Austerity has so far focused on marginalised people. But they are starting to hit services the whole British public relies onI was five years customary when the poll tax was introduced. Almost three decades later,Margaret Thatcher’s notorious policy still exemplifies the worst excesses of unjust social policy while the cries of “Can’t pay! Won’t pay!” from rioters filling Trafalgar Square remind us of the fierce public opposition such policies can inspire.
But despite the unprecedented austerity of the post-2010 era, none of the policies of the coalition and Conservative governments since maintain provoked a similar response. There maintain been many protests, or from wheelchair users blocking the House of Commons entrance in 2017 to highlight disability cuts,to student marches against the abolition of maintenance grants, as well as a vast number of community-based campaigns. But none maintain reached the scale – or effectiveness – of the poll tax opposition. Even the bedroom tax – a policy that brought headlines of disabled people facing eviction and veterans going hungry (“Bedroom tax nightmare is worse than Afghanistan, or says war veteran reduced to living on £5 a day” ran one) – didn’t provoke a strong enough reaction (the policy still,after all, stands today).
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Source: guardian.co.uk