSPs are up in arms because they wanted the £800 million allocated through the Barnet Consequentials which means that the £800 million is not ‘ring fenced’ and it can be spent on any of Nicola’s per projects.
It has been reported that almost a year ago the Scottish Government received £97,149,000 from the U.K. Government to be spent replacing illegal cladding on properties throughout Scotland.
To date the Scottish Government have not spent a penny of this £97.149 Million.
No doubt the pro independence MSPs will be hoping to divert some of these unspent funds to support their demands for a second ‘once in a generation’ independence referendum.

You don't half come away with some ****e. If the tories hadn't messed about with safety regulations in the first place, or taken back-handers, Grenfell would never have happened. It's like someone punching you in the face then complaining you're not doing enough to clean up the blood.

[Returnofrros]

Poll tax was excellent apart from no 100% rebate.

[Deeranged]

I like the idea of a local sales tax, keeps the tax where the cash is spent, but can't see how it would work in Scotland - too many rural areas where there would be significantly less sales than the nearby urban areas where the teuchters tend to travel to to buy stuff.

The rest of Islay's post was descending into unnecessary Scottish Government bashing and irrelevant specific examples of how Islay operates so I didn't read it.