Forum Topic

Council tax 2024/25

This morning I received by Council tax bill for the coming year.Well done to the Labour Council for holding their portion of tax down with a minimal increase of 2% for Adult Social Care (not even rising to inflation rate, so in effect less than before). The real increase that infuriates me is the +8.6% to the GLA to pay for transport, police and fire. The increase no doubt contributes to the millions* required to police the constant Palestinian peace marches in central London. Why no other peace marches I wonder? After all war still rages in the Ukraine and Yemen. With countless casualties.*Sky News reported these costs to the Met Police to be £26.5 MILLION on 24 January 2024. Time these protestors were made to pay for the policing of London, not us.

Lucille Grant ● 47d10 Comments

Must be a lot of people not going to work if they can continually go on marches.  Who pays their Council Tax is that why they take more from the residents who do pay.

Barbara Stevens ● 42d

Ms Bond'The right to protest is a democratic right'True, but in the end unless one favours mob rule protesters must put their aims and objectives to the electorate to get them enacted.'I understand there are more than 2,500 marches in London a year'.That is an amazing number - nearly 7 a day.Haven't seen any in Southfields.What are the issues so many people are disgruntled about ?

John Hawkes ● 42d

Much of Syria was flattened by the Russians making it uninhabitable.  Why do you think there are so many Syrian refugees around the world?  Wars displace people.I understand there are more than 2,500 marches in London a year. The right to protest is a democratic right.

Philippa Bond ● 42d

Mr Kettlekey'So it's only a waste of money if you disagree with the cause?'Surely the point is that there appears to be only one political cause, 'the plight of the Palestinians', that many think worthy of protesting about, with a regularity that seems to mark it out as a social occasion.And it is one that we in the UK have no special concern over and interest in nor ability to affect.Yet the marches take place here and we have to pay for them.Neither is this cause related to the highest level of state oppression or massacre seen in the world.For this we have to look at China's treatment of Uyghur Muslims and other Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang.Anyone up for a march to their embassy in Portland Place ?Or march against the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Arabs by other Arabs in Syria and Yemen ?An actual not eventual death toll.No let's march against Israel and the Jews for their unprovoked war against Palestinians.Unprovoked that is apart from the invasion of their country by Palestinians in the form of Hamas on 7th October 2023.These anti-Israel marchers are either too dim as to be totally unable to see what Arabs are aiming to achieve, namely the destruction of Israel according to the Hamas Charter or they are too cowardly to admit the truth of this or they are just plain antisemitic.And I have no doubt that were the police to absent themselves from these marches, all hell would break loose.I wonder how much freedom to protest the Islamic cause Putin will allow following the bombing of a concert in Russia by Isis; Hamas' even more psychopathic little brother ?And how many will be allowed to march to protest against his suppression of such a protest.That is were the Russian people to want to march either for the cause or its suppression.

John Hawkes ● 43d

"Charity begins at home."So does freedom and policing.

Ed Robinson ● 43d

It is not a question of agreeing or disagreeing with the Palestian situation, its a question of disagreeing with the extent of the cost of policing protests that have gone on and on. People are hard up.  Charity begins at home.

Ronald Leslie Redfern ● 43d

So it's only a waste of money if you disagree with the cause?Fundamentally the protests are about an ongoing conflict that, given how entrenched each side is, has no feasible end other than the extinction of one group - the Israelis or Hamas - with the prospects of tens of thousands of innocent civilian deaths (on both sides, but predominantly Palestinian given the uneven military dynamic), and a possible eventual death toll in the hundreds of thousands or millions.But, of course, the UK Government can't seem do anything to help prevent this other than argue in the House of Commons about the technicalities of a strongly worded statement or a non-binding vote.

John Kettlekey ● 47d

I agree there is underfunding of the police hence  my disquiet that so many millions (not a drop in the ocean to the average man on the street) is funding  the policing of these constant marches that achieve nothing.

Lucille Grant ● 47d

It's not that simple though is it.People have a right to protest, and a right to be protected whilst doing so (peacefully). Living in a democracy has a price.But this is separate to the more general situation.The reason why there is inadequate policing right now is not because of the policing costs of these protests, but as a result of the choices of the current and previous/recent Governments. They are choosing not to invest in the Police force, and then they're bring up spurious stories to deflect attention from this.The money exists, but the current and recent Governments have decided to squander it on many other things (e.g. the Garden Bridge cost £43m of public money, HS2 and then cancelling it, billions on useless PPE contracts, choosing not to pursue billions worth of fraudulent furlough claims, etc).£30m on policing protests is a drop in the ocean compared to these, but making that the topic and focus is a great tactic for pitting two opposing groups against each other rather than them uniting over the greater problem (raising the underfunding of the Police).

John Kettlekey ● 47d

I notice from another thread with a post by John Hawkes that the cost of policing these marches is in fact much higher than I thought @ £32.5 million up to 31/12/23. No doubt the true figure stands somewhere between the two but it must be beyond reasonable doubt that millions of £££ of Londoners money is being spent unnecessarily, whilst also leaving us without the best possible police cover throughout the country as forces are used from outside London, I believe.

Lucille Grant ● 47d