Taxation and Representation: Media, Political Communication and the Poll Tax (Acamedia Research Monograph) ppt

Printed in Great Bri偵旭 byWhits組ble LithoL瓜，Whitstable, Kent, UK Contents Chapter1 Chapter2 Chapter3 Chapter4 Chapter 5 Chapter6 Chapter7 Chapter8 Appendix1 Appendix2 Appendix3 Citi扭由包p

For Jo andJack, with love: DD

ForJen:PG

Da'li唯d Deacon is Lec個rerin Commu剖開位on and Media S個dies

Peter Golding is Profesωr of So ciology and Head ofDepartment,

Depar恤ent ofSocial Scienα為Loughborough University

Taxation and Representation: The

Poll Tax David Dcacon and Pctcr Golding

Department of Social Sclences, LoU9拙。rOU9h Universi句

iv

British Library Ca個log1iingin Publica位oilDa個

Deacon, David

Taxation and Representation:

The Media, Poli位calComtnunication and the Poll Tax

Acamedia Research MoIiograph: 11

I.Ti位e II Gölding, Peter m Series

336.25

的BN:0 86196 390 3

ISSN: 0956-9057

Published by

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Unauthorised duplica位oncontravenes applicable laws

Printed in Great Bri偵旭 byWhits組ble LithoL瓜，Whitstable, Kent, UK

Contents

Chapter1

Chapter2 Chapter3

Chapter4 Chapter 5

Chapter6 Chapter7

Chapter8 Appendix1 Appendix2 Appendix3

Citi扭由包p，éommunication and Politiês 一

Selling Accountability:

Government Promotion ofthe Community Charge 45 Promoting Dissent: Anti Poll T，也 Campaigr血g 71

Policy Made Public:

Media Coverage ofthe Community Ch訂ge 111

The Politics ofPolitical Communication:

The Determinants and Impact ofPoll Tax News 181

Rethin旭ngPolitical Communication 199

v

Acknowledgements

The empirical rese缸chthat forms the basis of tbis book was funded by two grants

from the Economic and Social Research Council (reference numbers: R000231512

and R000233523) We are gratefulωthe Council for their support and interest 旭

therese位曲，and to the anonymous referees who cons個lctivelycOlÌlIDented on the

grant submissions 阻.dend ofprojectreports

We would also like to thank Jo Aldridge, Natalie Fenton, Alan Brym阻，KarlAs

h-worth, Andrew Shaw, Julie Johnson and other colIeagues at 也e Depar個entof

Social Scien白s， Loughborough University for their advi間，倒也個nceand support

Our thanks 曲oto Jo Wakefield for her careful transc旬tionofthe interview草， Pe記r

Beaman for his technical suppo此， Bob Fran蛤infor his steady supply of polI恤

clipp旭函，and Wendy Monk for her me位culousproofreading

。田 fur也erthanks to all 也ejournali喲，news editors, poli位.cians，presSnre group

representa卸的，trade unionists, business men and women and press and publicity

officers, who agreed to be interviewed for the research Without their co-operation

and candour many important elements of 也isstory would have remained hidden

fromview

Finally, our th叩ksto 0田 families，whose forebearance and 悶pportduring the

completion of tbis manuscript made the crea位.vestraine個ier 切 be且

Preface

'Lo okl Quickl Wasn'tt加tapo位cyJust now? Too late It's gone We threw the proposer out'

Aris切pheries，The Assembly ofWomèn

D ……刑 1990 也eteform of叫 loc叫

govemmentfmànce wàs one Qfthe mostnewsworthy 的picson

the intetnational news agenda) Newspapers as geographicàlly diverse as Zim.babwe's Harráre Her a1 d , The SöVÏet Union's

Pravda and Izvest駒，France's Le Monde , Italy's La Rep的licca，Thailand's

Bangkok Post and the USA's Washington Post ran lead stories on 也eissue,

and in Australia Th e Melboume Age edi切rialized 世 ataxco叫dbe designed

to sow social dissent and e缸n unpopul缸ityfor a govemment，也isis it' (3/4/90: 13) Evenmediafarremovedfrom 也eintêmâtional news agency rounds felt compelled to report the political debate it provoked For example, down in the FalklandIslands, The PenguinNews ruminated on the political rammcations of 'a good scheme' that had been 'poòr甘 im­

plemented' (7/5/90: 12) When the British Conservative Govemment aiJ.nounced in 1986 itS inten-tion to replace the existing method of local domestic taxation with a new 'Community Ch缸醉，it couldn't have anticipated the controversy it w自

unleashing Yet within fo肘 ye訂s， 'The Poll Tax' 一 as it became more publicly and pejora位velyknown - had split the ruling p訂你仕omtop to bottom, precipitated serious breakdowns in public order, conipro血isedthe

electoral viab血tyand intemational cred晶晶tyof the Government, incited

a cacophony of derision from a normally quiescent media, and brought down a Prime Ministβr who merely mönths before had been considering

扭曲直到tely postpon姐gherre位rement.Úlpolitical tern'is alone，也e 晶晶-，

亢的nofthe Comm叫你 Chargeranks as(one ofthe most abject (ailures 姐 i

This book charts the development of 血1spolitical crisis, and in p缸tic叫叮

(0 tl')

(/'

T缸ationand Representation: The Media, Political Cômmu剖開tionand 也.ePolI T，坦

/

(心仙 ho棚w 血卸e 切協岫su… u

extends beyond the conten位ousissues raised by the new tax, for its

im-ρplementation and subsequent abandonment has provideq句 invaluable

j 啊。的凶妙的呻lore bro咖p加ciples inv伽他 thec()mm叫ca位on

\ and formation of public policy'; As a major fiscal rèform with impor個nt

cons位tutionaland political implications, the Co血munityCharge was

in-troduced against a background of considerable opposi位.on.The

Govern-ment energetically promoted the change; anq"citizens were principally

dependent on the media for information aboutl~t How did such promotion

occ恥 andwith what effects? What form did public discussions take and

with what effect on policy forma位on?And how far did the media çater for

a full public discussion of such a 血a 吋jo 肘r legislative i恤 nnovat位io9'?攻，? In i加 tω s

i|!jJb卸叫mor叮'regeneral c∞ont缸肘ri跆bu泌咐t位ionto 0 盯understanding 0叫ft晶hesi站g趾E趾c祖c閃eoft也he

l …伽心旭恤血…i站蜘伽叫位伽岫削叫 C阻叫仙 a叫恥… lc

agendasa 缸repol扭it位ica 吋II蛤 ygenerated

For logistical, rather than ethnocen仕icreasons, our discussion focu.ses on

the reporting ofthe Community Ch缸gein Engl祖dand Wales, rather than

in Scotland - which experienced both a diffetent implementative timetable

個dintensity of media and public debate The first chapter contextualizes /'

our research within the broader debates currently active wi也M 也efields

of media sociology, social policy and political science, and outlines several

conceptual models 曲的 informo盯 analysis.The second chapter provides r'

a contextual overview of the history of the poll tax, and the main poli位cal

issues its introduc位onraised The third looks at the strategies employed by

也e British Governme前，趾st to promote itsEagship policy, and then to J

ameliorate the political crisis it created The fourth chapter provides a ,

comparative analysis ofhow opponents ofthe tax mobilized publicly The

扭曲，provides a detailed comp缸ativeanalysis of national and local media J

coverage of the t缸， and explores how 也e terms of reference of media

debate shifted as the policy cycle proceeded The sixth chapter examines

the news gathering of jo凹nalistsand editors in reporting the t缸， andthe

political and strategic fac切扭曲的 shapedtheir percep位ons.The seventh, /

draws together material from preceding discussions to explain the specific

fac切rsthat inf1uenced the building ofmedia agendas on the poll tax It also

explores the inf1uence of media discourses over public perceptions of the

tax The conduding chapter considers what broader inferences can be

drawn from this case study of political communication

Chapter 1

Democracy in troubled times: on being an informed citizen

T 峙的ook…………which people 盯eable to take p訂t 怯 the poli位callifeof their

society When we 組lkof citizenship we soon a控iveat notions

such 的 p叮ticipationand involvement, but above all we w血

Clichés about the 'information society' and the deluge of infôrmation to

whichwe 缸eall subject, have become so commonplace that we sometimes lose sight of so血esimple tru也s.Democracies, even large scale cómplex democracies such as ours, in which power is exercised by the few and the remote, assu血e they 缸'e inhabitβd by informed citizens Without some knowledge ofwhat the polity is up 妞，people cannot even begin to exercise any reasoned impact on the 可stemwhich govems their lives We therefore foster an ideal，旭 whichpeople receive a wide range of political informa-

位.on，which they sift, consume and deploy in rational decision making The outcome may be a vote, a motion at a pressure group committee meet旭g，

a street riot, or a yawn of disinterest and contempt But the informed ci位zen

exercises choice on the basis of information received

The tβmpting metaphor is that of the supermarket，祖 whichthe votβr

saunters among the shelves of ideas and policy op位。由， making shrewd

calcula位onsabout cost benefit balances and the comparative virtues ofthe ideological packages on offer Trolley filled, the citizen strolls to the elec-

toralcheck-。前， votβin hand The problem, ifwe extend the metaphor just

1

T阻a位onàndRep悶enta鈍。n: The Media, PO隘的問1 臼mmunicationand the Poll Tax

a little furth肘，is that not everyone can get to the same store Some can

afford bigger and better-filled trolleys The shelves 缸e f;叮 fromfull, and

many goods somehow never make it to the front ()fthe display stands Some

個rn out to ~ be very different (rom the glittering i扭曲 prömised on the

νpackaging{ The citizen“shoppe~ is exercising choice wi也祖 ve可 d挖出ct

and effectivè limits

This book is an at能mptto chart those limits, to find out why the goods are

packaged the way they 缸e，and what gets them on to the shelves For the

ideal of 也e informed ci位zen is precisely that, an ideal Analysts have

always been aw盯e， ofcour鈍，ofthe potential ofthe modern mass media to

interrupt and dis的rtthe flow of information from the political 叮enato

voters It is a long 位mesince we lived 祖 anyth旭gapproaching the

Athe-nian polis But in recent years we have been increasingly alive to the limits

of our ideal There 缸'eat least two reasons for this

, /First, we have been witnessing dramatic changes i科組組但.anJ:Ù2盟住心

I ofthe media through which poli位calinforma位onpÌim訂ilyreachβs;i.s.In

recent decades the ownership ofmajor national newspapers has continuβd

ωfall in切 thehands of a small number of large corpora位ons，frequently

controlled by tycoons with uncompromising and naked political objectives

alongside 也eir commercial 的pira位ons (Golding and Murdock, 1991)

Several 仕endshave evolvedfrom the increasingly conglomerate character

of the media The political profile of the national press has become steadily

less balanced, with a preponderance ofConservative supporting, or at least

Labour oppos恆gtitles that even the last Royal Commission on the Press

recognized as creating a 'gap in political terms which could be filled with

advantage' (cited in ibi d.) The increasingly commercial and competi位ve

character of 也epress has alSO fostered what some commentators iden位穹

的 'de-politicization' ， of the popular 削esespecially (Curran and Seat凹，

1981: 123) Politics recedes before a rising tide ofhuman interest,

show-biz related stories which transform the press 恤to an appendage of the

entertainment industry in both economic andc叫turalform Broadc部位ng，

too, reflects this 仕end;'Television in Europe thus becomes increasingly an

entertainment medium' 但eBens, Kelly and Bakke, 1992: 95) Television,

as the major and increasingly prominent altemative to the newspaper as a

medium for political communica位on，has also entered an age in which the

扭曲 idealsof public service broadcas位時缸ebeing confronted and

dis-placed by the pressing imperatives of market driven new technologies of

dis出bution (Gold坦g，forthcoming)

Chap記r1: Citizenship, Communication, ànd Politics -The Tarnished Ideal

Secondly, our ideal informed citizep is further disadvantaged by the

\growth of the‘public relations state' ,)a phenomenon 切 whichwe return shortly Information designed to persuade is never the same 由 information

passively offered as a service, and while this may naively understate the inevitably ideologïcal ch叮ac切rof anything we can sensibly c叫l'旭forma“

位on', it does reflect，部 wenote below, a sea change in the opera位onofthe

modern state

For many writers within political science the anxieties and critiques im“

plicit in 也ese observations 訂e unfounded Information flows have 恤，

creased, electorates have become more sophisticated, and democracy is the

rich紅的 a res叫t. Notions of 'cognitive mob也za位，on'suggest that rising levels of education have created better equi即ed p石五日ations﹒ Together

with the gröwth in media provision 也Ìsnourishes thβdemocra位，cprocess(Inglehart, 1977) Th間， as Dal的n argues,‘At the same time 也atthe

co俱Ìtiveskills of Westem mass publics have improved, so too have the public'sresources 的daythere is a ne盯lyunli凶能dsupply and v前ietyof

political news , we caÍl [now] be more sanguine about fhe nature ofbelief

systems 恤 co臨時叮叮 publics.' (Dalt凹， 1988: 凹， 32).

As will becomβclear throughout this book our views are far less confident

/宜'hechanging nature ofthβcommunication system is count位balancedby

\._ changes 祖 the 帥部ta伽ns of citizenship~ 0盯 case s旭旬，ofthe m咖

change in local taxation introduced in Britain in 也，e1980s, was centrally conceived by its 盯chitects旦旦an 祖itia位，veto change the bas泌 ofcitizenship

At local level 也is was designed to be for 也e be此er， an 缸gument we examine in the following chapters The poll tax arrived in the wake of considerable efforts by the ideologues of the newright to seize the moral

-.,high 且至! and citizenship proved an attractive ba函正高高屁立泣區

dβ ，i:tte about the 怯xwound on，也is theme became an insis切nt 血0位f

within the poli位caldialogue of thβlate 1980s 她s Thatch肘'sspeech to the GeneralAssembly ofthe Church ofScotlandinMay 1988，恤sis臼dthat

句 'most Chris位answould reg配dit as their personal Christian duty to help their fellow men and womβn' ， from which premise shemovedrapidlyto the

今 conclusionfhat 'intervention by thβstate must never become so great that

it effectively removes personal responsibility' (see Rab間，1989) This w的

parallelβd by influential articles by the then Home Secretary, Douglas Hurd, in which he argued that 'the idea of active ci位zenshipis a necess缸y

complement to that ofthe enterpris晦 culture.Public service may once have been the duty of an 組妞，but today it is 也eresponsibility of all who have

可/

v

/

4

T臨ationand Represen個.tion:The Media, Poli位cal Communica位onand the Poll T臨

位meor money to sp缸4 個肘d， 1989) The ac位.ve ci討zenwas someone

nurtured by the fruits of free enterprise, and happy to reinvest 也eirwell

deserved acquisitions 姐toreSponsible patronage of 也eless fortunate lt

W自 not al的gether surp也ing that 也edebate about the poll tax came to

/

adopt this language 的Miller notes，區血ebattle over the t路 'for p缸"

liamentary and public opinion the 訂gumentshave had to be pù.tin terms

of values which 訂emore broadly sh叮'ed.These have centred largely on

explicit and implicit 血odelsof citizenship' (M血er，1989: 96)

\ The citizen found herseijl constituted 祖 threevery differem and confused

( '~~~e~: 如此， mdmostMdiaonally，部 informedand responsive p缸旭erto

也e state 旭 theman茍ementofthe 而梅克耐高高站在孟晶石EIZJs

than encoura到時，with signs of continuous loss offai也 inthe body politic,

也efragmentation of a civic culture, and pluralist stagnation (see Topf,

少_ 1989) Second, the ci位zenwas being urged to become the new 扭扭扭扭J

thropic active citizen conjured up by the enthusiastic visionaries

ofvolun-k 、 teer welfare capitalism The citizen 豆豆豆豆豆豆豆路 received her most

仁 authorita位veacclamation from the Commission on the subject established

by the Speaker of the House of Commons in 1988 In these terms ci也阻"

ship became a target for schools in encouraging appropriate curricula, and

thesumm訂ydescription of community voluntary work (Commission on

k ci恥的峙， 1990)t Finally, we had the citizen ~s consumer,_exerting civic

令~一一一一一 -power through the mechanics of the market, bullish1y clamouring for

satisfaction in the glass and steel shop fronts of the town hall cus切mer

service centre, citizens' 也缸terinhand.

Amidst such confusion 也e 血.ediahave a strategic role, enshrining and

已/ç_ promo伽g one or another面証el， labelling and evaluati時 theme恥 and

dominant so盯ce of information and imagery which becomes the raw

material for media work And in 也atrole we cannot ignore the massive

expansion of the public relations state

The rise of the public relations state

All governments like to be well thought of They pro血otetheir own policies

and denigrate those of oppos坦gp缸位.esas p缸tof the routine business of

politicallife Even Napoleon invested 位meandmoney 祖 m暐旭gsurethe

Moniteur purveyed the right line But in recent decades the scale and

ferocity ofthis aspect ofpublic life have escalated substantially Writing of

Chapter 1: CitizensWp, Communica位.on，and Poli位的明 TheT缸nishedIdeal

the United States, Oscar Gandy has drawn attention to the rise of the information professionals within government ‘At every level of goverIi-

me此， inevery agency, thete 缸einformation specialists whose

responsi-b泌tyit is to ensure 也at 也enation's publicmediacarry 也edesiredmessage forward to the general public, other government 0血cials，and key corpor-ate leaders who have a role to play in the formulation and implementation ofpublic policy' (G祖旬， 1982:74)

Gandy goes on to 缸guethat this system works through what he terms

闊的盯es 切 reducetheCost 切坦起草泣忘訴函區忌。fobtaining tion they need to construct news By making life easy for the news seekers,

informa-information managers can influence and even determine the floW' and character of coverage about their ac位.vitiesin the news media That is,

obviously, the basis on which all public rela位onsand publicity work rests

In the post-w位 periodin Britain it was for long assumed 曲的 politicswas

mo社ngto a steady state of ideological convergence, in'which agreement about the nature ofthe goodsocietywas disturbed only by minor squabbles over its administration This 'consens肘，or‘ButskeUite' happy statβcame

to a rude end, if it ever really existβd， wi也 thereturn of' con viction politics' and the launch ofthe Thatcherite project in the late 1970s Once more government was 扭曲ebusiness of winning he叮tsandm扭曲.

The state is at the heart of the news machine Studies of news have pere

Ii-nially plotted the dominance of items about the machinery of goverIiment and the routine drama of Wes個lnsterlife wi也旭 thebroad 缸rayofnews

coverage Though this has, as we noted above, declined 自 aproportion of the whole, and indeed its reduction has recently occasioned some distress among politicians (Straw, 1993), the predominant flavour in the daily diet

of the news media continues to be the whiff of political grapeshot and the odour ofWestminster's hot air 'News prioritizes the state and its agents,

treating even minor state activi位的 as inherently newsworthy, viewing agents of the sta切 as ‘reliable'sources and as interesting speakers, and portraying the visible aspects ofrelations among states' (Knight and Curt詣，

1987: 的). Of course this portrayal has its own elisions and evasions (Golding, 1981) But 也iscombination of ideolo斟caldivergence and the

prom垣enceof the state as an object of media attention has created the conditions for a substantial increase in public relations ac位vityby the state

♂Tλ 正與

v'

5

T臨ationand Represen個tion:The Media, PO加叫“mmunicationand the Poll T;盟

Many observers have noted the importation of the machinery and prac偏

低ces of the advertising industry into poli位cs.A new branch of this craft

appears, in whatNim血oand Combs describe 扭扭‘indus仕yof experience

brokers', of'propartists' consisting of'professionalhypesters with a v前iety

of specialities and s泌ls' (Nimmo and Combs, 1990: 67) That poli位csis

nowg盯landedby an app盯atus of spin doctors, 10bbyists, consultants,

communication analysts, press officers, and their kin is only too familiar

The political 叮enais a supreme1y image-conscious one After all, as the

architect of the Sun's dramatic rise rather innocent1y puts 仗， 'it is poli說，

cians, rather than newspapermen, who tend to exaggerate the power ofthe

press'ιamb， 1989: 161)

f'í Government has become a major e月10yerof press and public re1ation.s

心j翩翩， andof 帥的隘的In1992 HM Government spent 的3 別扭on

r on advertising Betwee叫 986and 1991 theinc自由e 祖 its expenditure 姐

」叫做msw帥的out~ercent, and the total expenditure of 也iskind

\!.I rough1y doub1ed during 也edecade The Government's advertising budget

dw缸fsthat of such mega corporations as Ford, General Motors，個dPr∞"

如r and Gamb1e Moreover the Government's figures no 10nger include

privatized corporations such as British Te1ecom ( “6 million in 1992) or

the utilities Indeed, spending on the promotion ofprivatization initiatives

formed a sig祉ficant p缸tof this publici可 efl'ort. The sell“ofl' of the water

indus佐y was supported by campaigns costing f.42 臨別io且， more 也an

twice that spent on the earlier gas privatization In May 1990 也ethen

Government Energy Secretary, John Wakeham, w部 appointedto c心ordi­

nate government publicity and information, and new proposa1s to give

senior ministers PR 'minders' were revea1ed (Independent on Sunday , 17

June 1990) Growing politica1 protests about these deve10pments 1ed to the

appointment of a public enquiry by the Nationa1 Audit Office, which

showed 也e very major programmes of expenditure undertaken 旬，for

examp1e the Dep盯tmentof Trade and Industry on its 'Enterprise Ini

tia-tive' Perhaps the two key administrative measures, above all others,

whichcame 如 symbolizethe force of 也is shift 旭 government promo位on

were the incorporation ofthe government statistica1 service into the super“

visory embrace of the Treasury, and the assump泣。n in 1989 by 愉S

Thatcher浴缸enchantChiefPress Secretary, Bernard Ingha血，ofthero1e of

head of the Government Information Service simultaneous1y wi也 his

otherduties (Ingham, 1991: 367一的;Roya1 Statis位ca1Society, 1990)

The promotion of good news and radica1 policy initiatives has continued to

Chapter 1: Citizenship, Communication, andPolitiω 叫祖eT，缸nisb吋 Id叫

a位ract subs個ntial reso叮ces.In J an.u盯y1994 the Secretary of State for Education announced that he was 個 spendover f.2million sending a 1eaflet

intoev，位yhomein 也ecountry giving the Governme肘，s views and advice

onmorali紗， citizenship, discipline and family values Between 1989/90

and1991/92Depar恤entofHeal血 spendi呵。npublic re1ations rose from

f.0.8抽血ionto f.1.49m血ion(Hansard , WA Col 244, 8 June 1993) A Corporate Afl'airs Intelligence Unit was estab1ishβd to seek out, and compile

form恆isterialpromotion, stories illustrating the success of the ment' s health service reforms S旭過缸1y， in housin菇， f.4.5m到抽nw部

Govern-spent on public re1ations to promote the 'right to buy' policy betwëen 19"80

and 1993

It is in this context that we should understand the promotion of the

Com-mu國tyCharge de心cribedin t垃ss個dy Whilethe 吧空空空空豆豆些dpromo- /2.~ ~.:♂

tiona1 efl'ort inv哩哇旦出“空缸gewer色空穿白磁蛇頭f 也控股!:~entire1y /-U ν ← consis館益tw迪金主~pd.inthe 血缸kçtingof也.estate which had been rising

區區已yb叫Go1，峙， 1990).(那poli叫 promo位on does not 吋

happen atna位onal1evel.The 10cal state has not been s10w to 1earn thβse

予函諾諾8.1efl'orts of varying kinds has become a common feature of the

10ca1governmentscenβry﹒ The evo1ution of municipa1 newspapers, ing the good news to every doorstep 扭曲ecommunity, is a good indicator

bring-of this deve1opment, though，扭扭曲姐恤an.dMurphy note, they are of such recent orig姐 thatthey were 討rtuallyoverlooked in the 1977 Royal Commission on the Press (fl叫 detailon this phenomenon see Franklin and Murphy, 1991: Ch 6; Fr祖國恤， 1988).

Inall thes晦 ways，也en，the marke位ngof government ac位.vityhas become

a 臼ntralac位vityof modern statecraft Inevitab1y the 1aunch of any major policy initiative will be devised with this app缸atus of promo位on and information management in mind 祖旦旦旦mmu剖tyCharge became a 臼st JP? 些做些單恆星E同仁暫住把堅. We neea oriefly to assess how well equipped students of political co血munication were to understand 也is

process

Political communication: the doub1e absence

To understand the process of political communication we need to draw on the insights of both policy analysis and of media and communication

rese訂'ch.Unfortunate1y both have been curious1y silent on 也e

intercon-o c:;

8

T阻ationand Representation: The Medi訟， Po加開l Communi間越onand the Poll T缸

nection between the two The detailed intellectual history and disciplinary

evolution which explain 血is 的哩tessential to 0凹 concernshere, but we

do need briefly to review them

Poli位calstudies frequentlý pay lip service ~o the impo此anceof the media

and communications In p甜詢問，howeVér, this emerges only in cursory

reference to 血erole ofthe media, especia11y as witness to the recurrentand

playful cIash of pressure groups wi血也.e poli位cal system/Most policy

analysis finds its roots, implicitly if not explic設旬， in 也e 誼ndof systemic

model developed, cIassical跡，by writers like David Easton 徊的恤， 1965).

<" In this model the policy process becomes，的 usethe familiar metaphor, a

black box, which produces ou句utsin the form of decisions and actions

Into the black box go inputs in 也eform of demands ànd supports, either as

votes, payment of taxes, and obedience, or al臼rnativelyas dissent,

press-ure and articulatβd cIaims While it is not diffic叫tto develop a critique of

functionalist models of this 垣nd， even盲refmedand moderated f()rm they

underpin a large number of policy analyses

Important in such a view is the understanding of policy as a process 函ta

product, and that insight releases the potential ('~ such traditions of policy

ana蟑螂 as 加plementation 也eoryand incrementalis哩dEach of them，恤

prac位ce， however, retains the sense of this process evolving within an

'environment', which contains tl!e economic and social s仕ucturesof the

wider society beyond the polity ~ Our focus in this book is 0的h已medi~ 個d

也叮叮'einherently p缸tof the modern policy process, which is

inconceiv-able without the rhetorical and publicity app缸atus ofpoli位cal

communi-cation Thus to devolve so much of the essential character of the po垃位cal

process to a residual category of actions in the 'environment' is 拍 miss

much ofthe core ofwhat determines and shapes policy It is s凶Is凹prising

how minimal an appe前ance the media and communications make in

many policy analyses, and even where they do it is organizational

com-munication rather than media comcom-munication which dominates (Nixon,

1980)

Tν/A 郎t 伽same t拋iI加 me 血 med 社品曲 ia st仇叫 1

w

叫it也 h the rol抬eof j知O盯nali諂sm and the careful and c叫 ri位伽ca叫1 analysis of the

symbolic world of media out句pu 叫t. Where it has been inclined to address

politics it has remained resolutely 'media-cen仗ic'，rarely drawing on the

research and theory available within political sociology or policy analysis

、 2

Chapter 1: Citizenship, Communica說on， andPo加cs 且 TheT缸nishedIdeal

Perhaps the most powerful concept to be developed in 血e attempt to und酬and 叫你也粗的叫叫酬的呼叫加叮恤叮叮

The notion ofpri血arydefinition was formulated by Hall and his colleagues

in 也祉 analysisof news coverage of‘mugging' (Ha11 et a1., 1978) nant forces in society do not dictate directly the tβ:rms and vocabulary of news coverage, either conspiratorially or by dictat They 缸'e able, how-ever, through the s仕uctures of news production, to ensure that news reflects the interests of也epowerful This reproduction, in 也elast instance,

Domi-does not ignore the real autonomy ofnews producers But because ofthe importance of accredited sources with authority to defme news salience and form, and the unavoidable exigencies and speed of routine news

production，也enews process produces 'a systematically structured

over-accessing to the media of those in powerful and privileged posi位ons. The media thus tend, faithfully and impartially, to reproduce symbolica11Y the

J

e油加g struc個reofpower 祖 society'sinstitutional order' (ibi d.: 58) The media thus become secondary defme間，dependent on the hegemonic defm-ing power of accredited sources, the representatives ofm吋orsocial ins位徊，

I.l;:' '1}-川 r

ι-_ 品('i' t i

This model is an 姐sightfuland efTective one Not surprisingly, though, it 名言

wo 吋r成啦 k 旭ing 兮'吋 overb 句 yS缸ch 沮1β 郎si姐 nge侃 r丸'， whoa 盯rg 訊u泊est油 ha 肘tt晶 heI阻 nodelfi包 or叩 'ce臼sa 組 na 叫lyst臼st切 ;0 rJ 戶、7

ignore 切ot晶 b hth_t'l processes by y 戶\71扭 l泣ichs叩ot盯IrC凹es c∞ont臼es仗tfor accreditation,and

y-the strate斟.es 也eyemploy to command attention (Schles姐阱， 1990).As

。盯 discussionof news sources志高志而江那誼妞， we would share 恤

reservation about the notion of prim訂y defmition, while remaining anxious to retain its essential insight into 也erelationship which exists between the media and power struβtures in society

o Ö "0

9

Taxation and Represen組tion:The Media, Poli位cal Commu凶間組onan:d the Poll Tax

is an attempt to explore the applicability of a more substantial model ofthis

垣nd.

The analysis of political communication 函，of course , a well developed and

extensive 缸eaof research and discussion Yet it remains a curiously

un-helpful one in answering the questions posed by this study There are three

_ reasons for this inadequact :P irst , po挂毯cal communica位on research has

- í been obsessed wi也 theproþess-Qf ~lectionee且時這 Thenatural experiment

providedby 也espectacle of elections has been just 的o bewitching 切 avoid

for generations of commentators and researchers, and we readily pleá

訊Iiltyto sh訂祖g 也isfascination (Billig et aL, 1992) Yet it should be only

個o ob討ousthat elections are anything but the normal state of 也ebody

poli位c.The content and volume of public debate , the intensity of poli位cal

rhetoric , the attentiveness of ci位甜的， and the energy and partisanship of

political media 缸e all 切tallyatypical in the periods fra血edby elections

This does not mean we can learn nothing from 也estudy of elec位。帥，butit

does suggest we would do well to be w訂yof generali泣ng 扭曲e poli位cal

communication process per se from the lessons of election research

于[SecondlY，如tion research defmes 伽 nature of politics and po加cal

communication in é!_ very closely 一-一_ -、」旬-闕_fraJlled 血anner.By politics is me éUl_ :-"-_J<-_ t par望J

olitics , and by political communication is meant th墅里o_!!!跑單位veappealof

予artiesto electors Political co血municationresearchhas much to gai甜苦Ut

)茁濟問蕊區首品dli組e，from attempts to draw attention to 也eessentially

po加c叫 characterof all communicatio肘，the ideological inves恤entinall

forms of public communication , whether fiction or non也c位on，whether

dealing with the familiar artefacts of policy or the less obviously but equally

powerful politics of the do血的啦，也epersonal , and the mundane

? ThirdlyJolitimIcommmimti凹的捌rchhasrem恥edlargdmh空空空空L

inth泌 countrywith the mβtropolitanandn甜on些!med!a ThiSls a mistake

state relations has been at 出ehe盯tof many of the key changes in British

poli位csover the past two decades We examine these changes later in this

study Suβhhasbeen 也eimportance of these changes that m吋 ordebates

about the role of the state have been generat吋 bythe血 within poli位cal~

theory On the one hand it is suggested th前 wenow hav(a dual sta詞， )

。perat旭gseparately at local and nationallevel (Saunders, 19'81 1982) ~

The extent to which this is a genuine separation or a contingβnt one is

important 阻d conten泣。us. On the other hand theorists have suggested

Chapterl: 口的zenship， Commu剖開封on， andPoli位cs- The Tamished Ideal

that primary social divisions are no longer derived from class positio間， but

by sectoral divisions determined by people's position 的 consumers of services, notably those provided by the local state (Dunleavy, 1989)

The other reason why concentration on 也enational media is a mistake is more obviously rooted in the media system This coun設ycontinues to have

吋翩翩ld 崢伽n愉叫缸伽gion向服心992 伽rewereover

2,000 regional papers, including over 1,000 freesheets, whose number~

had more than doubled in a decade But even the p副d 位tles have been flourishing Despite the closure in November 1988 oftheNorth West Times ,

the frrst new regional daily for 100 ye帥， t凶 is 堅堅空姐一旦血[OUS

('1宇 L

~一些空空白ec切r.Between 1980 and 1992 the number of paid for regional daily titles grew by 12 per cent, and of Sundays by 28 per cent Nearly 90 per cent of adults read a regional paper

Behind the bald statistics of survival, however, lies even more impressive evidence ofthe continued potency ofthe regional press The readership and use made of local papers is demonstrated in a wide u訂ietyof research which conftrms how prominently 也eyfeafure in people's overall media diet, and most of all, of course，旭 their consump位onof news about local matters

Despite the high penetra位on of national newspapers to households in general, na位onalreadership 函，of course, dis缸ibutedamong a nu血berof

titles Where above 80 per cent ofhouseholds 旭 agiven locality 缸'ereading

a local paper they 缸eall reading the same paper 的 oftenas not, since local monopoly is the norm The power ofthe local press for local agenda-s的峙

is manifest (Golding, 1989)

Thus both policy analysis and media research have, by operating in did isolation, left the field clear 切 atradition of political communication

splen-' ,

research which is itself severely @ldemouri~ed by virtue of a steady diet 7

。felectoral poli位cs.To move beyond this impotence we need to exam坦ea

little further the nature of media-polity interaction

Rewriting the sociology ofnews so叮ces:a typology of roles

Although the mass media 盯ecrucial intermediaries between ‘society as audience' and ‘society as so叮ce' (Ellio仗， 1972)，concerns aboutthesocial impact of media representations have always exceeded attention to the processes by which they are themselves socially constructed Yet to under-

12

T磁a的onandRepr田entation:The Media, Politi問l Communi闊前.onand the Pòll T盟

瑚nd 伽 impactofmedia discourses we mu恥伽nd 切伽iro 叫 ri 蚓 i

Gandyi油 d 由 en 吋fied i尬ta 臼stheneed ‘可油 t切og 伊 o bey 卯Oll<吋 dagenda setting to determine

whos鋁et俗sthe media agenda, how and for what purposes is it s仗，andWith

what impact on the distribution of power and values in socie昕， (Gan旬，

op ciι: 7) By exploring the rela位.veinfluence of in組組位ons 也d 恆divid­

uals in the formation ofmedia agendas, we are Jlllalysing strategic power

旭 oursociety, which as Silverstone (1990) perceptively points 0帥， isvery

difl'erent from the tactical power of audiences to select and re-appropriate

JmemMgbmM叫dualte恥

Unfortunately, prim前y research 旭to news s()盯cesremains scailt and

intermi此ent(Gandy, op cit.; Ericson et a1., 1989), with most of our

undet-standing derived from 'internaUst' analyses ofjournaUsts at wotk

(Schles-旭ger， op. cit.) Nevertheless, several important conceptual principles 盯e

到readyavailable which provide an invaluable foundation for t挫sbook.

ship, where information is bartered for pubUcity (Tunstall，即7的.H仰自

ever, in this market place ofideas, certain vendors sell their messages with

greater ease and 加 f訂 greatervolume Gans (1979) identifies fo肘 major

factors that influence the performance of news sources in shaping media

agendas, that enc呻sulatea range of current debates around news sources

andtheir 垣fluence.

v' 、

'、

t The 趾呼 hctorbthincenφiea source has to seek pubUcity through thè

media/G阻sconcentrates on the endemic disposition of institutions and

individuals towards the news media - contrasting the‘eager' sourc~s who

would suffocate without the oxygen of pub區city(such as pressure groups

andpoUticians), with ‘recalcitr祖t'sources, who are habitually more

indif-ferent or fearful of media scru位ny.However, it is also important to

appreci-ate that the degree of incentive a news source has is contextual Even the

keenest news so盯ceswill have certain issues they would prefér 的 keep

private, not just because they may have something 扭扭曲，but also

be-cause every human being and organization requires privatβspace behind

their pubUc face - a 'private culture' within which decisions can be made

and confidences respected (Ericson et a1., op ci t.) Conversely, even the most

reluctant source can experience diffic叫位的 üit fails to respond approp品

ately to media scru位ny，的tleast in risking further dangerous intrusions

into its private affairs It may also, of course, use the media to further its

own poUtical ends (閱11肘， 1993).

chapterl: ci位zenship， Communi阻tion， andPo恤ω 自 TheT回nishedIdeal

v

Gans' second fac切ris the power of a source His point，也atthere心rui恤ent ( l _

and access ofnews sources r恥tsor石誨r social and poUtic~!hierarchi帥，

is 祉so prominen位y emphasized - albeit 抽difl'erent degrees 一姐 olli誼 -­

analyses ofjournalists and their sources (Sigal, 1986; Ericson et a1., op cit.;

Gan旬 ，op cit.; Herm姐姐dChomsky, 1988; Seymour-訂閱， 1987，Hall et

祉 ，op cit.) Schlesinger characterizes this as t!!e 'cultural capital' of a news

source 一i.e i的 perceivedlegitimacy, authoritative閻明 and 甜甜ectabili旬，

which is derived 吐omthe location a source has 姐 thein咐他tionalfield…

Official sources m可 notalways have to be beUeved, but they do have to be

t述enseriously' (op ci t.: 81) Those with a high cultural capital will receive coverage as of right, whereas 0也er sources have to compete fì叮阻βdia

attention by developing media strat曙ies.

From 也iswork, it is possible to discern several general themes about the power of 姐stitu位ons and;旭Çlividualsto shape media discourses that 訂e

saUent to our discussion 'Eir鈍， as not all pubUcity is good pubUcity, the power of news sources is not just located in their abillty to a前ractmedia

attention, but also to manage 也e nature of that coverage, and where

necess缸y 切 suppress or divert media attention As Tuchman (1978)

pointso前，the power to keep an occurrence out ofthe news is an important aspect of agenda-building power This is 也e significance of our earUer observation about the new management regime of official s個位組cs.

difl'erentially available, and 缸eclosely Unked to broader configurations of political and economic power This is most evident in the power of sources

to censor media debate, such as in the ability ofthe state to impose a range ofunique sanc位onson the media, and ofthe rich to employ the legal system

13

T祖ation 個dRepresentation: The Media, Pollti曲l Communi開tionand the PoU Tax

的也reatenor punish jo叫nalis位ctransgressions However, these

sanê-tions 缸eused interm.ittently More significant is the ab也可 to enclose

discussion by disclosing information - mis姐formingor diverting media

debate by emplo抖ng defensive strategies of 'deception', or offensive

strategies of 'selection', where media attention is drawn towards less

也reatening，or more expedient, ma悅ers 但ricsonet al , op cit.) As

Dôwn-ing points out, 'Secrecy is not used 的 animpermeable shield blotting out

all communication, but as a device to allow the pinnacle of the power

struc仙e to communicate how and when it prefers' (Dow到時， 1986:

157) In this publicity game- and the field ofpublicrela位onsmore

gener-ally - economic power counts for a lot, whether inrecruiting trained pù.blic

relations personnel or covering the costs of producing and distributing

information subsidies However, political and cultural power also exerts a

significant influence Those news sources who can disseminàte

informa-tionpr甘atelyas well 部 publiclyto journalists (Ericson et al., op cit.), have

a very significant advantage over those so盯ceswho have to lobby loud

and hard in the public 訂ena.As Gandy points out:

‘ Often 也evalue of an information subsidy for any source is increased

to the extent 也atthe source can disguise the promotional, p缸位S血，

self-旭terestedquality of the information This is often accomplished

when news stories convey the desired informa位onwithout identif抖ng

its so盯'ce.Information that would be accepted only with càu位onifits

source were identified as a p缸位sanin a debate is much more powerful

ifit is a received objective fa仗， reportβd by an uninterested journ叫恤，

(op C Ít.: 14)

These covert mechanisms of disclosure 缸e going to be more routinely

available to those sources with the greatest 'cultural capital', who autc •

matica lI y receive the attention of the media , and can trade off par位al

journalistic access for confiden位alityand non-attribution

These points provide an i血portantcontext for 0肘 analysisof the

interac-tion between news so目cesand journalists in the construction of media

discourses over the Com血unity Charge:- However , before starting 0盯

f

substantive analy呦;we need to introduçè a further conceptual distinction )

that is f恤阻d岫阻削d 均y 加峙p叫m 叫tt切oou叫 1

cat紀es'and ‘ arbit紛 βrs訢，

In the 19 50s, Westley and MacLean (1957) suggested we should conceive

Chapter 1: Citizenship, Communication, and PO加ω-The Tamished Id開1

21 1_ (ofthemedi的sinformation brokers between 缸叫orma位onsee坦ngpublic

V something to say (or some也ingto selI) The notion of advocacy see血sto

的如 be a useful way of partially conceptualizingJ:1ews so盯'ces.In Our analysis 'advocates' are the sources 血的 journalists r豆亟單ZëãS.llav垣g

their contributions As such，也eyprovide the raw material ofmedia age: the conflict upon which news depends In the exchange with advo-' cates, journalists 缸哇旦旦tjust 臼eking informati妞， but 叫soopinions and assertions

cover-However , the news media are expected to cominent quickly and authorita幽

tively about an uncertain world , plagued with complex issues and moral

dilemma~ If journalists spend a large proportion of 位merepor位ngafroth

of opinion , co凶lictand conjecture , they never lose the impulse to establish v-a bed-r也包住戶， onw包ch toground 也耐 report山deed，joutnalism

V remains 0現坐車坐到tbas位onsofem控蛇~:searching for the ished truth behind the best possible gloss , clinging to 也可~belief that 'facts' can be rescuedfromhyperbole In this se前chjourn到istso立enelectso叮ces

unvarn-who , because of their perceived e勾ertise，willingness and ab也tyto municate with journalis怨，叮eused to evaluate assertions and interpreta-

com-位onsmade by advoc胸sin a political debate 的 onelocal government

co叮espondentexplained in an interview with the authors:

句

r

'A journalist is always looking for someone who can 紀且也emthat

血呵'renot being mislead or led by the nOJß And [the poll tax] isn't merely just a soft selI, but is 旭 sucha complex 盯ea.' -

.<.\ We refer to these sources as 也e'arbiters' of a particular field of discourse

電立~間喝一-詞句“即可-、-(_Arbit的 ap阿 f盯 less frequently 血an advo阻除一倒叫 th甜 com­

臨時 m叮理tevmbe d臼deven when contact has been m帥一 bu恤金控J

relianceon th.eir expertise, the evaluations of arbi臼rsresonate beyond the specific moment of contact, and far exceed the regul缸ityof their appe缸，

如此哭也要主要(略成: 84) 那SMQMjom恥ts view all SOurCeS 自

'questioÍlable' Our research suggests an important qualification to 血is

generalization Al也oughclaims and assertions by advocates 訂eritualIy approached with a degree of suspicion, this scepticism applies far less to

缸bit憑自.This is mainly because ofthe nature of the exchange relationship

。、.

16

T臨ationand Representation: The Media, PO益6個l Communi開.tionand the Poll T揖

f 1

between arbiters andjourn叫ists Firstly旭!biters~- I ,don't p凹suejournalists:

they 訂'e elected by jo盯nalists. Therefore, the廿 selectionis inextricably

linked to a journalist' s sense of her own political and professional jud那個

ment By 佐ust姐gan arbiter, the journalist is, by extension，仕ustingher

own 迦itial judgement Second，訂biters 訂e most highly valued where

issues are new, complex or uncertain This 旭evitablyplaces journalists in

a far more vulnerable and dependent posi位on.

The arbiter role here is comparable to that ofthe intellectual, in p缸位c叫缸

如 whatBauman has identified 的 the'legislator' func位on Thisis ‘ma垣ng

authoritative statements which arbitrate in controversies of opinions a:nd

which select those op旭ionswhich, having been selected, become correct

and b垣ding' (Baum間， 1987: 4) The_perceived ~~ession空白血， of 也

~更坦r is crucial to their selec說凹， and mirrors how tIle re函油証of

journalistic professionalism enables journalists to construct their own

'objec位vity'.The professional status of訂bitersis seen to remove themfrom

the vestedp缸位ality ofp盯typolitical debate, and allow them 切 comment

dispassionately, intelligently and 'objec加舟， about complex and

con-troversial matters Beyond 血泊，the selection of arbiters is 叫sogoverned by

也eir ‘mediafriendliness'; assessed, on the oIie hand, in their co-opera位間，

ness, and, on the other, in an ability to render complex issues in扭扭gibleto

journalists and their audiences

However, if the perceived expe的iseof these sources gives their views a

p訂也世缸 power 但d_ authori旬，it is necess肘y 切 question 也ena個reof

their 'objectivity'l There 訂e two dimensions to this issue The first is

whether these sources 缸eas politically detached from the matters upon

which they are commenting, as journalists assume …迦deed，whetherthey

may themselves be covert advocates For example, several commen祖tors

have recently challeng;ed the widespread use offinancial analysts from the

money markets by the media to adjudicate on broader matters offiscal and

political policy 但也iget a1., op cit.; Gav誨， 1992) In也ecase ofthe poll tax,

as we discuss in Chapter 6, some ofthe most influen位alarbiters in coverage

;were the local government finance 0血cersresponsible for administβring

\;;/ the system However, when we interviewed several ofthese professionals

it became clear they were f:缸 moreactively engaged in 也epolitical debate

也an many journalists assumed For example, they harboured serious

professional grievances against the tax - because it made their work more

problematic and seriously compromised the financial viability of their

authorities - and often communicated their antipathy to journalists (晶晶

Chapter 1: ci說zens旭.p，Communi阻位on， andPoli位cs- The Tamished Ideal

/

privately) Furthermore , in some cases , they were highly selective in the information they gave journalists For example , one fmance 0誼.cerdeliber- ately suppressed information about the level of non-payment in his 缸eato

avoid gi討ng succo盯 tolocal an位 poll t臨 campai血的﹒(Ashe put it , '1 always turned their question round into what 1 wanted 臼 tellthem' ) The second dimensionto 也is 臨的 epistem叫i喊道isn圳ec仰aryto accuse every 缸biterof pursuing a hidden agenda to ques位ontheir objec- tivity Cle缸隙， many 缸'biters seek 切 be 部 acc盯a妞， dispassionate and

imp缸tialas pδssible in the evaluations they provide Nevertheless，也eir contributions 盯en帥， and can never be , completely value free Ar biters'

c-_yerdicts 缸'e PI金色旦旦控堅al judgements derived 仕om institu位onal 而血面ge

函函 and personal 句函站前Assuch they are 咖ays potentially contestable To the social researcher the impossib也tyof absolute value freedom and objec加i可 isnot an alien concept and , indeed , is why the philosophical culture ofthe social sciences is so finely attune缸oquestions

about the conditions and production ofknowledge ,However , such notions

訂e 恤旭icalto some of 也emost cherished no御自 ofjourn祉is位c sionalism (Haslam and Brym妞， 1994)and , asaconsequence , canbeseen

profes-as hostile to the practice and inte缸ityofjournalism as a craft , rather than

as a description of the inextricable s甘uctural conditions of its practice (Golding and Ellio仗， 1979:12-16)

Throughout 也isstudy we explore the nature of media -s our ç_ e rela位on- I sh恥， bearing 旭 mind the distinction drawn here between&he roles of 11

advocate and ar甜er.However to take our model forward a little rurther we

needtoex叫ne tw, d addi泣。叫vectorsin our an吻is， thedyn削csofthe

policy process and the nature of media coverage

The natural history ofpolitical communications

It remains for us to set out briefly two conceptual devices which will form important props in the analysis which follows The first relates to the policy process itself We have argued earlier that the models of 血的 process

commonly on offer in policy studies take inadequate account ofthe

'envi-ronme肘， in which policy evolves The 仕ianguIarrelationship between politics, public opinion and the media is a particularly crucial aspect of血is

environment, and is certainly the focus of Our discussion in this book Our model here is distinct from that developed by symbolic interactionist re-searchers who seek a description of 'social problems as products of a

17

Taxation and Representa位.on: The Media, PO加開l Communi間.tionand the POII T臨

process of collective defi.區位on' 個19缸tnerand Bosk, 1988: 53) The

em-phasis on social problemsðen位rely'a putative condition or situation that

is labelled a problem in the 盯闊的 ofpublicdiscourse oì:' action' (i bi d.: 55)

rather detracts from the necess缸y analysis of the m.aterial conditions

which give rise to those problems, and which 缸e 也othe backdrop for the

contest required to force 也emto public attention Equally the emphasis on

the media as one among many potential 'carriers' elides the potent

cen-tralityof也emedia 扭曲epo誼.cyprocess Nonetheless the perspec位問， while

inadequate to 血e analysis of 也e deliberate mobilization of symbols on

which politics subsists, usefully reminds us of 也ecultural component to

the manufacture of politics

detectable 恤扯蚵t也 b h 組d 阻 e師 ve阻 nmore pronounced ending\ But, exceptional

though t趾smay be, we wish to suggest that any 仰lícyinitiative goes

也rougha sequence of phases These 缸eprimarily defi.ned in terms of the

legislative process, but 盯edesigned to invite an assessment of the links

between the three po泊的 of也eP9licy triangle mentioned above

、J

The fi.rst phase we have 叫led inceptio恥!fhisis the v甸甸 m蝕determi“

nate period in which percep位onsof the need for change 前efostered and

crystallized This can be a lengthy phase in which long seated problems 缸e

ignored, masked or un缸位c叫ated，or a brief and dram.a位cheightening of

aw盯eness precipi個位ngurgent action (as in‘moral panics') The second

-L phase is presentation , andis the point atwhich the government‘goes public'

with plans or aspira說ons，eitherthroughkiteflyingormoreformally This

merges almost immediately into the t趾rdperiod, of cons u1 tation , when

interested parties react to the proposals, and a dialogue, often unequal, and

frequently marshalled within the media, addresses and sometimes contests

,defmitions ofthe newly announced initiative The fourth period is that of

\ / form u1 ation , wherein the Government refi.nes or redesigns it proposals on

the basis of the conclusions of the consultative process However, as we

show latβr， this formulative stage was of negligible import扭曲 to the

introduction of the Com血U凶tyCharge, which was imposed in spite ofthe

conclusions of the consult甜veprocess Therefore, our description of the

media's cöverage of this particular policy combines this stage with the

consultation period The fi.fth phase is legislation , in which the full cycle of

p缸liamentary scru位ny 扭扭splace with a v位yingamount ofpublic at但岳

、/位on.The sixth phase is preparation , during which administrative 缸range­

ments are organized for its implementation The seventh phase is

chapter1: 曰“zensl旬，“咽munication，and Politiω 呻The Tarnished 姐姐

stage may of course be staggered, as a new policy is phased in The eighth stage is that of ev a1 uation Although polices 盯海 continually evaluated throughout the policy cycle, it is duringthis phase that claims for 也βpolicy

in principle 缸eassessed against its performance in practice, and the

doom-mongers 盯econgratuIated for their presctβnce or ridiculed for their simism However 也isstage rem訟ns an ideological as well as empirical phase, often characterized by vehement disputes over the validity and

pes-relevan臼 ofevidence presented The outcomβofthis stage determines the

fi.nal stage of the policy cycle, namely 自宙的lilation.In this phase the policy becomes invisible, p缸tof 血.epolitical rot芯，literally unproblema恥.If也is isnotac隘的edthen the policy is forced back 恆的 acontinuingevaluation

phase, and an altemative outcome of abolition may result

This model is no more than an abstract description of the necessary phases

of the natural history of a policy process 1t does draw attention to the presence at every phase of a dialectic relationship with a communicative and publicity environIÌlent In也issense it is not a single linear sequence surrounded by an environme泣， wi也 feedbackrestrained until the fi.nal

phase.Ra也erfeedback, ifthat is theright term, is continuously impacting

on each phase of the sequen間， anddβtermines the 位m旭g andna個reof

each successive phase The rl;lal environmentfor this process is the dis仕ibu­

tion ofpower and reso肘ceswhich enables access 扭曲。記 feedbackflows

The second conceptual 切01 wesh剖1employ is the distinction betweeÌl the

VlP ev a1 uative and the interpretative dimensions of media coverage)(Golding,

~ 1990) In conventi個lal t活rmsthe adequacy of a media reporfis judged by its fairness，。旬ectivity and imp缸tialityas an account of some event or person 1s the report pro or an位 somepoli旬， p缸旬， orinitia位ve?This is the

ev a1 uative dimension, but it is only one vecωr We need also to examine the question of whatωpects of the policy 缸'e rendered visible, named and promoted This is thβ interpretative diníension and asks the simple question, whatis 也isissue about? In也isstudy we shall be assessing both dimensions

in rela位on to the coverage of the poll t蹄， and indeed 缸伊恆gthat the process of ‘pri血的 defi.區位on'can only be understood 恆 relation to 也is

distinction if we 缸'eto make sense of the history of 也.e poll 個x.Weshall also be assessing the evaluative and interpretative capacity of news

so盯'ces，and suggesting that the power of arbiters, for example, is far more limited in defming the 恆terpreta位ve dimension of policy 也an it is in relation to evaluation

20

Taxation and Rep悶entation: The M ed.ia, PO恤阻1 臼mmiI到個.tionand the Poll T，缸

We begin the analysis by assess祖g the genes泌 andbackground of the

A BriefHistory ofThe Poll Tax

T T h h e 恤岫……岫伽叫叫…曲伽ωωcti耐…位伽o

ex 封te閒 nd 缸edwellbey ，仰 ond 吋 dth 加.es句 pe郎ci逍 fic臼sofloca 叫19 伊 overnment 宜 financ閃e.

Ind 配.ee吋 d，缸gumentsabout its technical and financial adequacy masked 'a deeper cons位tutionaland political 缸gumentabout what form oflocal government is needed in the UK' (Q世此， 1986:4) In也is

chapter we set out the key aspects of this broader deba鉤，as an esseIitial

cont冶xtto our general appraisal ofthe media' s performance and influence

in reporting the poll tax

British local and central government relationsω甜-1970)

As wi也 so many Bri討shpolitical arr阻gements，也e role and respoUØ:::

b血位.es of local govemment hav~ .never been cons仿制位onally inscrib~d

Rather, its powers and obligation告-havebeen shaped poli位callyandhistori:' ca旬， and remain contested At the centre of this dispute has been the appropriate relationship 曲的 shoulde組成 betweencentral and local g帥"

ernment, and 凶 particularthe degree of autonomy the latter should be permitted

Some analyses, whilst acknowledging the value of the devolved adm坦is“

甘ationoflocal services, ultimately insist that local govem血.entshould act

as the agent of cen甘algovernment: the conduit rather than progenitor of policy (Ridley, 1988) In contrast, others portray the devolution ofpolitical

power 臼 an essen位alprecondition for healthy dl1mocracy (Blu.D.kett an:d ::.一­

Jackson, 1987; Hilly缸dand Percy-Smith, 19881- 1'扭扭.troductionof the 、

Community Charge was seen by bo也 sidesas representing a crucial

mo-ment 恆 thisevolving constitutional debate, whether as heralding a new

21

T揖ationand Repr珊en個位.on:The Media, PO加曲1 Communica說onand the Poll T也

era of local account晶晶tyor dri討ngthe 宜nalnails into the coffin of local

democracy

〔hp閃閃的叫叫叫ov…呵呵叫別e

political interventionfrom national governmen叫 Thetwo tiers were

essen-tially discrete political universes, with national government concerned

withm峭的 ofnational security and foreign:policy, and 也emanyand

varied local authorities responsible for the dis仕ibutionof a1ms and the

maintenance of local amenities 坦問ymanner they saw fit (Do盟， 1986a).

Inevitably, this laissez-faire system oflocal governance produced 'a chaos

ofins位tutions，缸easand rates' (Rich訂ds，1980: 15)

The nineteenth century has been described as the 'golden age' of local

government reform in Brit缸，with many of the changes wrought d肘ing

血isperiod establishlng the foundations for the modern system (Sme油.e，

1968; Goldsmith, 1979) The m到nimpe旭sfor reform came from 出efirst

industrial revolution which transformed the demography ofthe nation As

densely populated urban 缸e也 mushroomed，problems of social

depriva-位on worsened which placed 缸ow站g pressures upon the limited civic

\ urgent need for a strategic response to the problems ofpoor relief, housing,

\ sanitation, policing and public health A restructured 咖temoflocal

gov-1 ernment provided the principal means by which these pressing issues were

I tackled

t鉛恤伽 β 且叮rn 宜沮 ns 姐 血edevelopment of local 伊overn血en g 肘t 旭 the U:凶tê品 a Kingdom 缸e

evident 如此，levels of local government capital and revenue expenditure

increased; slowly at first, but then with a growing impetus Second, central

government influence over local government activities correspondingly

姐creased; whether 旭 ensur坦g unifor咽，minimum standards of service

provision, or 旭 removing certain services wholly or partially from the

jurisdiction of local authorities Thlrd, and largely as a result of this i恤

n-\ ( ~，的r昀e叫咖v叫o囚E叫空墮型憋的竺型峙唾哇塑哩聖堅ov型愕竺帥

I s叩ou 肘rc臼eofr間evenuefl臼 'orloca 叫19o仰 ve叮:rnment.

In the 晶i峙均 year叫ro血 1945，伽叫ends ac耐削eddram蜘all~In

real terms there was a 300 per cent inc甜甜ein local government-révénue

expenditure between 1950 and 1970, and a 250 per cent 坦crease 旭

capital expenditure (Keith-Lucas and Rich缸缸， 1978: 130) Control of

血any services such as poor relief and public health, along with public

cbap能叫: ABriefHis切ryofThe Poll T磁

u位litiessuch as water, shifted to the centre And by 1974/75, 66 per cent oflocal revenue was provided by central subventions

/~Thep血cipalre肥onfor this ch組酹 wastgeestablishmentofthe ·吋垃皇之盈鹽1旦趾迪瓦d伽 the 2nd World W，叮. The Labour Government's manifesto ofl945 血arked 也efirst explicitly national view oflocal govern-ment, in which local authori泣的 were deemed 部 instrumentsof central government, rather than semi-autonomous agents This diminishlng of local 帥的nomyand change in 也.etexture of local/ cen仕alrelations w部 部臼ptedor ignored as the standards of public services increased (划時間，

der, 1990; Golding and Middle恤， 1982).

The imroediate post-war years also saw a qualitative transformation in the party politicization oflocal government (Goldsmith, op cit.: 18) Although

p叮叮 po加cshad assumed a growing sign血cancein local government over the preceding century, it w自 duringthis period that we see a ‘na位on­

aliza位on' ofp前走ya血垃a位onsin local government with 'repeated attemp臼

to bring local and national politicians of each p缸tyto m缸ch 旭 step' 已 (GHord， 1"5:86).TMSMjec悅。nof party poli位csinto loc叫 goverment/ 旭Mduce4a si血泊cant potenti叫 so盯'ceof tensio~ between central and V

local gove也me肘，the full extent of which was oÍÙy fully realized 祖 the

1980s, when a resurgent municipal socialism ran fi甜甜tin切 anational

government passionately committed to the free-market and swingeing

cuts 泊 publicexpenditure

f「口川 h 岫捌叫 t凶岫且岫也伽…… e“叫叫叫 e闊吋叫…缸吋圳叫 w圳 ly 19 凹970伽s 伽伽叫… s甜吋叫 e吋山旭凶… c

a叩 nd 肛th 加eex 旬 ponent位ia 叫li旭 ncreasei旭 nloc侃algoverrr 虹mentex 苟 pend 品it伽 urea 缸阻 ndcent佐ral I

governmen 肘t subvent位ions continp.~d V However, from then onwards, the I I period of expansion in Bri位shlocal government，也atcould be traced back I

more 也ana hundred and forty ye缸s， w卸 thrown 旭toreverse J

Local goverrrment 恆 the1970s: 'the p前旬'sover'

The unexpected vic旬眠。faConservative Government 恆 the1970general J

election opened t恤趾頭 majorfault lines in the locall central relationship J

Although the political energies of the Heath -administration were

p泣nci-pally concentrated on their dealings with the trades union movement, it also implemented policies which held m吋or implica位onsfor the future form and fInance ofBritish local government The most significant was the

ν/

24

T臨ationand Represen鼠的on:The Media, Politi間1 Communica位.onand the Poll T祖

ν1972 L'Ocal G'Overnment Finance Act, which introduced a n主巨型d但

已空空em 'Ofl'Ocal g'Ovemance

At 也e sa血e 位me， the issue 'Of the equity and adequacy 'Of the e.洹sting

system 'Of l'Ocal d'Omestic taxati'On was als'O pt'Opelled 'On t'O也e p'Oli位cal

agenda The ra伽gsystem ('Or 'the Rates' ，的 itwas widely kn'Own) was a

pr'Operty-based d'Omestic tax that had remained unchanged in principle

since the intr'Oducti'On 'Of the Elizabethan P'O'Or Law in 1601 L'Ocal rates

were set and levied acc'Ording t'O tw'O c'Omp'Onent calculati'Ons The first was

the 'rateable value' 'Of a pr'Operty, which was determined by its es位血ated

rentable value The sec'Ond was the rate p'Oundage, which was set by the

lev抖ngauth'Ority acc'Ording t'O the gap between its 切talspending and its

inc'Ome fr'Om all s'Ources, in p訂位cul訂 cen仕alg'Overnment subventi'O郎，

and l'Ocal business taxes (which were set and calculated by the levying l'Ocal

auth'Orities in a simil缸 manner 扭曲mesticrates) The levying authöri位es

were 'sec'Ond tier' auth'Orities (i.e ci旬，district 'Or b'Or'Ough c'Ouncils), whö

raisedrevenue 'On behalf 'Ofthemselves and 'Over盯chingc'Ounty-叫deauth­

'Or隘的 andsmaller parish c'Ouncils

T趾s pr'O呻 pe叮rty“b卸e吋 d syst紛em 'Of l'Ocal taxati'On required pe叮ri岫'Od 街ic '世re叮 va 剋lu 研 闕

at位伽 i站'Ons' 'Of 也epr'Op 脾er前ti切est'O beunde叮r扭ken 丸 1， 切 ma 剖i且t祖ai旭 nt也 hebu'Oyancy 'Oft血:he

l'Oca 叫lta 缸 xbas甜e，and it was the last revaluati'On held in England and Wales 旭

1973 that shifted the issue 'Ofl'Ocal g'Overnment financeref'O位nt'O the centre

'Of the p'Olitical agenda The resul位ngredistributi'On in the l'Ocal tax burden

it pr'Oduced, which was exacerbated by the c'Ost 'Ofl'Ocal g'Overnment re'O

r-ganiza位'Onandhigh 扭扭d妞，caused c'Onsiderable public c'Ontr'Oversy and

media c'Omment (Gyf'Ord et a1., 1989) Vari'Ous 'rates strikes' were 'O

r-ganized by residents in the hardest hit areas, and the fur'Ore pr'Ompted a

manifest'O c'Om血itment fr'Om the C'Onservative Par旬， which Margaret

Thatcher pers'Onally champi'Oned, that there w'Ould be a fundamental

ref'Orm 'Of the rates in the event 'Of its re-electi'On Its subsequent defeat,

h'Owever, prevented the Party fr'Om acting up'On that pr'Omise

The immediate resp'Onse 'Of the new Lab'Our administrati'On t'O this p'Olitical

c'Ontr'Oversy was 't'O spend m'Oney and buy time' (B'Oyne, 1986: 428) In

1974/75 an ad hoc subsidy 'Of :t:l 50血血i'On was pr'Ovided t'O h'Old d'Own

d'Omes位crates, and the Layfield C'Om血拙ee 'Of Enq凶ryw自 establishedt'O

rep'Ort 'On the financing 'Of l'Ocal g'Overnment The C'Ommittee's

deliber-ati'Ons (Layfie峙，1976) c'Oncluded that a l'Ocal inc'Ome tax sh'Ould be levied

by l'Ocal auth'Orities t'O supplement the exis伽grates Crucially, the Layfìeld

Chap紀r2: A BriefHis切ryofThe Poll T，祖

rep'Ort's supp'Ort f'Or a l'Ocal inc'Ome tax 'w郎 specificallyass'Ociated wi也 the

wider ques泣。n 'Of relati'Ons between cen仕aland l'Ocal g'Overnme瓜， ch缸曲， op cit.: 109), and 旭 p訂位c叫缸 thatgreater p'Owers 'Of decisi'On

(Ri-sh'Ould be given t'O l'Ocal auth'Orities The additi'Onal revenue needed f'Or

suchamaj'Or 仕ansf'Orma位'Onw'Ould be pr'Ovided by this additi'Onal inc'Ome tax

The Lab'Our G'Overnment 叫ectedthe c'Onclusi'Ons 'Of 也eLayfìeld rep'Ort,

and s'Ought instead t'O exert greater c'Ontr'Ol 'Over l'Ocal expenditure As Rich盯ds 'Observes, Layfield' s 'l'Ocalist' VÏSi'On was 'thr'Ottled by 也erequire­

ments 'Of macro-ec'On'Omic planning' (幼iiL: 163) Thr'Ough'Out the 1970s,

extensive di錯cultieswith the c'Oun仕y'sec'On'Omy, exacerbated nati'Onal 'Oil cri呦，had f'Orced the Chancell'Or t'O seek extemal assistance

bytheinter-fr'Om the Internati'Onal M'Onetary Fund, which had placed great pressures

up'On G 'Overn血entspending One 'Of the maj'Or c'Onditi'Ons 'Of IMF support

was 血的 publicexpenditure w'Ould be reined in In 1976, the Secretary 'Of State f'Or the Envir'Onment warnedl'Ocal g'Overnmentthat 'the p缸旬's 'Over'，

and 扭曲eLab'Our adminîstrati'On's fmal years significant reducti'Ons were achieved in aggregate l'Ocal expenditure By 1978179 , the percentage 'Of

l'Ocal g'Overnment expenditure c'Overed by cen仕alg'Overnment grants fell

m'Ore 也an5 per cent t'O 61 per cent

Alth'Ough these harsh financial realities hit l'Ocal au也'Oritiesheavily, the cutbacks were generally achieved in a spirit 'Of grudging c'O-operati'On

H'Owever, the C'Onservatives' vicωry in the 1979 General 四ec位'Onmarked

the beginning 'Of a period where the latent tensi'Ons between central and

l'Ocal g'Overnment expl'Oded int'O a p'Olitical c'Onllict that t'Ore their l'Ong established rela說'Onshipt'O shreds, and called the wh'Ole structure 'Of l'Ocal

g'Overnance in Britain int'O ques位'On.

Thatcherism 缸ldlocal government (1979-90):‘Where there is

Taxation and Repr宙間tation:The Media, Politi臼l Communi個組onand 也ePolI T盟

.';1 吋 川

of血的組te'，只oupledwith th甜 antipa出y 臼W缸ds 扭曲個xationandru也lic

區可endifiire，brought many of the fóunding precepts of the welfare sta扭

」祖師研酒喝n.As the cause of ne缸lyaqu叮terof public e勾endi旭e， and

in the context of a public sector borrowing cris函，it was inevitable that local

government would be a prime 個rgetfor Government cuts

Loughlin (1990) describes one of thβdefining features of the Thatcher

period as being the juri再ficationoflocal and central government relations

Previously 也isrela紋。nshipw由 governedby conventions of con:sulta泣。n;

with bo也位ersof government broadly interacting within a framework of

consensus However, throughout the 1980s, central government 切ok

precipita位ve，unilateral ac位onto control the activities and expenditure of

local authorities by legislating sweeping powers Nowhere was this process

ofjuri你cationmore evident than in the realm oflocal finance

\/".旭御自din 也e198q Planning and Land A吵Alongs!生旦捏捏捏聳聽

upon capital expenditu妞，the Act added a néw 'Block Grant' component to

to a central Grant Relat吋ExpenditureAssessment (GREA) to discourage

high spending Any expenditure in excess of this GREA 1βd 的 adecrease in

也.e gr個tpaid to an authority and 也e greater the overshoot, the more

punitive the penalties became (Sills, Taylor and Golding, 1988)

/μì/ fjì

Thism吋orchange was immediately strengthened by an addi位onalset of

expenditure t盯getsbased on actua1levels of expenditure rather than 悶，

sessed expenditure needs , as it was fe缸'ed that those authorities whose

expenditure were below their GREAs might take the opportunity to 'spend

up' to this assessment To the Government' s view , these targets offered the

basis fo叫做恆的leexpenditure reductions , and between 1981 and 1986

也egrant penalties for spending 胎 excessof these estimates became pr心

gressively harsher T趾smethod was finally abandonedin 1986/87 , when

the underlying Block Grant 缸Tangementswere altered so 也atauthorities

automatically lost grant when 也ey increased spending (instead of only

losing grant when expenditure exceeded the designated 個rgets).

r斗 The 198去LocalGovernment Finance A昀 providedgreater governmental

leverage 0立localauthority finance by/removing the right of councilslo

~一一~一一一一一~一一一一一一­

一些血旦控lR些空空且強吵roughouta financial year to cover 個y

short-fall This represented a si伊ificantstep in 10caV central relations 也 itwas

! 1 (the frrst 位血ea limit had been placed on authorities' freedom of access to the

、、、/"

Chapter 2: A BriefHistory ofThe Poll T也

~ra切S 扭扭扭dependent so叫ceof taxation (Blair, 1989)} The Ac_t also (r'emoved the right 枷叫叫你ori御的 appoint their 0咐 au品tor~ì ap J

po垣伽g 油 th你做ad 0盟空些些空位也迅PA咄t Commissio心.Al個

though the Commission' s remit has been to encourage good practice,

assess the impact of new local government legislation and improve the

valuβfor money of local servic郎，也eirprincipal raison d'être is to achieve

si但ificantcost cut位ng 扭扭y盯dand Percy-Smith, op ci t.) ,

的)~

After the Conservative P缸旬'svictory in the 1983 Gener叫毆，ectio且，ernment legislation aga祖stlocal authorities gained momen個m._!!scom-凶tmβntwas bolstered by increasingly acrirrÍ祖aG而前示函onswith several Labour authorities, who not only sought to 企ustra師也eGovern-ment' s economic s仕ategiesbut also foster 'some sort of socialist alterna-

Gov-ti間，at a locallevel 徊。ddyandFudg潭， 1984:14)

The 1984 哇~ates Ac~ introduced twofì肘也erm吋 orcontrols oflocal au惱，

odtyhmcal.The 趾stwas as組組如叩開的m封底1õéãï混血oritiesto

consult with businesses 'and other non-dome討icrate paÿers before setting their business levy, thereby increasing the accountability of local auth-orities to their non-domestic payers The second was 也e introduβtion of 'rate limitation', widely known as 'rate-capp油g'.This involved the Depart戶 血entofEnvironment setting optimum levels for domestic rates which local authorities were not permitted to exceed The Act provided the Govern-ment with the option of capp坦gthe rates of spec過edauthorities or all councils; but after widespread opposi位onfrom Conserva位，veranks, the σ0.f/字'6

Government only ex前cised the selective option In 1985/86, eighteen I卅也j

highest spending au也oritieswere rate-capped, sixt海enofw趾chbour controlled In response several capped authorities set 血βgalbudge怨

wereLa which flouted 也，enew restrÍc位ons，but this defìance was short lived As these authorities teetered on the brink of bankruptcy, errant councillors capitulated when threatened with personalliability for all excessive expen-diture

As the political tensions between central and local government increased, \

and the fmancial co甜ols on local authorities tightened, the issue of i reform旭gthewhole 也!ll of扭曲nan凹，which had laid dormant since \ the report百1lle'Layfìeld Com凶ssion， ~eturned 切 the旦旦哩哇豆豆吧~a. I

During his fìrst period of tenure as Secretary of State for 也eEnvironment, -/

Michael Heseltine published a Green Paper on rate reform 姐 1981which explored the reform op位，ons. This Paper (Do宜， 1981) outlined several

28

T揖ationand Repr臼entation:The Media, Poli位問l Commu凶間tionand 也ePollT缸

reform options, including a local inconie t眩，a sales tax, a poll ta玄， asys師m

ofcen仕allyassigned revenues, and areformed rating system However the

consul祖位onprocess produced no consensus on a preferable altemative,

and in the subsequent W姐.te Paper, it was concluded that the rating

system 'should rem剖nfor the foreseeable future' (Do盟，1983: 14)

More-over, the problems ~血也epoll tax option were e:xplicitly ßtated:

'The tax would be hard to enforc也!fJheelectoral register wer~ used as

theb的isfor 扭曲也tyitco叫.dbes臼 asataxon 也eright to vot~ A new

register would therefore probably be iieeded But this woula make the

tax expensive to run and complicated, p訂位c叫缸lyif it incorporated a

rebate scheme Wi血outa rebate scheme a poll tax would bear harshly

on people with low incomes The Government agrees with the En前，

ron血ent Committee 血的 thisoption should be rejected' (i bi d., 1983:

12)

As a statement of political intent, the Paper could not have been more

categorical Yet within a matter ofmonths the Government chose to renege

on both its general resolu位onto keep the existing system in place, and its

The main reason for the Govemm叫倘ddmMhintwisitsincreasing

frustration at 也e failure of its fiscal conÌìols to secure dramatic 正面而話f

一、一-一一-戶戶，一一一-一-一 -0 / in local expenditure.-In its view, there had been liniited successes: the

品面在誼trate-öfgrδ耐hin local revenue expenditure had been restricted to

under 1 per cent (compared with levels in excess of 3 per cent during the

1960s and 1970s); there had been major reductions in local govemment

employment levels; and the proportional contribu位onof exchequer grant

to local expenditure had fallen from 61 per cent to 47 per cent (Dunleavy

and Rhodes, 1988; DoE, 1986a) However, these limited victories paled

alongside the 18 per cent increase in local authority current e:xpenditure

for 也esame period (Ridley, 1988; Do日， 1986a).

~里她矗立堅e of the廿 incremental 凹的盯'es was !inked to 也.e defensive

responses oflocal authorities Before rate-capping, manyauthorities ∞m­

訴區組織ìôrpe回協副站碼incentral grant by increasing their levies on

4 ch旬ter2: A Brief間S紛ryofThe Poll T，誼

local ratepayers Other local au也oritieschose 的 consistently'spend up' because they rightly recognized that compliance wi也 theGovernment's _

expenditu削a耶tswould 油nply~壁壘 tofu抽erdecreases in sub叫1ient

expenditure targets Furthermore, many au血oritiese:xploited the plexities of the fmance 可駒mto mjnjmjze the effects of grant penalties

coin-(組d， latterly, rate-capping) by emplo抖ng ~ incre自旭glysöphisticated range of creative acéountancy technique(In 1984, an Audit Cöininissioil report suggested that the complexities of the Bloc;k Grant system were inflating rather than reducing 血e amounts raised locally through the rates

It was t恤s 全ustra位on at 也e thwarting of macro-economic objec位ves，

coupled with a series of increasingly acrimonious confrontations with veral Labour councils, that encouraged 也eGovernment to reconsider

the Secret呵。fState for the Environment announced that r啞巴盟缸聽戶 可行

was back on th型體daand a new review ofthe reform options would take place

The key decision-ma蚵ng conceming 也isreview was made at 也e 姐ghest

level of Govemme帥，祖dinvolved secretive consultations between senior government m垣isters and their policy advisors The task of reviewing possible reform options was delegated to two junior environmentm扭扭ters

組dthen onwards to a secretive 'task for，間，convened by Lord Ro也schild，

former head ofEdward Heath's Policy Review Staff

How啊， evenatt伽ta俱伽闊的叫ghthave come to no恤峙的

~ot been for the political impact ofthe 1985 rating revaluationin Scotland

In Scotland rating revaluations had to be carried out every five years, and the effects of the 1985 revaluation proved par位cularly h缸血， wi也 a.

substan伽1percentage of the burden for local taxation shifting from nO do臨的前cto domestic properties The resulting public outcry created con-sternation among Scottish Conservatives, and stirred p訂anoic projec位ons

Íl-about the likely politi叫 effectsof a simil叮 revaluation 姐 England and Wales (which was well overdue) Against such a prospect, abolition

甜emeda far preferable op位on 切 revision.

The rehabilitation ofthe poll tax as a r~form option w的 cruciallyaided by \1'/

a 帥er 仰川州 bl岫 i r昀ev 吋iew period In it the author chaf站一 against the 'po旭tless pursuit of

perfi叫io叭nprevious reviews and concluded, 'It is cle缸血的但雙ι

29

T磁ationand Represen個位on:The Media, PO加個l Commu函個.tionand the PolI T也

~Jp more nearly matches the requkemen的 than aily other po鉗制旬，

做ason，1985: 23) Theforcefully 缸那edcase for the poll tax proved very

inf1uential on the deliberations of the policy think tank (MacGregor,

1988)

Despite in臼rnal disagreements between members of the secretive task

force，伽均叫做曲 s的副吋切~車回艷旦旦控扭扭扭gent

ka針。ca伽g th~坐監旦胞， was enthusiastically receiv吋， and the

- supporting m姐isters proposed 切 seekits adoption as GovernmeIÌ.t policy

In cabinet discussio自由eproposals had to wea也er fu此heropposition,

P缸恥叫前lyfromthe 吐easuryand the ChancelIor ofthe Exchequer

(Law-son, 1992) Howev肘，bymid“1985 the policywas 0盤ciallyaccepted, and

inJanu缸y1986 琴~Green Paper entitled ‘P~yingforLocalGovernmeIlr，was

released, which sta話ãffië苗vernme帥'8intentlon to replacet區正前swith-/

apolltax一 or as it had beenrenamβd:the 旦旦哩mun局部泣聶

~一~一一 一 -一一 一一一一'_.一一一一~卅一…r

F?

qr

'The way forward': the c個efor 血eCommunity Charge

Whatever subsequent judgements may have been made about the clai血s

made by the 1986 Green Paper, it st沮 remainsthe most comprehensive

and categorical exposition ofthe Government's rationale for replacing the

乙且堅型tllap.olI血﹒一

At the heart of 也e document rested the proposition 也atthere was a

mal~sejp loc叫 demoçx:a 旬 ，the roots ofwhich could be directly traced back

些學愕蟬臨凹的懊悔哩坐坐些世間會且扭扭扭扭扭b

crisis of 'accou且tabilify', .an d revealed several dimensions F扯到， in an

/inv首頁onof the historical ev挂 oftaxa位onwithout representation , it 黨~

主乙_claj盟edJ;hattoo many people could vote for 姐gherlocal r帥swithout

having to pay for them As a co凹equence of 血泊， pro f1i gate authorities

could continue their excessive expenditure sec盯e 恆 the knowledge 曲的

出elocal tax burden would be borne unevenly , and thatmany local electors

v benefitted from services they didn't have to pay fo( SecQ且也_IlQ!!::曲回路且ι

些些空空空~eresubjec叫 topu堅堅且堅空空空hizIom1臨姐l.，whilst

1hav詣。poppo助別ty 01!_(l主!1l~~JlUhel!壘的空空.Third , th仔哩pl~:x甜的

v 巫血色別及世且使拉扭扭且were so gre的 that 也ey helped obscure the

( I consequences of local expenditure decisions Fourth , these factors werè

\ compromising the power of cenj哩l-goJlernmentto pursue important

income from other so肘ces. People wi tl)., low income could b_ e eligib峙，

(世伽 O 叩叫 ug 拉 hame叩酬ste郎叫 s

l忱 O∞ca 叫lc∞on仕肋olofnon叫.-do血e剖st伽 i泌cra 前te臼swouldber，扭'emo可aι.Al thoúgh councils would still co lI ect this revenue，也eamount levied would be set nationally and any further increases would be index-linked The resulting revenue would be pooled centra lI y and then re -dis tributed back to local authorities according to the size of their population Third , there would be 缸控na位cC

(revisions 個也elocal government gr甜可如~with a simplified 咖temof

Sþ ending assessments (l ater dubbed Standardized Spending Assessments)

d 血帥咖 t紀枷 β 缸削:rI咖ir 恤峙 n 時 19t伽 he 恤 e閒 a lI必 l巨勘 10 ∞c胸noft枷 hene 帥 e帥 wRe帥nueS 旬 u 呻 pp 酬 o 叮 ort 此tG 伽ra 阻 a 缸n 叫 1 t甘ra 阻 ns討it伽 i泊ona 剖1 mechanisms would 0 呻pe缸ra 滋te to ameliorate 扭mpo 叮r缸a 即 y the _ m吋O 叫r redis甜 t仕ri跆 bu位on 恤 granta ocations and individual tax burdens that

wou 幽 l姐 doωc∞c叫 u 盯run 江nde 缸叫 E

where the po lI ta 缸 xwouJdrun a 叫10 叩酹s討id ，品.ethe rating sy 戶st峙q血 fora t紛en 必-y 抑e缸

period , and only accretively take over from the old system The second was for a system of ‘safety nets' , where those local authorities who ga恆ed

旭come through商品函ñges would temporarily have these benefits redis

甘ibutedto authorities who lost ou t

J

As part of the process of increasing the accountability oflocal goveI'IlDie剖，

月líepap前 assertedthat people needed 的 redefine how 血eythought about"\ <:>_ (fl ο()'-'­

lòcal domestic taxation Rather 也an measuring 也.efairness of a local 個X

according to the 'redistributive' principle (i.e i臼 relationto thβab也tyto pay), it should be tested against the 'benefit' principle (i.e the extent to which people who benefitted from services contributed to their cost) In也is respect，也esemantics of 血eGQ同盟堅ent's decision 如 referto 也eimpost-<Q ρ 隘

的 a 'charge~函Ilerthan att堅:)were very sì直追但且J3yconc::eiving of

一

local taxation as a charge for services,!t was claim~~J也atthe new levy聖as 一 h

_ fi叮 fairer 也antE:訂前忌， as everybodyw話石抖吋 ωco耐butesom.e- '0，- ∞

thirlg to the public services 也eybenefitted from Fur也ermo峙，thiswould give them a fmancial stake in local government_ and a vested interest in

mo到切r坦glocal expenditure decisions _, _

It was claimed thβremoval oflocal control ofnon-domestic taxes from local

gov前nment and thβsi血plify~g of the grap.t allocation process would further enhance the financial accountabilicyJ of councils, as any expendi- / ture above Government spending assessments would have to be met by

T酪ationand Represen組.tion:The Media, Political 臼mmu凶間.tionand 曲ePollTax

的

increases in Charge levels Local au血oritieswould,@ longer be able to use

也ecompl創設esofthe Block Grant sys恤， orpuni位ve 也esMq些空堅堅二/

tiQ_睦扭s， to bide 也βiroverspending This would mβan that local electors

lNo叫.d， for the 趾sttime, have a s仕aigh由rw盯dmeasure of the relative

efficiency and expendi個reof也βirlocal authority

Criticisms of 血eGreen Paper

From the outset it was clear the Governm:ent had taken on a m吋ortaskin

promoting such an ambitious policy Although the Green Paper 姐姐ally

received a positive response from Conservative M恥， the proposals were

widely and intensively criticized from other sources I!l Chapter 4 we

iden位fythe main sources of 也isopposition and describ~ how they

politi-cally mobilized to challenge the Govemment's reform prògramme In this

[, section we concentrate on the main aspects of their objec位ons. These

l criticisms centred 缸oundthe equity and redistribu位veimplications of the

, new system; its e血ciency;its implications for personal privacy; its impact

i on the franchise; and its cons位tutionalimpact on local and central

govern-I ment relations

3 、 Equity:'winners and losers'

32

As with any major t也 reform， considerable attention focused on the

redis仕ibu位veimplications of the new system The cri位cismsmade on this

issue related both to specific components of the reform package, and 切 its

overall operation

The main cri位cisms of the Community Charge concerneß its manifest

r'egressiven~ss Although the Green Paper projected that 'winners anâ

losers' under 也.enew syst冶mwould be roughly equivalent (DoE, 1986a:

41), critics 缸gued that these fi郎.ll'eswere calculated 垣 away that best

supported the Govemment's case' and masked the structural inequities of

thenβwsystem ~

Thβseinequitiβs had several intersec位ngdimensions At a most basic level,

the f1at rate levy would bit lower 姐comegroupings severely, particularly

the 'nearly poor' … tho個 individuals whose modest incomes prevented

them from qualifying for rebates As a consequence of tbis, it would

dis-• That 1s, by quan吋ingw泌nersand losers by household rather than on 扭扭dividual

basis

'1

1

Chapter 2: A BriefHistory of祖ePolI T:缸

nority communities would be hea討lybit by the ta.x，倒也eytend 切 livein

larger adult households (Brown, 1984); are more likely 個 beb由edininner city 訂eas where it was projected the poll ta.x would be bighest (ALA,

1988); and 缸emore likely 抽 e耳>erienceeconomic deprivation (Opp

en-he恤， 1987) Sim挂arly， the policy was seen as(~exually discriminative~as women 缸emore at risk from poverty due 切 lOWerlevels of pay; 缸'e nÍore reliant upon income support; are more likely to be unemployed; and were specifically disadvantaged by the ru1es on p盯恤ers' 'joint and several

liab血旬， for ~ach others charges (αPFA， 1987) The ta.x叫sopenalized

~ young peopleìfor s旭沮缸 re品。肘，and because a disproportionate n:umber ôfthe new additions 扭曲elocal ta.x base would be adults under 24 years of age (LowPayUnit, 1987)

臼倒t伽 i包凶c臼s 曲咖o re郎C呻叫伽 p附 a叫吋仗句ypo叫l叫 d伽 i誼油m 帥酬叫 ne 閻蝴 e缸m 酬 n

i伽 oωse的 r臼sissue The Govemment made no apologies for'the fact that 1t

an恥i-pated poll ta.x levels to be very high in areas run by 'bigh spending' Labour authorities In a BBC interview, a junior environment minister anticipated the system would 'run a coach and horses through 血econtrol that [La-bour authori出s] have got in many 缸eas where, at the moment, not enough people 缸e ma垣ng a contribution towards the cost, and don't understand, as a res帥， thebighpricethatLabourcouncilsimpose' (Chr函，

topher Chope, On the Record , BBC1, 17/9/89) Opponents é缸邵ledthat 也isam叫edtoacrude 間耐抖 poli位“ gerrym空白型 crea伽ga 糊~a位onwhere individuals couldùotafford to vote for ad呵úaúβserviceprovi-sion One commentator described this as an abuse ofthe concept ofpolitical

accountabili旬， wbich not only concerns fiscal decisio肘， 'but also the relationsbip between the substance of local policies and local preferences When the humbug about accountability is stripped away from the Green Paper, the proposedreforms emerge 臼 anattemptto restrainrate revenue' (Boyne, 1986: 431)

Apart from criticizing the Community Charge 旭扭曲仕ibutive terms,

critics also attacked its fairness in relation 切 the‘benefit principle' For,

unIike charges for other services, individuals could not opt-out of paying the Charge by declining the services it provided, and this compulsion to pay prevented it 仕omqualifying as a charge Furthermore, the untested as-sumption in the Green Paper that 也osewhopaid 也eleast for local services benefitted from them the most was challenged as illfounded, with evidence

、/

33

cbapter 2: A BriefH樹oryofTbe Poll T盟 T磁ationand Repr四en個.tio眩Tbe Medi血， Politi開I 臼mmuni間.tionand 也.ePoIIT臨

provided that those who paid the most under the rates 叫sotended 切 have

greatβst benefit from local services and a血enities(Bramley et al , 1989)

It was also claimed 血atthe particularly regressive aspects of 也edomestic

組xation changes, would be exacerbated by the new methods for grant

allocation and non domestic taxation This was because these

accompany-旭greforms would s凶'trevenue away from poorer, indus出alizedinner

city authorities， ωwards more affiuent suburban and rural regions 札G泊，

1989; Esam and Oppenhei血， 1989) For businesses, the rating burden

would shift from Nor血 toSouth, from the manufacturing to reta設 sector，

andfrombig 的 smallbusiness.'

The efficiency of the new system was also questioned By 扭頭ngpeople

rather than property, and thereby nearly doubling the local tax base, the

administrative logis位.cs and costs of local taxation were substantially 妞，

creased, with 也eprospect of widespread evasion of the tax The fact 也at

( these additional adminstrative cosjs , and any shor呀'allin revenue due to

non payme前， would have 切 bépaid by the charge payers themselves,

added a further piquancy 旬出eseobjections

It w卸的。 cl訟m仙hatthe reform package wou旭 sqhuSKQ扭扭控ι _ /

theind吧空空間ceoflocalg的空但雙吱ycen甘alizingcontrol ofbusiness

區terevenue, the proportion of local authority revenue met from local

t磁eswould be reduced from around haIf to a qu前慨， w.恤chsignificantly

increased 也.eimportance of grant assessments in the setting of charge levels (Blair, op cit.) Whereas the Government saw th泊 as a virtue …

enhancing the fmancial account抽出tyof local authoritiβs by exposing

Privacy implications

A further concern raised by the increased administrative demands of the

system, was 曲的 itmight encourage greater in個lSivenessby councils in

people's private affairs in their efl'orts to enforce the 個x. In 1988, the

National Council for Civil Liberties co血血ented:

ond, that councils might hold secret files behind their public register, '

recording 也enotes, anec!lótes and suspicions the authori可 has about

旭dividuals'(ibi d.: 2) Third, that re斟stra位ono血cerswould have lated access 切 alllistsoflocal residents held by council departments - such

unregu-as families register吋叫thsocial s削C賦 locallibrarycard ho隘的哩哇JV

council house list( Fo叫出，也atindividuals wouldhave only limited acc臨

to the information held on them held by 也elocal authority Fifth, thatthe nationwide implementation of也epoll tax would mean the crea位恤， forthe

first time, of a complete list ofthe names and addresses ofthe whole adult population Although the Government maintained that each locallist was

sep缸a妞， there would be strong argu血en郎， to ma封閉ize efficien呵， for

ma蝦ngtheda個姐也eregisters compatible to allow transfers of 姐forma.崗 位onwhen people moved In conclusion, the group requested further safe-

那訂dsto protect personal priyacy, but also identified an 'ïrreconcilable conflict between the need for 也eefficient collectionl。扭扭xofthis kind and

'The Government's plans to replace the domestic rates based on

property with a f1at rate tax is not 姐 itseIfa civilliberty issue But the

way in which the new tax will be administered and enforced will pose

serious threats to the privacy ofthe entire ad叫tpop叫甜凹， andcreate

thepoten位alfor greater control by central and local government over

the individual' (NCαJ， 1988: 1)

The concerns of the influential press肘egroup were fivefold Fir泣，也at

there was no safeguard in either 也elegislation or the Data Protection Act

to prevent local authorities from gathering unnecessary information Se

c-* In addition it was feared that cen仕allzingbusiness rate con仕01would undermlne the

par個ershipbetween local authorities and their business sectors

Taxation and Representation: The Media, Poli位開l Commu剖開tion aiJ.d 也èPolI T，阻

charge payers to every pound 也eircouncil ‘over spent' 一 critics clai血ed 也atbecause all expenditure above Government assessments would have

個 beraised from only a qu盯terof the authorities revenue base (i.e

domes-位crevenue), excess expenditure would have a powerful distorting effect on Charge levels, leading 如 dispropor位onate increases for mar斟naI over-spending (the so-called ‘ge自祖g' effect) T趾sw自 seen 切 seriouslycom-prom.ise the accountability 訂訊lID.ent，and expose the exercise as a cynicaI

attempt to use electoral resistance to higher taxes 切 forcesavage cuts in locaI expené加lI'e.

Fur也ermore，the greater importance of central government assessments

恤 determininglocaI taxation levels 隘的itablyraised concerns about the accuracy of 也esegrant assessments In p盯位c叫缸，that 'simplifying' the needs assessment equation, would make 也emless sensitive 旬出epar位C恥

lar needs and conditions of different 缸e臼.

九/

A chronology of chaos: the ri田 anddemise of 血eCommunity Cha培e

'Theh胸ryofthepollt扭曲伽tesh叫oliciesc叫aVI鈔鷗ndedconsequences that give them a dynamic beyond the ima斟na位onofthe

originaI proponents The Government became caught in a 10蟬c of events of which it lost c甜甜;站前ouldno longer direct towards its desired ends' (St詣r， 19訂了三03-204)

ma位ersone important contextual task remains This is briefly to map the main events in the inglorious c缸eerof the Community Ch缸ge，fromits

f趾st presentation 區別 6to its abolition 姐 1993 }

Following 也epublication of the Green Paper 隘 1986 ， the Government moved quickly 切 introducethe legislation for Scotland At the end of that

ye訂 legislation for 也eaccelerated introduction of the system in Scotland

(The Abolition ofDomestic Rates Etc [Scotland] Bill) entered Parliament,

and received its Royal Assent the following March Unlike the le斟slation

for England and Wales, this B也 passedwith comp叮ativeease, with no

Conservative P缸tyback bench rebellion

Legislation for England and Wales was held in abeyance until after the

36

Chap紛r2: A BriefHistory ofThe Poll Ta玄

1987Gener叫Election，which the Conservatives won in June with a barely reduced majority ofnearly 100 MPs In the post-elec位on Cabinetreshu血e，

KennethBaker, who had been one ofthe principal architects ofthe reforms,

was replaced by Nicholas Ridley 由 SecretaryofState for the Environment for England Álthough initially Ridley had been scepticaI about the fea叫“

b也.tyofthe poll tax option (Lawson, 1992), by the time of旭sappo旭個.entr­

he was fully in favour ofthe proposals, and 如ok 切 promotingthe tax with

“l 也eenthusiasm of a convert (Ridley, op cit.)

The triumphal post-election Conservative P叮tyconference of that ye缸 血缸keda crucial turning point in the implementation ofthe policy Party

ac位vistsurged the Government to abandon the plan to run the poll 個x

alongside the existing system, and introduce 也eCommunity Charge 區

one go Byadoptingthe‘big bang' approachit was argued that those people exploited by 也erates would benefit immediately from the redis仕ibutive

effects of the new system The P缸tyleadership willingly acceded ω 也is app缸entunanimity ofp缸tyopinion and agreedωintroduce the tax in one goin1990, ap訂tfrom ln those London authorities that 'would be h缸dest

hit by the new 叮rangements.• However, when the 1987 Local Government Finance Bill entered P缸油"

Readin拭 wasmarked bv an acrimonious debate on the fairness and effec昀

of the poll t臨 proposal.While the proposing m垣ister clai血面1henew

t 可stem w。“官豆ood for locaI democracy' (Hansard, 16/12/87: 叫1119) ，也e 血ainopposition p缸tydescribed 泌的 'athreat 怕也mocracy

itself (Hansard, 16/12/87: coll131) Senior fi♂lI'es on the left of the Conservative P訂tyalso voiced s位iousconcerns - most noteably the ex-

Environment Secretary, Michael Heseltine and ex-P訂ty lead肘，Edward

T盟ationand Represen個tion:The Media, Politi，個1 Communica位onand the Poll T;也

I! by a system of 'banded' poll tax肘，that would link the sys切mmore direcdy

…且 rLL主o abilitj:_!旦pa~A vote on the amendment was held on the 19 April19 8 8,

/作;μqprior 切 theBill's Third Reading, and fears of its success prompted the

;-, - ! Government to announce 個 additional í13o million for rebates to

1函面前ow 恆晶磊五函ies fr~the 站站 ofthe new 石方hecon

?、

cession bought ofl' a su血cientnumber of Conservative rebels 切 defeatthe

amendment with a reduced Government majority of 25

As the B世 passed to the Lords，也ere was anticipation that 也e upper

chamber might impede its progress to the statute books, or at least force the

Government into major revisions However, a rebellion headed by

Conser-vative peer Lord Chelmsford was swamped by Government whips who

dragooned various 'backwoodsmen' (Peers who rarely or never attended

\theHousedLords)intotheHouseofLordstDSUpporttheGovernment-The

Finance Bill passed through the Lords with a huge Governmentmajority of

134, following the highest turnout ofConservative peers since 1971

Although political controversy over the poll tax intensified in Scotland

dur恆g1 9 8 9 , there fol lo we d a h i a tu s i n th e p仰oli位缸ca叫ld 由eb 加at扭einE啤lar吋an

Wales However, the issue re吟mergedonce again in early 1989, wi也 the

introduction of the Community Ch訂gein Scotland and the st缸tofthe

registration process 垣Englandand Wales Here ag訟n， m吋 or 也血c叫做s

emerged for the Government First, as we discuss in the next chapter, a

m吋 orGovernment publicity ofl'ensive timed to coincide with these events

went dram諸位callyawry, causing considerable embarrassment to m姐is­

ters Second, concerns about the intrusiveness of the new tax system

seemed to be borne out by the conduct ofthe re斟stra位onprocess Despite

ass盯阻ces from the Environment Secretary that 'strict limits' would be

placed on 也e 姐forma位onwhich registration 0誼cerscould obtain about

恆dividuals(DoE News Release , 17/3/89, No 145), many local authorities

requested excessive or irrelevant information on their registration forms

Out of the 403 forms examined by the Data Protection Registrar, only 37

were passed and 304 author闊的 wereasked to clarify the purpose behind

some oftheir questions (Liberty, 1989 a) Inresponse to the controversy the

Secretary of State directed local authorities to avoid being too intrusive on

their registration forms, but admitted he had 'no power to prescribe the

content ofany form' (DoE News Release , No 344, 19/6/89: 2)

The 也irdproblem concerned 血eproposals for a self-financing system of

'safety nets' which were intended temporarily to cushion the profound

可

'

Chapter 2: A BriefHistory ofThe Poll Tax

redistributive efl'ects ofthe new tax system The scheme - where 'winners' had their gains redistributed back to authori位eswho lost out- had already been criticized as a smoke screen that would cynically obscure the full extent of the redis甘ibutionof income from poorer local authority 缸easto

more affluent authorities (Esam and Oppenhei臨， op.cit.;Lee, 1989;IβIU，

op cit.) However, the thrust ofthe con仕oversyon this occasion originated from the Government's own 阻pporters， who criticized the system for apparently requiring pars旭0到ous Conserva位veauthorities to subsidize 可

'.profligate' Labour counci弘In也eface of this criticism, even Margaret ! Thatcher publicly conced@_that 'the transition period is flatly contradic- \ tory to the basic philosophy, so we have got to find a way through' (Daily J

Express , 7/9/89: 9), and at the Conservative P缸ty conferen臼 it w的 announced 血的 thesafety nets would be dropped after the first ye缸， and that 也e Treasury would fund the costs 切 losing authorities over the ensuing three years, at a cost of í600 m到ion.Furthermore, a new syste血

。f 仕ansitionalrelief was 隘troducedfor households who were h缸desthit bythenewt缸， atanaddi位onalcost of í3 75 million (Giþs妞， 1990).

A Cabinet reshuflle in July 1989 replaced the rightwing Nicholas Ridley 的

Secretary of State for the Environment with the more modera臼 figureof

ChrisPa此e且，whose less combative political profile it was hoped wouldhelp

ea田 thepathway to implementation However, he had not been in oflìce long before he w個 confrontedby an escalating political crisis over the Community Charge which made all the preceding difficulties pale into

旭sign的cance.

The troubles seriously began in January 1990, following the nouncement of the outcome of the revaluation of business prope的iesand the first realization by many businesses of how much more taxation 出ey wouldhave 切 pay.Matters took an even more serious t1.玟nin late Feb-

an-m缸y，when local authorities were notified of 也eirgrant allocations and started setting the first Community Charges

These initial charge levels greatly e:lfc~eded the Government' s prior projec- 戶戶

位ons of probable taxation levels ìú November 1989 ，也eGovernment f f f announced 血的 theaverage Communi可 Charge in England and Wales

wouldbe ￡278i:providedlocal au也oritiesmet central government ing assessments Although this figure itself represented a considerable

spend-姐creaseon previous oflìcial es位mates， the actual average charge level exceeded this projec位onby more than í80 Furthermore many Conserva-

_;

T阻ationand Representation: The Media, Poli封閉l Communi個組on aIid 也ePollTax

tive as well as Labo盯 authori位es levied charges in excess of f400 per

person

( , ' \

ν./ The impact of 也e~~J!9-bxpectedly];lÏgh charge~ were twofold Firstly, the

bitter wrangling onthe policy within the Cónservative P叮叮 over the

right as well as the left ofthe Party, openly turned on the Govern血.entand

exhorted them to repeal such an unpopular policy At local Government

level, anger was even more vocifero肘，and there followed a spate ofhigh

profile resignations and defections among Conservative councillors and

ac位.vists.

\'/' Secondl public demonstr枷ns were held across England and Wφ〉

against 也e 個xand its harsh impact In Conservative 個 wellas Labour

areas, people demonstrated their disafIection with 也epolicy and the

Gov-ern血ent.Ons臼eve叮r阻a 叫loc∞ca卸si切ons 泌st也 herewer肘e叮r切1凶 1泌sb 伽re侃ache臼sofpubli切Cωo肘;rde賦r巳,

, the most violent of which occurred on 31 March 1990, when a public

(巴 whichled to many 缸Testsand injuries and millions of pounds worth of

damage So intense was the controversy over the policy, the Government

was forced to make several immediate concessions, and instituted an

The combination of public outrage aga姐stthe poll t紹，internecine strife ν

wit坦nthe Conservative p前旬，and a rejuvenated politicãl oppositíon )lad v

、、 巴-唱 adrama位cimpact upon the P缸旬，詢服服司1'õït聞自7缸站前clrt到íOthe

(ClC{" ，)、 印nserva位.ves句時holdof Mi d Stafli。他hirefell 旭 aby-election to Labour

、 J with a swing o( 2J型rce時!.-l\fationa峙，Labour's opinion polllead rose to

unpr凹函區ïïféd"Iieights，and the Pri血eM姐ister's 叮edib血tys ank: to an all

time low In也eMay local government elections the Labour P盯tymade

sweep坦gg訟ns at the Co nservatives' expense , although they failed to

secure two ofthe Tory' s 'flagship' boroughs , which had levied particularly

low Community Charges In October 1990 , another Conservative

strong-hold fell 迦 a 坤'-election.In Eastbourne a Co nservative majority of nearly

17 , 000 w的 converted 旭to a 妥， 500majority for the Liberal Democrats

Thisw部 followedthe next month by an appalling showing for the Cons缸"

vatives in the Bradford North by-election , where they came in a poor third

In March 1991 , the Conservatives also lost the Ri bble Valley by-election ,

withavo位ngswing of 2 5 per cent to 也eLi beral Democrats

The Governmen t' s persistent diflìculties wi也 thepolicy was a key factor

40

/

v

Chapter 2: A BriefHistory ofThe Poll Tax

behind the 1990 Conservative Party leadership contest For, although Margaret Thatcher's stance on European policy was the catalyst for a serious challenge to her leadership, the main reason for her defeat lay 融

the parliamentary party's concern about her dogged defence of a tax that was seriously compromis旭gtheP缸旬'selectoral credib血ty(Gibson, op

cit.; MacGreg肘， 1991).

仁岫岫gJ伽峭的 victory 祖削吋r的∞臨今 the pros伊cto f / the repeal of the poll tax became a very real poss晶晶ty.Michael Heseltine was appointed as Environment Secretary and embarked on a fundamental review ofthe struc個reand finance oflocal government Over the ensuing months rumours circulated about the reform options under consideration and whether the poll t阻 wouldbe abandoned completely However, the

P訂旬'sdisastrous showing at the Ribble Valley by-election finally severed the Government' s com血i位nentto the policy

/賞。llowing 也esetting of the second 典型'spoll t缸軾的urp恥的lanket I

l reduction in C個nnunityCh叫es o(t14Q)vas announced in the Chancel- I

"lor' s budget speech , which was to be funded by an increase in 也estandard , 1

rate of Value Added Tax from 15 per cent to 17.5 per cen t This w部

followed a few weeks later by a Commons statementfrom the En vironment ( Sec闊的血的 thepoll t阻 W唔;些控旦hhk豆豆握主盟主扭dreplaced with ~/

'a new local tax It took several further weeks for the Govèrnment to present the particular details ofthe replacement to Parliament On 23 April19 91 , after days of informed media specula位on，Mi chael Heseltine let the House ofCommons in on the worst kept secret in politics: that th世Qlac空空空吧? vfGZY

_theCom血U凶tyCharge would be a new property based 'Co uncil Tax九?

、‘、 _ 也『風向旬，

一、 -間_-也也包個問-圍區旬 -叫-"_間-﹒ 囡-Under these new arrangements, every domestic property would be 帥"

sessed as to its capital value, and placed within several bands The Council Tax would be levied according to the band in which a property fell (the more valuable the property, the higher the band, and the higher the Council Tax levied), and the number of adults living in the property (single adult households could claim a 2 5 per cent reduction in their Council Tax)

The new business taxation and central grant 缸rangements remained

essen位allyunchanged The consulta位onperiod for 也eCouncil Tax w部

very brief and the legislation was forced through parliament where the proposals met with no back bench oppositionj:五 March 1992 the Counclll

Tax became law, and on 1 April1993 repl成edthe poll 個xin England,J

Scotland and Wales

J

r'lf) 咱 3 2γyι~-' 、

41

42

Taxation and Representation: The Media, Poli位叫Communi阻tionand the Poll Ti揖

h 也efinal two ye盯'Sbetween the announcement and actualrepeal ofthe

Community Charge, the fmancial pressure on local aq，thor峙的 intens血.ed

♂s 1缸genumbers of people continued not to pay 耳y April 1993, :t:1.5

billion was still owed in poll tax arre缸s (Br∞血， 1994) Furthermore,

disturb坦gevidence emerged about the detrimental impact non“'payment

may have had on the electoral process 0血cialfigures published by the

Office of Population Census and Surveys (OPCS) 祖 1991 estimated a

shortfall of 1 million people between those registered to vote and those

eligible Although a drop 恆 electoralrolls had been app訂entsince 1 9 8~色，

it accelerated appreciably between 1988 and 1991, coincident with the

arrival of the poll tax (Pop u1a tion Trends , 1991: 2) Over this three-ye缸

period, the proportion of adul個 eligibleto vote and who had registered in

Britain fell from 97.9 per 臼nt to 95.6 per cent, with 也e decline most

evident amongst young people who had just attained the right 切 vote

(ibi d.) According to one academic study, more than a third ofthis discre

p-ancy was due to people not registering to avoid the poll t阻 (Smithand

Macle阻， 1992) Poll 個x dodging also seriously affected the t間-yearly

national census survey, conductedin 1991, wi也 the 姐姐alcanvas

under-estimating the actual population by an estimated 1.8 million people (Ind

e-pendent on Sunday , 13/9/92)

Widespread concerns about the state of the electoral register in 1991

prompted many local authorities to conduct voter re斟s仕a位on drives,

which partially arrested the decline in electoral rolls before the 1992

General Election aen恆的， 1992) For example, research by the Electoral

Reform Society found that 229,064 voters in a sample of 300 local

auth-ority 缸eas 旭England and Wales had surrendered th耐 right 的 vote，

against a pr吋ecteddecline (based on 1991 figures) of 280,000 Even so,

也eSociety' s spokesperson commented, 'It is still a sad day for democracy

when people have decided to forego the right to vote because it would cost

them 切 omuch money' (Independent , 25/3/92: 2)

The 凹-electionof a majority Conservative Government in the April1992

General Election, which confounded both political expecta位onsand

opin-ion poll projectopin-ions, raised questions about the hidden influence poll tax

di闊的anchisementmay have had on the election outcome by

discoura-g垣g potential Labour supporters According to Butler and Kavanagh

(1992: 232) it isn't possible to argue that Labour lost the election 也rough

the deliberate non-registration ofits supporters, because those areas where

poll t位 motivatedderegistration was most app缸entwere already Labour

Chapter 2: A BriefHistory ofThe Poll Tax

controlled However, a Warwick U凶versity study 扭扭 theeffects of

non-registra位onfor the poll t也 onthe election produced less sangt曲econclu­

sions According to the study's 'central estimate', had poll tax

disen全anc凶emepg涉 beena factor during the election, the

Conserva-ti冊，majority would have been reduced to only five seats (eight less than its actual majority) This would have seriously increased the political

叭血er晶晶tyof也.enewad血恤istration(Smith and Maclean, op ci t.)

Beyond the possible influence that poll tax dodging may have had for the outcome ofthe GeneralElection, the main opposition parties also expressed concerns about the impact the low registrations might have for the deliber-

a位onsof the Bound訟ryCommission, which by law had to base the p缸"

liamentary boundaries from 1996 onw缸缸，on the figures from the 1991 electoral rolls a en旭肘，op cit.; Smith and Macle妞， op.cit.)

Concerns about local authority 旭trusions 凶topersonal privacy also 間，

mained, despite the earlier intervention of the Data Protection regis仗ar In

1988, it was announced that British Telecom had estaölished a f4 million computer system to enable local authorities to exchange infor血ation

about charge payers, and track individu的 acrosslocal authority 盯e部 (Thornto且， 1989) By late 1991 ，也e Community Charge Information

Exchange (CC閱 was used by 107 councils throughout England and Wales, and had handled in excess of 120,000 charge payer records in the previous ye缸扭ritishTelecom Print and Dispatβh Bureau promotional literature [1992] Customer Systems) In 1990，油 aflagrant disregard of conventions on pe位tioners' rights, Charnwood Borough Council cross referenced the names and addresses on an anti poll tax petition it received with its own Community Charge register to 仕ackdown non-payees; and in

1991, the civil rights group Liberty challenged severallocal authorities who were threatening to withdraw services to persons not registered on their Community Charge register 伊拉油， 1991).

Summary and conclusions

In this chapter we have outlined the his切ricalorigins of the Community Charge and described its ignominious progression from inception through

to abolition We have also demonstrated how the political debate about the policy's practicality and propriety operated on a range of different levels,

Ta:xa位onand Representation: The Media, Political 臼mmunlcationand the Poll Ta:x

raising issues of local democracy, personal li晶晶旬， equity, efficiency,

macro-economics, and individual rights

,.,_/

It is i血portantto be叮也ecomplexity and breadth of this debate in 血旭d

when examining how this debate was publicly cons甘uctedby the policy' s

main protaganists and the local and na位onalmedia, in particular when

considering which aspects of the debate featured most pro血inently 個d

whichwerem缸斟nali品妒。rit is by attending to these details that we can

v gain a sense of how journalists and political actors ac位velyconstructed

and inhibited the structure of public debate

q3

VL

e 4.b

The more people know about the Community Charge , the more they will support

it The opposition are so frightened of the Comm叫旬 Chargethat they are not even prepared to c a11 it by its proper nQJ帥，John Gummer, MinistβrforLocal Govem血ent，10/5/89, Hansard, Column 864

~-pce ofthe poucy.Accordingly it concentrated a 6石油aerableamount of

位meand expenditure on trying 切 promote 也epolicy' s merits to an vinced electorate In this chapter we examine the main features of this strategy and how itdeveloped in anticipation of , andin reaction to , broader political factors

uncon-\

\ This discussion focuses exclusively upon central govemmen,t: both in its

品leas the site of national executive power and as 也edominant political

p缸ty.This is because of the particular manner 姐 whichthe policy w的

formulated and promoteιMarsh and Rh odes (1989) have observed that one ofthe deftning features ofthe late Thatcher a也n恆istrations w倒也eir

autocratic , 'top down' approach to policy formulation and tion The poll 祖xwas a classic example of this Conceived in a conspiracy

implementa-of clandestine meetin郎， fromits first public presentation to its introduction

in England and Wales , the Communi句 Ch盯gerepresented a po加calfait

accompli (a few major concessions notwithst扭曲的.An d just as the G仰，

v""

T酪a鈍。nand Representation: The Media, Poli位cal Communi個.tionand the Poll T臨

emment circumvented the for祖alconventions of consultation, so its pil

b-lic relations work was organized and financed in a 'top down' manner

(whether through Government departments or Conservative Central 0ι

fice) Although local authorities were expected to assist in increasing pu

b-lic understanding of the change (largely in support of their own self

姐terest) ，they never featured centrally in the Govemme帥'smission to

explain:

Preparing 由epresentation

From the first secretive discuss泌的 ofthe policy review

tea血，也eGovern-r mentrecog叫zec!Jhatby replacing the 甜stingrating sy的祖Wfiha tlat~;l:，

~-1品;否話石nalle可， itwas emb缸垃ngon an ambitious and risky ven抽血﹒ i VJ

Once the review team's proposals had been approved by 布ecabinet，

discussions began at the Depar位nent ofthβ Environment as to how the

policy could be most efl'ectively promoted to the British electorate Atten-~

v一位onparticularly focused on ~~ brand image ofthe proposed tax_! Although

flatrate，區div組uallevies ha兩兩屆而直宙品店血而哥哥tpoUt位es'，

there was an understandable concem about the nβgative historical conn心

ta位ons of such a name In fourteenth century England every adult over

fifteen years of age had beenrequired to pay a 田riesofpoll taxes to fund the

coun仕y'sforeign w缸s.As the amounts levied gradually increased, and

evasion became more prevalent, commissioners were sent out 切 forcibly

collect the a虹'earsfrom around the coun紅y.The ensuing peasants' revolt,

led byWatt 吋1肘， resulted 旭 amarch on the capi凶， the storming of the

Towerof London， andthβexecution of several ministers held responsible

for the levy This melodramatic and heroic ancestry was to be fully ex-:

ploited by later opponents of 血epoll tax, linking the battle ag組nstthe

Community Ch缸gewi也 imagesof a down-trodden peasan旬，resiliently

resisting oppression

The only exceptions were the so-called 'llagship' Thatcherite authorities of

Waudswor曲， Wes恤1nsteraud Bradford 也atlevied low po lI taxes, aud Conservative

Cen仕alOffi臼 soughtto use as illustra位.veexamples ofthe direct linkage between cost

efficle恥于 aud low local t酷的. However, al也.ough ωuncll leaders 卸血也.ese

authorities colIuded cl的ely with Conserva設ve Central Office 1n promoting the

poli位calmeritsofthereforms, their ∞unclls' official publicity material pursued amore

moderate line In recognition of the deep public autipathy to 也.e t器，也.eirpubliclty

material avoided endorsing its princip曲， aud focus吋 onthe value for money the

co叫mcilsprovided aud how that rellected 旭 thelow charges levied 仰eacon 個d

Golding, 1993) As theHead ofthePRdepar恤entfrom one of 血的eau也oritiesput

it 坦泊terview 'Councillors have g的 tog成 themselves elect憑此

ch旬ter3: Selling A血。untab血句: Govemment.Promotion ofthe 臼mmunityCharge

In ana位empt 切 distancethe policy from such an unpromis旭ghis切rical

precedent, a nam姐gsessiön was convened at the Department ofEn

viron-ment， wher而函sters面前eniorci討1servants struggled to find a new title

血atwouldsi但ifya more modem and positive image Several options were considered, including Council Ch盯ge (也smissed 師、∞ bureaucratic');

R:esidents Chatge ('too confusing'); and Residence Charge ('too bo曰“

geöis'), before itwas decided to opt for 血eCommunity Charge (Dispatches ,

Channel 妥， 1113月 3).Once 也ishad been decided, the Government p凹，

pared to go public With its big new idea, wh~h it was hoped would bring local govemment to heel and sec叫eits political hegemony for ye盯sto come

'You and the Community Charge': the Government goes public

An article published in the Guαrdian in early 1990, questioned whether the Govemment ever seriously considered aggressively promoting the poll tax

曲roughhigh profùe publicity campaigns Commenting on the anodyne quality of 也elast concerted Govemment publicity ca血paignon the poll

t位 inEngland and Wales, the article concluded:

'Ame也urelikely to prove as ).IDpopular 部 theCommunity Charge …

as it will be called in all Gover函ñëntcampaigns- can only be presented

切也e public 旭 itsmost sani位zedform, not piled high and sold cheap onourTVscreens' (G阻rdian，9/1/90: 25)

However, closer examination ofthe timing, content and expenditure ofthe Govemment's promotional work reveals a more complex picture In p缸，

tic叫缸，it shows that any reticence evident in later campai扭扭gwas 盟L

apparent in preceding campaigns, but reflected a 位miditybome of ent failure to elicit public, media and intra-party support for 也epolicy.

consist-。

A

三

47

Taxation and Representation: The Media, Poli位問1 Com.munication and 也ePoIl T，也 Chap伽 3: se血ngAαountab血跡 GovernmentPromotion of也e Com.munity ch前那

也ese two strategies changed as the policy cycle proceeded, as did the nature ofthe messages conveyed These changes were 1叮gelydictated by contextual poli位caldevelopments Prior to the tax's introduction in Eng-land and Wales, the pro血otion of 也e Community Charge cen仕'ed on formal, PR ini位ativ帥，血的趾ststridently extolled 也emerits ofthe policy,

but latterly became more reserved and descriptiVJY.'At the same time, new''' ._且體質哩~ntwork became 知 moresignificant, as ministers first strove to

s -詛mitthe crisis of confidence in the new tax, and then to find a publicly acceptable alternative In the sections below we describe 也esedevelop-

ments in greater de個iland consider critical ques鈍。nsabout the propriety ofmany oftheir features

ing money is very popular but there has been a great deal of cri位cismof domestic rates for a long time Atthe moment, halfthe electors inEngland pay nothing directly towards the cost of their local services With the Community Charge，也is will no longer be the case This will share the burden of paying for council services more widely and among almost all those who use them'.) The booklet w部 illustratedthroughout wi也 C缸'_ r-

toons of people of difl'erent ages, occupa位onsand ethnic groups, all smiling enigmatically These euphoric ci位zens became something of a 'brand image' for a while, and were the object of considerable satirical comment

( 8everal additional back-up leaflet為 were 叫so produced to provide mored aetailed information on individúal 部pects of the reforms; such as the business rate, exemptions from the tax, students and the Community Charge, the rebate scheme, the collective Com血U到ty Charge, and the appeal system (‘You cannot appeal against the amount of Community Charge you are asked to pay That is fixed by your local counc泣， just 倒也ey

used to fIx the rates', You and the Community Charge: 到zeAppe a1s System)

弋左空部主~啞i\1凹的licrelations ofl'ensive In May 19 8 ~a3 million leafle旬， 仆的en凶edTh e Communi旬 Cha咖 (TheS叫a1led'Poll 凹的丑。叫t'WillWõrk ~么，

for You) were 晶晶uted 切的eryhousehold in England and Wales at a 乙之二­

totalcost off.1.78million (Guarman , 11/5/89) In this briefleafletthe '8tep

by 8tep' Guide was distilled into twentythree questions and answers These were variously designed to explain the reforms ('Broadly, the following groups w由 nothave to pay, i.e will be exempt'); 如 promoteits merits

(‘Only about half of all adults pay rates 80 the Community Charge will share out the cost oflocal services amongst nearly everyone'); to dissuade

p~ople from attempting to avoid it ('1t will not be easy 切 getout of paying the Community Ch缸ge');to allay fears ('What if1 have di盟c世ty 扭扭ling

in the form? The Registra位onOfficer will be happy to help you'); and to refute criticisms ('The Community Charge has nothing to do with the right

to vote') Once ag曲，readers were encouraged to apply for supplement倒了

leaflets for more detailed infor四ation about the tax ('If the Community Charge is low enough, you may even be 旭 pocket.But ifyour council sets

a high Community Ch盯阱，then your extra income may not cover all ofthe

20 per cent you will have to pay', You and the Community Charge: Rebates)

InJ帥的肌伽的叫叫 age叫學泣叫 Ma伽bwereCOInmb

sioned to design a nationwide 'How to Pay Less' adverti~ing campaign on

)'1\1'廿一h1i LocalGovernment:Proposubjbrch呵呵。，OOpof也ese 月~n miniature version紗，

而 \'P were distributed within a year, after 'sù磁區 tialdemand' (Committee of

PublicAccounts,1990: 14)

No further publicity material was distributed until after the Conservatives'

vic的ryin the 1987 General Election However, on return to 0血ce， the Thatcher adminis仕ationstarted to mobilize the considerable resources of Whitehall's public relations machinery to explain and promote their 'flag-ship' policy

In October 1987, the Department ofEnvironment issued a twelve page

booklet 的 supplanttheearlier summary ofthe GreenPaper En位tledPaying

for Local Government: The Needfor Change , it contrasted 也eperceived merits

of a 'Community Charge' with the inequities and inadequacies ofthe rating system, local income tax, and greater central government control 1t con-cluded with the confident prediction that the reforms woulc!_pr.gvide a/

'greaters呵，and 'a fairer share' for all in local government~'3， OOQ，èopiè~

of this leaflet were distrïbuted before it，姐個rn，was supplaììted1)y revised publicity material (i bi d.: 14)

la6~./ In December1988 組 attractive，twenty page boo磁eten位tledYou and the

Commu叫句 Charge:Your Step by Step Guide w的 releasedwhich ag到ngave

details ofthe reforms and their underlying rationale ('No 血ethod ofr帥，

f7JU

Taxation and Representation: The Media, Political 臼mmnnica位onand the Poll T:揖

印mm叫ty Ch前ge Benefits，出的切olMKFSion， localmdnational

press and mag也隘的 ata final cost~o趕在EEEM(DOENewsbl師已 No.

6 , 4/1190; Campaign , 6 April1990) This final amount considerably

ex-ceeded 也ef1million initially projected for the account when tenders were

invited in November 1989 The agency's chairperson, Mike Walsh,

stressed the campaign would have 'no slogans, no gimmicks and no logos'

(Campai仰， 24/11/8肘， and there was a cle叮 difference 恤 itstone and

content Gone were the critiques of the rating system and the discourses

about the political urgency ofmaking every adult con仕ibutesomething to

local taxation, and 恆也eir place were straightforw訂d exhorta位ons to

也ose on low incomes to apply for rebates to the t恆. As Walsh later

explained:

'Ours仕ategyfrom the start has been informational The 恆ndofpeople

we'retal坦ngto 缸epensioners and people on low incomes, who don't

buy newspapers, so the advertising has to be on television If they do

read newspapers then 也叮叮efr帥-sheets，so we have 的 bein 也ose.

There is no po姐t 姐 dressingthe campaign up in j缸gonor flashy sell

because these people find that kind ofthing a complete turn國0[.They

need to see that there is something 怯 itfor them' (Guarruan , 9/1/90:

25)

Also 姐 Janu缸y 1990，也e Depar旭entof the Environment used Inland

Revenuerecords to send literature to every business inEngland, explaining

也e operation and merits of the new Uniform Business Rate (DoE News

Release , No 30, 22/1190) In a covering letter included wi也 everybooklet,

the Environment Secretary explained:

'At present each local authority sets its own rate poundage Some

businesses face a poundage more than three times higher than others

This wide variation distorts business competition And rates can rise

steeply, and with little w缸剖ng， from one ye叮 tothe next, which

makes it difficult for firms to plan ahead Existing rateable values 盯e

also outdated …The use of out of date values is another factor dis切rt­

ing competition between businesses.'

These latter two campaigns were the final major publicity in峙的ives

con-ducted on behalf of the 1988 Local Finance Act reforms This was partly

because the moment of introduction had arrived, but also revealed the

Chapter 3: Selling Acconntability: Govemment Promotion of也e Commnnity Char伊

political di血culties the Government was confronting As the political debate ga旭ed its own momentum its publicity work became far more

infOI祖訟， covert and media orientated, as m旭i到ers strove to limit the damage the policy w也 havingon their credib過你

;rn stark comparison, the introduction ofthe Council Tax w部 markedby (onlyo~ 坦mitedpublic information campaign, comprising a series of 宜ve

'briefb06klets, whose measured tone and understated grap隘的 con仗的ted

dramatically with those that heralded the implementation of the poll tax

In this literature the previous insistence 血的 localtaxation levels sively reflected local expenditure was also, quietly, 1剖d 的 rest:

exclu-'The Council Tax is set by yo肘 localcouncil The amount set w也

depend on how much it and cert越nother public bodies in yo盯訂閱

spend and how much money they get from elsewhere' (Councü Tax …A

Guide 的 theNew Tax for Local Government , Department of 也e Environ­

me瓜，1992, our emph部is).

Poll 個xP.R 缸ldthe media: the two step flow 'You will almost certainly have read about the new Community Charge in the papers, or heard about it on television You will probably have seen it called the poll 個丸 butthe Community Charge is its real name' (You and the Community Charge , DoE Publicity booklet, J anuary 1989)

'、Alongside the plethora o( booklets, leaflets and press adverts produced ( 'between 1986 and 1990, \he Government also directed a considerable V

\缸nountof promotional máterial at the media From the beginn祖gminis­

ters saw the media as being very important to their promotional strategi帥，

both 祖 inform坦g 也epublic and shaping public perceptions ofit ingly, the winning of editorial approbation was a promine酷的pectofthe

Accord-* A few modest Governmentpublic relations campaigns followed after February 1990 The Royal National Institute for the Blind wasωmmissioned to reproduce the four

m滋n Community Ch訂geleaflets on ca間加 tapesand in braille and m∞nwri位ng

(DoB News Release , No 162 , 9/3/90) Simil缸ly， theBritishDeafAssocla位onasslsted

in producing a slgn language vldeo for the deaf (DoB News Release , No 166, 12/3/90; DoB News Release , No 410, 11/7190) In July 1990 a leaflet was publishedad討sing

business rate payers how they mlght appeal ag到nstthelr new rating ass的sments

(DoB News Release , No 402 , 5/7190)

52

T阻ationand Represen詞組on:祖eMedia， Po加開1 臼mmu凶個tionand the Poll T，紹

Government's publicity work One par位cularlysignificant element to t趾s

on on local media The reaS01 continuing political significaJ

In September 1987 local government ministers Michael Howard and

Christopher Chope embarked on a‘whistle stop 切缸，to impress on loèal

worthies around the coun仕ythe value and 旭evitability of 也epoll tax

Only one national press release was issued during the tour (DoB News

Release , No 369, 22/9/87), but great efforts were targeted at local

news-paper editors, using a specially made video, fact packs and stylish

presen-ta位ons.Eight special fact packs were also produced 切 ensure，as Michael

How盯d's press release prior to the to肘 putit, 'that people should get a

clear idea of how it will work' (DoB News Release , No 343 8/9/87) The

切uraimed at areas where political considerations demanded a careful and

forceful marketing ofthe poll tax

A later, and less ambitious news media initiative ∞curred in May 198'9,

and was timed to coincide with the blanket distribu位onof 也e 'so-called

“poll tax'" leaf1ets A 'ready made' article written by the Environ血ent

Minister, John Gum血.er， the Minister for Housing and Planning, was

mailed and faxed by civ誼 servantsto 10叫 newsdesks across England In

也is standard 缸自治，the minister extolled the merits of the Comniunity

Charge and sought to allay criticisms ofits implementation,

'You will probably have heard or read many sc缸estories and half

truths abo'IJ.t the Community Charge peddled by those who oppo甜 it.

Today the Government begins to deliver TI也 FACTS These are some

ofthe blatantun仕uthscirculating about the Community Ch叮ge.'Itis

a flatrate t缸'.NOT TRUE A generous sys臼mof rebates ensilles 血的

the charges paid by people with very low incomes reflects 也eirab也可

to pay 'It is a tax imposed by Central Government' NOT TRUE It is

a charge paid by most adults to pay for local services … Thelevelof血的

charge is set by Local Councils 'It is unfair on the poor and 也eelderly'.

NOT TRUE 一 itis designed 切 befairer The poor will be assisted by

rebates and income support Most elderly people 缸elikely to pay less

than they now pay in rates 'There will be an army of snoopers' NOT

Chap伽 3: Selling~ccoun個b磁句:“vernment Promo的onof也e Community Ch缸oge

宜'RUE The information is largely con益nedto names, addresses and occasional dates No-one's privacy need be threatened 1 am con-vinced that as people understand the Community Charge they w也

realize we have de油edthe fairest and simplest possible alternative to

也erates' (DoB News Release , 5/5/89)

On several occasions 也eformat of the Ministβr's 缸的clewas tailored to include direct responses to criticis血s made locally by opponents of the policy In a feature article in the Nottingham Bvening Post , the Minister condemned w缸到ngs from Graham Allen, a local Not位ngham MP，的

~heartless scare mongering which conveniently ignore a crucial element of the new system' (‘Truth on the Commu到ty Ch缸ge'， 9/5/89) In the

Birmingham Bvening ]).伽il， he attacked 也e 'groundless claims' made by

Birm旭ghamCouncillor Roy Be吋 am恤 aboutthe regressiveness of也et缸，

asserting he 'would do better poin位ngout to the people he represents that

a generous rebates scheme will operate to help the poor' (‘Community Charge …The Full Facts', 9/5/89) And in his 缸位.cle 姐也eLe icester Mer-

叫巾，he sarcastically suggested that 'someone should explain to the City's chairman offinance how the new system will work' (‘City Rapped Over Poll

的the 1987 Local Government Finance B血 negotiatedits p盯liament肘y

passage, t血 he 帥 s甜e rel 枷 l p

伊ro 咄 bi均句血d 詛kelypo 句 p世缸叫'Í~句 yoft也 hepolicy A-précis of a written answer by the Local GovernmentMinister MichaelHoward confidently predicted that

• In M紅'Ch1990 disaffec t10n with 也epolicy in Whitehall had grown so intense that lt was alleged that 也erehad been 'no te訂s shed' by Bemard Ingha血's team of information oflìωrs when the job of Head of Information at the DoE was given to a

ci叫 servant， 'Por 也eprincipal 組skof the DoE Press oflìce in the coming mo且也sw也

be to justify the poll tax Not m阻yWhitehall PR men see that as a rewar也ngtask'

(Guardian , 2/3/90: 6)

53

Taxation and Representation: The Media, Poli位開l Commnni個組onand the Poll T缸

j'most householdsÎwill be 、/be伽 offwiÇhthe Community Ch叮醉心 they

缸enow with the 'r-ates' (DoE News Release , No 16, 1311188) In March

1988, a Sl單單缸yof a speech by the EnvirOIiment Secretary confidently

conclude司 thenew system would‘enable the electorate, through the

coun-cillors they elect, to put local government under great冶rpressure to deliver

value for money' (DoE News Release , No 192, 28/3/88) The next month

saw another environment minister congratulating the prudence of local

authorities 迦 makingearly preparations for the introduction ofthe Charge

in England and Wales in 1990 (DoE News Rele的'e， No 211, 11/4/88)

Additional releases signalled the generosity of Government provisions for

也etransitional period ('Government Capital Allocations Will Help Cou必

cilsPrep盯ePor Communi句 Ch前ge'，DoE News Rele的e，No 213 , 13/4/88;

'More Help Por People on Low Incomes to Pay Community Charge', DoE

News Release , No 214, 14/4/88) After the B也 hadpassed through the

Lords, another release soughtωallay concerns about the technical

ade-quacy of the new system by highlighting a report from an independent

consultancy fi.rm 也atsuggested the adminis仕a位vecosts ofi血plementing

也et也 wo世想且çxceedthose for the existing rating system (DoE News

Release , No 356, 23/6/88): A simultaneous release provided pr吋ected

E訊rres for 血的扭扭England and Wales based on 87/88 宜邵立即血的

~ revealed 'many of the highest Community Charges would have beeIl._ sub-,

J迫，\st叫ally封些社this yea叫d the Govern凹的 proposals for 帥岱

'form beenfullyinplace' (DoE iN ewsRelease , No 357, 22/6/88: 1)

One of the two news releases that marked 也ereceipt ofthe Royal Assent

for the 1988 Local Government Act variously highlighted the munificence

of the rebates and exemptions 切 the poll t臨; the benefi.ts of a national

system for rating businesses; and the 'greatly simp坦fi.ed'new grant system

品的 would ‘takeaccount of speciallocal arrangement芯，(poE News Release ,

No.462, 2917/88 , …3) The other release emphasized旬orvthe new Act

was 'an achievement for whichmillions will be grate~祉'(DoENI甜fS-Re晶宮-e; '

，~._-一~

No 463, 2917188)

As the date for implementation in Scotland approached, and the

Govern-血entge缸'editself for its m吋orpublic relations offensive in England and

* TheM恆ister's 旭terpretationdiverged tangentia11y 仕om 也atof the Labour P訂ty.

Aωording 切 theShadow local government spokesperson on the same day: 'The

Government has just paid Pri ce Waterhouse :t:60.000 in order to confirm 也atthe

POIL TAX will be the worst 'value for money' tax in 也e UK' (Labour P位tyNews

Release [JeffRooker's Office] 23/6/88)

Chapter 3: Selling Accoun個b迎你:Government Promotion ofthe Commnnity Charge

Wales, the advocacy of these news releases became even 血oree:xplicit In

two releases later 也at ye缸， local govern血entminister, John Gummer,

highlighted the key role local authorities would have in implementing the Community Ch缸ge(DoB News Release , No 543, 3110/88) , andclaimed the

( Ìlew.哩哇emw也‘mo哩哇~superior 切 thepresent syste血 ofdomestic rates' '\ 1 Î.DoENewsR品示;函。 55 7:7江07弱: 1):磁石訕誦吾吾 release，the M旭怨ter i /

openly disp肘agednon p缸typolitical opponents to the poll tax In his

words:‘the question 1 might ask in passing is why none of the moralizing clergy and lay people who have fulminated against the Community Ch缸ge

h臼 everraised a whimper ag訟nstthe immorality ofthe ra出gsystem?No

Bishops delivered petitions to No 10 about the poor 坦tby the rates

Contrast that wi血也efairness of the Community Ch缸ge'(i bi d.: 2-3)

However, as the Government' s political difficulties intensified, the 的neof

these releases becomes far more meas盯'ed 恤 styleand defensive 祖 aspect.

In March 1989, a reassurance was issued 血atthe privacy of individuals would be completely protected under the Commu到tyCh缸ge(DoB News Release , No 145, 17/3/89) However, as criticisms inèreased about the conduct of certain local authorities during the registration process, an appended release was issued by Nicholas Ridley that urged local auth-

ori位的 tocomply with data protection regulations (DoB News Release , No

344 ，的 16/89). In announcing an additional PR campaign on poll t臨

rebates, another minister acknowledged the growth ofpublic concern, but predicted that 'this simple guide answers key questions about how rebates

Jhe 則間可叩何 the t空空pfFPPWEreIR扭s increased血型控ELJ

)組S扭twith姐也eConservative P吋旭tens由ed.In a news release

detail-恆gthe ch個gesin 伽仕ansi位onal arra:ñ草草鼠的 forthe implementation

of the policy, Local Government Minister, Lord Hesketh, acknowledged that ‘the Government understands the concern which some have ex-pressed about the 缸Tangementsfor the safety net' ('Transitional Relieffor Community Charge Payers', DoE News Release , No 530, 11/10/89: 2) By the time the tax e:xploded on to the national political agenda in early 1990,

and the Government's position became increasingly beleaguered, opt旭is­

tic 的sessmentsof the policy' s implementation became fi前 r叮叮.Theonly exceptions were a 11叮叮 ofreleases from one junior minis能r(‘DavidHunt

Hails Major Success for Commu凶ty Ch盯ge Implementa位on'， DoE News Release , No 683, 13/12/89;‘Councils Porecasts of Community Charges Start to Come Down', DoE News Release , No 36, 23/1/90; ‘Community

T盟副onand Represen個.tion:The Media, Politi叫“mmunication and 也ePollT磁 Chapter 3: Selling Accoun個b混跡 Government Promotion ofthe Community Charge

Charge Will Improve Local Government Says David Hunt', DoB New.s

Release , No 61, 3111/90) More typically, the releases accenuated the few

positive aspects ('Larger Rate Reductions For Many Businesses From

April', DoE News Release No 692,11/12/89, 'Sports Clubs ωGainFrom

New Rates', DoE News Release No 180, 19/3/90); reapportioned blame

('DavidHuntBxpresses Concern Over St祖d叮dCommu凶tyCh缸ge Levels'

DoE News Release No 183, 21/3/90); or reiterated the munifi.cence and

magna到mityof Government' support (‘Charge Payers 切 Getf350m血ion

旭Transi位onalRelier, DoE News Release No 153, 7/3/90; ‘f21million

grant to fund councils' cost of Community Ch缸geTransitional Relier, DoB

News Release , No 178, 19/3/90; ‘抽nisterGives Camden More Ti血.eTo

CollectRent', DoE News ReleaseNo 231, 4/4/90) Itwasonlyfrom within

the confines of 也iscontained rhetoricallogic that the Secretary of State

could predict that local government 區 Britain'now had the s仕uctureto

operate competa位vely [sic] 旭 a more complex and demanding world'

('Local Government Well Placed for the 21 Century', DoE News Release , No

207,28/3/90)

Through the summer of1990 the dis缸ibu位onof也ereleases became more

空空空堅entandthe帥cuss扭蚓的 theworh些他空空加世~a扭

system ('Business Rates Appea1s Leaflet Published', DoB News Releαse， No

}一一-402 , 517/90; ‘Sma11 Shops Rates Bills F叫1'，DoB News Release , No 433,

19/7/90;‘New Regulations onBusiness Rates Laid', DoE News Release , No

477,6/9/90) However, bythetimethetensionsin 也βseniorlevels ofthe

Conservativ~ P的S戶alled 枷官向再豆苗lc!_.and the deposi伽 d

the Prime Minister, (班lcialreleases 而 localfmance became e寫clusively

concerned with expenditure t前getsof the Government and other economic objec位ves(‘LocalGovernment Finan臼-England: Statement by Chris P甜en，Secretary of State for the Environment', DoB News Releas語，

macro-No 604,31/10/90;‘Chris Patten Announces Depar位nent'sFuture

Spend-垣gPlans', DoE News Release , No 617; 8/11/90; 'Local Authorities Must

J oinBattIe AgainstInflation Says Chris Patten', DoE News Release , No 628,

12/11/90), whilst occasionally stressing that the system was not as chaotic as was widely supposed.('Community Charge Collection Progress

Encouraging, DoE News.Release , No 566, 16110/90; ‘CQllection Figures

ShowThatN泊eOutofTen 缸ePay迦gthe Community Ch缸ge'，DoE News Release , No 639, 1妥/11/90).

From April 1990 , Government poll t位 news 叫eases focused on ohe

p盯位cul缸lycontroversial aspect of the legisla位on:the decision to restrict

(or 'Charge cap') poll tax levels in 22 Labour authority 盯eas.However ,\

.-/Î: hese releases concentrated on the prac位ce rather 也anthe principles of '

these res仕ictions('Chris Patten Caps Lambeth' , DoB News Release, 250,

10/妥/90; ‘Camden Accepts Charge Cap', DoE News Release, No 269,

26/生/90; ‘ChrisPatten Sets Hil lingdon Charge Cap' , DoE News Release, No

350 , 6/6/90; ‘Chris Patten Sets Ch缸ge Caps For Basildon , Bristol and

Doncastβr'， DoE News Release, No 371 , 18/6/90;‘Chris PattenSets Charge

Caps for 16 Co uncils' , DoE News Releαse， No 394 , 2/7/90) Only one

νrelease indirectly addressed broader ques位onsabout the probity of these

翩翩~.Issued on behalf of the then Mini蜘 forLo叫 Government and

Inn er Cities , the document warned local authorities that 'spending can't

go on' and that the Government would nQ! hesitate 切 useits powers more

widely the followi時 ye缸 shouldany authority , in the grip of ‘

leisure-centre-itis' , seek to exploit public confusion and 9istrust of the poll t臨 by

4ι-lev抖nghigher amounts than were en位relynecessary.The Minis ter

ig-nored ra也erthan confronted the criticism 血的 ch盯ge capping

under-mined 也e central princ句le of accountabiIÍty , by concluding with the

confident and dire warning to high spending author湖的 that'in due course

the electoratβwillfìnd themout' (DoE News Release, No 392 , 29/6/90: 1)

L

Following the accession ofJohn Major to the post ofPrime Minister and the

appo恆tmentofMichael Heseltine 的EnvironmentSecretary with the brißf

to look at reform op位onsfor the poll t眩， the principal pu可ose ofthese releases became that of signalling the Governme帥，s commitment to 也is review 泊 responseto public antipathy 的wardsthe system ('More Help for Standard Community Charge Payers', DoE News Release , No 698,

13/12/90; 'Simplifìed Community Charge B血 for1991192', DoE News Release , No 712, 14/12/90; 'Local Government Finance Settlement for 1991/92, Community Charge Reduction Scheme Announced', DoE News Release , No 26, 17/1/91)

As the date for the Government's poll t盟 reviewapproache,d, the tone 9Î

t晶 h 加岫昀帥 serel 伽 l TheC 他 hanc臼ell 勘 lor自，冶sshock a阻 nnounc閃eme 即 1姆er肘 1此圳 tω0.[ 垃立盟控恆受E墊空蛙主血 Z鈕主盟隻錯姐 d血鈕 l旦且E鎧旦9興 n 叫凶 ir 恤 n ~ _allpollt堅扭扭旦血型企豆豆91sparked a briefflur可 ofreleaseswhichgave i

de叫sof these reduction~仰hemefor Reduc恆gCommunity Ch叫esfor \

1991192' , DoE News R、éase， No 184, 19/3/91; ‘Scheme for Reducing

Commu凶tyCharges for 1991/92', DoE News Release , No 190, 20/3/91;

官也切 ReduceCommunity Charge for 1991192 is Published, DoE News Release , No 194,21/3/91;‘Community Ch訂geReduction Scheme to Be

J

T臨ationand Representation: The Media, PO恤問l Commnni闊的onand the PoU T阻

Extended', DoE News Release , No 207, 26/3/91; ‘B血 Reducing

Com-munity Charge Gets Royal Assent', DoE News Release , No 216, 28/3/91) ,

and strongly defended their le單位macy('Criticism of Community Charge

Reduction “Wrong Headed" Says Minister', DoE News Release , No 191,

20/3/91;‘Government Announces That Over 14 Million People W血 Get

Full :f.140 Community Charge Reduction Scheme', DoE News Release , No

246 , 17/4/91; 'Average Community Charge in 草ngland:f.172 This Year',

DoENewsRelease , No 251, 23/4/91) Aseries ofcoincidentalrèleasesalso

assured the public that the tax would not penallze service personnel in the

Gulf ('Gulf Crisis: Government Announces Special Grant 切 Local

Auth-ori位es'，DoE News Releases , No 92, 19/2/ 9l; ‘Community Charge

Com-pensationforGulfPersonnel', DoE NewsRelease , No.163, 14/3/91)

Bycomp訂ison， the Council T缸 wasthe subject of far fewer official DoE

news releases, even d盯旭g its legislative passage When releases were

distributed they tended 切 be descriptive and non-controversial ('New

Local Government Finance B血" DoE News Release , No 333, 2113/ 9l;

'Royal Assent for New Bill Which Paves the Way for Council Tax', DoE

News Rele帥，No 455, 2517月 1;'Local Authorities Receive Guidance on

Preparing for Council Tax', DoE News Rele的e，No 623, 17/10191) Only

one 叫做elysought to open old wounds ('Councillors in Arre酬 Should

NotVote on Council Tax', DoE NewsRelease , No 617, 14/10191)

From public relations to news management

'The poll tax has become a great big political problem for the Govern個

/ ment However presented, it has not worked out in the manner 恤"

tended and it h的 notbeen a surprise to hear that the Prime Mi nister's

associates are now mnting in the heaviest manner , that major changes are

going 的 bemade in the next few months to the way the tax works' (6 pm

News , BBC Radio 妥， 27 April1990 ， ouremph扭扭).

So what ofthe subtler for血sofnews management used by the Government

in connection with the Community Ch盯ge?A considerable amount ofthe

dialogue between the Government and national media élites is either u酷

的仕ibuted ~ported， but nevertheless exerts a powerful influèn:eé'

upon the received wisdom of the media 誦。regenerally Did the Governω

Chapter 3: se泌ngAccount晶晶妙:Government Promotion ofthe Co mmnnity Ch訂ge

ment exploit these hidden links in i臼 a位emptsto promote support for the

con仕oversialpolicy or deflect criticisms of it?

Agenda也uildingis often most effective when achieved througq s山repti­

tiousmeans (Gan旬， 1982) In thisresp叫也e British Governmeñt1sïñ孟

j亟亟 avall帥必r 屁區柄。也 but 叫he locus 峭壁枷epomτγ

and the pinnacle of the parliamentary sys紛mit can expect consisten正如d

considerable media ã區面而:-Atti區鼠忌limedia a伽n位oncan be 田en

的 onerousand destab垃屆時，and a considerable amount of effort is made r/

~也盟gl叫 manyaspects of govern血ent decision-ma坦n時ommediascrut- /

姐y.Nevertheless, the media's thirst for detailed inside in屆主亟函祖祖鼠忌

' ably exposes them to political manipulation by governme臨 throughthe

selec位veand unattribut吋 releaseofi的rmationand innuendo

f令 I，~尸白云;

The routine l!lechanismfor thβcovert diffusion of government information 1 '_" :''': ù ;- ::0:

恆 Britain is~the p叫ament呵 lobby~ a formal group of newspaper and broadcast journãlists based at West凶nster/who receive 到mostdaily br叫“

恤gsfrom senior government sources Under Margaret Thatchβr's ship the lobby assumed an even more central importance to Government news management 但ennesyand Wa眩目， 1987:126) One consequence ofthis was that the Prime M揖lli餒。 pre咽 secretary，Bernf!rd Ingh~血， who "'0

leader-was mainly resp耐ible for the brie面肘， assumed an unp閃閃dentedly

influential position in governme帥，and was frequently criticized for his use

ofthelobby 切 circumventor undermine troublesome m扭扭ters，and even

on occasion improvise Government policy 個盯啦， 1990).

C倒也l具 hghmfa stamch sup防御 of the poll !cbc Although he conceded in his memoirs that it 'did not take a genius' to identify 也echargeβ

of叫恥的S 也atcouldbe1叫ed 啤訕地et缸， hecon伽ued，'Never canζ 乎 Ct; r' ;1(1

theCommuni均 w 圳祕 C 也 h呵叩eb 加恥圳 e“叫 cite吋 d 叫肘

na 祖 at恤 u 盯 rre 賦叫 e 叫.If s伽 heha 吋 dn 叫 O 剖tc 叫 a 缸re吋 :d， s伽 hewou 凶 1泣ld 句空O 叫 t昀 ha 帥.vet恤 ri 咐 i扭ed 訂仰 t切 od 臼 oa 阻抖袖 t也 hing 伊 a 油.bo 叫 u 叫 l必t μ 必 口 ν thevalue 旭e 1ì必 ormoneyt出 ha前tcitizens get out of their local authority' (Ingha扭， -

1991: 244) 啞巴f 伽 l抽byjo叮a削弱ts in臼rviewedfor the rese缸chco央、 J

firmed his enthusiasm for 也epolicy In the words of one: ~ ' /

'Bemard always believed in it And he believed in it in the same way as she did And Bemard always thought 血的 thisisjus丸 andthat there's

no reason why people earning different amounts, so long as theyeam above level X, shouldn't pay the same because they 缸'e ge仕旭gthe

60

T揖ationand Repr宙間組位on:The Media, PO恤阻I 臼mmuni阻.tionand the PoIl Tax:

same services He believed that, lots of 0也erpeople thought that was

rubbish 1 mean he was a 姐nd of, you know, pl~抖暗自e Geoff

Boycott, forward defensive on it all the 位me.Hoping that in the end

that we would just believe 恤血，(Interviewwith authors)

Fur也ermore，Ingham was acutely conscious of血eimportance of effective

public relations when implementing any new policy Writing a few months

before its abolition he commented:

'Policy formulated wi也outregard for its presentation can come

un-stuck, too Consider the poll 個x.Leaving aside its alleged 'unfairness'

inrequiring 血edustman to paythe same as the duke, little attemptwas

made in England and Wales to show, by specimen revalua位ons of

property, that it could have been the lesser of two evils' (The Times ,

22/9/92)

However, despite the loyalty and enthusiasm of this influential figure, the

lobby, along with other 血oreinformal governmental briefin郎，wereonly

veryr缸elyused to ease 也epassage of the poll tax prior to its

implementa-位onin England and Wales One notable exception occurred the weekend

before the House of Commons vote on the Mates amendment, where lobby

correspondents were briefed by unspecified senior Government sources

about an alleged hidden agenda to the Conservative revolt: 血的Michael

Mates was mas旭nga future leadership challenge from Michael Heseltine

(Independent , 19/4/88)了

However， wi曲也et缸's 恤troduc位on 姐Engl臨dandWales，thelobbyand

other forms of informal news management became f，訂 moreimportant

Thiswasdue 的 theintensity ofthe poli位calcrisis faced by the Government

dur旭gthis period Damage limitation became the watch“word and minis

ters had to respond quickly to shore up the Government' s diminishing

cre品b血ty. Aside from their regular media appe缸anc帥， which we deal

with elsewhere, this centrally involved insinuating through more informal

channels that the Government was sé面usly considering ways 旭 which

the worst excesses ofthe new system might be dealt with In this way it wa:s

* Ingham denied that 也.elobby had been the mechanism used to dissem凶ate this

sme也 However，whatever its exactsource, newspaper coverage on the eve ofthe vote

on the Mates amendment clearly suggests there had been a high level, una肘ibu始d，

Governmentbrtefing 泊 whichthequ的位onofMa峙'realmo卸的 hadbeen raised

Chapter 3: SeIling A也oun組b也句: Govemment Promotion ofthe Community Charge

hoped to purvey the image of a government responding sensitively to public debate, as well as provide a convenient subs位tutefor action

However，也e吵伽ations 咖枷∞凶donocc由i叫amagin跡ba品

趾e. In the lead up to the 1990 local government elec位ons， the Prime

M姐姐ter'sparliamep.tary private secret缸y 旭位matedto senior parliamen個

tary journalists th?t the Government was considering fur血erlegislation in the summer that ‘wòuldsig剖ficantlyalter the operation ofthe new system

So intense was the resultant frenzy ofmedia speculation that se剖orm恤姆"

ters were forced to publicly cool presumptions aboutthe exrent ofany likely review and to deny the prospect of加therlegislation

On occasions during this period, Ingham's 'straight bat' was replaced by a cross batted swipe at the Government's opponents According to another lobby correspondent:

‘[The Lobby] was used very much to promote the s切rythat what went wrong was that…in theyear 胎 whichthe first poll fax bills were sent

out，也eye缸融 whichit came 恤，local councils increased their ing by a figure , which frommemory 1 think was 2 billion pounds And obviously claimed 也atthe reason the poll tax bills were so high wω

spend-because councils had used the change from one taxation sys紀mto another 部 anexcuse for raising their expenditure Which 1 think 誨， '^

W缸，a bit of a piece of sophis紅y'(Interview with authors) 弋~1Ò t刊r, !j r

,-:A7 i!' " I \5 " I ,

I ~._ h J:: L c

Follo岫gthe 1990 leadership cont，帥，and theapp恤帥的 ofHeseitine7ttciJ 比扒

and the announcement of the poll t認 policyreview, the lobby and other unattributed briefmgs became even more important Before the an“

nouncement ofthe policy review these briefings were used 的 gaugepoli鼠"

cal reactions to the various policy alternatives under consideration,

confrrming Sigal's point that 'the press is public opinion 區 the eyes of

o血cials'(1973: 135) In the words of one journalist: _

'There were kites 110wn Certainly There were v缸ious th旭gstalked about in the press about how to make the poll tax better I'm s位e therew的 alot of, you know, ideas tried out 血roughthe lobby 切 test

the water The Heseltine stories on 20 per cent sound to me as though

they 盯'etesting the water to see what reaction is 恤.e'(Interview with authors)

61

Taxa位.onand Representa說.on:The Media, Politi阻l Communi個.tionand the Poll T臨

Or as another lobby correspondent wryly observed:

'Someone put it to m~ c叫你的overnmentby clapom帥r' Andin

a sense that's true Youcan be cynical about 尬， butyoucan 叫sosay，

welllisten that' s why 仰argaretThatcher] got chucked out …Ithink

[John Major] was weak, and that he did too much to-ing and fro-ing

andshill抖ngand shallying and this and that, but having said that, it was really, yes he' s bouncing it offus … Hew部 dOingwhat any sensible politician would do, which is he was listening to what people thought'

(Interview wi血 authors).

Unre-paig副ng.

一一一斗

乎r 長

Despite the Comm削ty Ch呵's puta位.ve status 倒 the 空哩世主且已/

Conservative P盯旬's 1987 General Election camp剖gn， the P缸ty

con-sp泌uously，控告也扭扭扭~during 也eba他 Forexam阱，也iskeynote

policy was mentioned in only two paragraphs ofthe P缸旬'selection

mani-fes旬， on the 62nd and 63rd pages of the 77 page document (The Next Moves Forward , Conservative Par使 El但也旦旦在anifes胎， May 旦旦7) and was the subject of only one speech from 也eEnvironment Secretary during the campaign period, which was delivered to a cons位tuency meet垣gin

Streatham (Young, 1987) Instead, the principal emphasis ofthe P缸旬's

campaign strategy w卸的 attackthe deficiencies ofLabour's defence and

taxa位on policies (M到肘， 1990), and when local government was

men-位onedin the P缸旬's Elec位onBroadcasts only two thβmes appeared: the suβcess and popularity ofthe Government' s 'Right 臼 Buy'schemes (where people living in council accommodation could buy the property at a dis-counted rate) and the spectre of socialist extremism that, it was cl函med，

lurked behind Labour' s modern new image After the Election, the vative MP George Young observed, 'As a flagship, it did not appe訂 tome

Conser-Chapter 3: Selling Accountab磁句:Government Promotion ofthe Community Ch位ge

strategy For example，旭 aleaked letter from the Environment Secretary's private secretary to one of the Prime 11.位nister'sprivate secretaries, during the parliamentary revolts of 1988, it was suggested that the reason for the intensity of 也ecurrent controversy was 也at'the issue is beginning to be understood by a number ofback benchers' (Independent , 19/4/88: 2)

Tlle spectre of 旭terna1 dissent 叫做個ρ!Û'ublic opi哇控吵i且倒 all

thelo叫 governm叫你tionsin England and Wales in May 1990 In h泊 tg

book on the tech到quesand importance of political 'spin doctoring', Br四"J

d恤a咀n吋B趾Bru芯lce，閃e仇， w咖h加owas的削st拖he恤e阻叫n吵Dir凹e叫orofCommunications for the Conservativel:Ø"~!l

p訂句但m冊， 1990), provides an interes位nginsight into the underlying 川、 甜的egyof 也isp訂ticul缸 campaign.Normally these elec位onswould have been considered of secondary significance by the Conservative leadβrship

However, the grow旭gsupport for Labour convinced senior p訂tyfigures

of the need for a high profile national campaign to wr郎tback the political

that the tax would only bed down if people could be won round to the

缸訊Imentsabout its fairness; that the real problem was the level ofthe bills;

and that 'ifwe could prove that it was only under Labour-run councils that

v

T個ationand Representation: The Med妞， Poli位問I 臼mmuni聞組onand the Poll Tax

the charge was high, then we could rehearse one of our preferred general

election themes:“LabourCostYouMore'" (i bi d.: 138)

The P缸旬，s national campaign 甜前egy 由erefore 必cused on"the 也ree

flagship councils ofWandsworth, Wes個insterand Bradford, briefing the

media that should these low poll taxed 缸e臼 remain Conservati間， the

p盯tywould be highly satisfied regardless of their opponents' g到ns

else-where The adverts displayed in national and local press all focused on the

central proposition that 'Conservative Councils Cost You Less' (10

TffiNGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE COMMUNITY CHARGE

[20/的 0)]: WHAT HA VE LABOUR DO悶 ABO白質盟 COMMUN叮Y

αIARGE?PUTITUP [23/妥/90])and the Party Chairman, Kenneth Bak:er,

切肘ed the country wielding a 'Co血munityChargeometer' designed to

demonstrate the disparities between poll 阻xlevels in Tory and Labour

councils (The Tim血，的/4/90).

In Bruce' s opinion their strategy was a complete success, for despite heavy

losses across the country, when the Conservatives consolidatβd

theircon-trolofWandsworth and Wes恤instermany mediareported that Co

nserva-tive prospt(cts had not lookeÆl brighter for many months See恆ng to

c叫位vate.'也is 仕祕nof though~ the P訂tyChairman and his

communica-位ons adv崩百五nmediately/seized on each and every available

photo-oppo做到吧空空空些空姐雙些竺堅堅住也扭扭扭曲Qtion，

and to deflect a.tten位onfrom 'th失þlconvenient s鼠也位csofLabour g祉ns'.

By the following Sunday: 可

'That night' s television news and 也e following d呵，s press were a

director of communica位ons'dream come true Hesel說ne'sambition to

thwart a Tory defeat had been abruptly term區ated:tñe Prime Min

is-ter' s position was streng也ened;back benchmorale improved; the polls

reported we had cut Labour's lead by 7 percen個gepo姐ts;the poll tax

缸gumenthad been shifted from one of principle to the size of the b剖，

and Central Oflìce had proved thatit could out campaignLabour' (i bi d.:

140)

Although subsequent events,-proved these to be but phyrric vic切ries，the

p缸ty leaders姐p's successf~defini位onoftheir 'worst ever local

govern-ment results' (Butler and Kavana恤，1992: 10) as a vindication ofthe tax,

had important short term consequences by conveniently dampening

de-V bateabout 也efuture of the 阻xandM缸g缸etThatcher's premiership,

64

Chapter 3: Selling AI血oun組bility:Govemment Promo位onof也e Community Ch缸ge

'The fact that the headlines were tak:en by the elec切raltriumphs in Wandsworth and Wes恤insterensured that the flat rate principle of

也epoll tax was retained and 也eresults of the ministerial review

promisedo叫yminor chang間，(Gibson, 1990: 24• 245)

After Margaret Thatcher's demise, and the announcement of the newι/

Council Tax, the P缸tyspin doctors 聖170rkedstrenuously to drawthe 前旭位

out ofthe 悅耳誼也ce deb的.In tandem with the bland and low key

因而誼協前到區可正前孟加es on the 臼uncil T泣，也.e P缸ty played

down the Council Tax in their campaigning, and 姐姐 ironiβp訂allelwith

the 1987 General Election, conspicuously avoided the issue i且也e1992 General ffiec位ml In也e 1992 Conservative manifes胎也eCouncil Tax !

received a men位朋 in<@抄riefparagr吶 onthe豆豆thpageofth哇。阿e j

'The Council Tax will be simple and straightforward to administer It

will be fair and w到rightlyreflect bo也 thevalue ofthe property and the number of adults who live in it' (1992 Conser l7 ative Par旬 Mamfesto，

paigns 缸e~not， and 訂eseen not to be, po誼ticallyinspired' (Committee of Public Accõ函鼠 ， op cit.: xii) Although the Commi位eestopped short of recommending legislation to ens肘e 血is dis位nction， it underlined 'the need to ensure propriety is made an explicit feature of campaign planning and implementa位凹，certai n1 y for those campaigns identified as being particu- larly at risk' (ibid.: 甜，our emphasis)

With the introduction of the COQlIIlunity _Charge, the conyentional di咐，

blurred, and many aspects of the publicity campaigns excited m吋orcon騙

~一

J

65

qr揖ationand Representa位on:The Media, Polltical Communication and the Poll Tax

troversies Perhaps this was inevitable, given the extreme contentiousness

of 也eproposals and the lack of any broad consensus as to their merits

Nevertheless, considering 血的 thepro血otionofthe policy was principally

orchestrated through governmental rather than p訂tyresources, many of

its aspects raised serio閻明智位onsabout the conflation ofpublic and p缸w

interests by the Thatcher adm坦istration.

/ In October 1987, Labour's local government spokesperson complained

that the booklet, Paying for Loc a1 Govemment: The Needfor Change ,

contrav-ened 1985 Cabinet Office guidelines 血的 stipulatedthat Government pu

b-lica鈍。nsshould only be issued afterthe publication of aBill or White Paper,

。rwith the agree血entofthe Opposition ChiefWhip (Guardian , 6/11/87)

(At the 位me the booklet was produced only a Green Paper had been

published.) Concerns were also expressed about the content of the leaf1et,

which it was felt overstepped the mark between information and prom

o-tion A senior Civil Servant at the Department of Environment later

conceded that the booklet was 'on the border line of overstepping the

proprieties My recollection of that booklet w晶 thatitw卸的o posi位ve'

(Interview with authors)

( A • ~ \

( shameful use of taxpayers resourçes for propaganda to make 怕e]polltax

~ seem more acceptable This coÍl仕astswith the increased restrictions on

I'oc!!1 government publicity' (Loc a1 Govemment Chroni c1 e , 20/1/89: 8):

However, objections were not only raised by parliamentary opponents to

the 組x.In 1989, the National Association of Cit坦問'sAdvice Bureaux

refused to dis仿ibutethe Step by Step guide 也roughtheir 0血cesbecause it

was felt the booklet 'was setting out an essentially political argument about

也e Ch缸ge without giving the other side of the 缸gument' (Guardian ,

13/5/89)

However，也esecomplaints about the propriety of the earlier publicity

material paled in comp盯isonto the furore over the blanket distribution of

the leaf1et The Community Chαrge (Th e So-Called 'Poll Tax'): Howit WillWork

for You , in May 1989, and the news management exercise that

accompan-ied it

The leaf1et was launched on Monday, 8 May 1989 at a press conference

attended by the Secret盯y of State for the Environment However

con-• We 訂e 也ankf叫 to BobFran姐姐 fordrawing our attention to 血泊位位cIe.

chapter 3: Selling Account油油句:Govemment Promotion ofthe Commw過tyCharge

缸oversyerupted before 也isoccasion, when the Local Government Infmation U凶札G即)- a press叫egroup funded by the Labour P缸tyand trades unions to campaign on behalf of local authorities 一 obtainedan advance copy and dis肘buted a detailed cri肉ue to national and local" / media which:: identified tw~lye ‘errors of fact 祖dmisleading information' /

or-'-:-,._ • ( v ;

These errors, itclaimed, revealed the leaf1et 的 be'politicaIIy biased 姐 its

phraseology, and 垣 whatit includes, and what is left out' (LGIU News Release, 8/5/89: 3) When challenged about this on the day ofthe launch,

the sponsoring minister completely refuted the claims ofthe LGIU, explai且，

ing:

'The intention was to get a leaf1et which was just a straight factual

leaf1et We've gone to gi:'eat trouble 切 do 也at. It's even coloured yellow, so that it can't possibly be thought in any way 的 beparty

poli位cal And even so, after all this effo肘， one body of a rather

e封reme 旭nd，suggests that it' s biased But 1 don't think the public

wil1v-也inkit when they get 尬， (Tod旬， BBCRadi04， 8/5/89).

However, the dispute escalated the next day when Greenwich London Borough Council was granted an ex p明rteinjunction in the High Court restraining the Environment Secretary from further distribution or publi-

ca位onofthe leaf1et The focus ofthe Council's ac位on wasques位on~

r thelea:!let, which stated '扭扭ngi且也eform does not mean you will have to

pay 也eCommunity Charge for anyone else' T姐s，the Council's solicitors claimed, was a manifest piece of misinformation as it failed to refer to section 16 of the 1988 Local Government Act which stated that spouses and cohabitees were 'joint and severaIIy liable' for their par組er'scharges ~~ 4AssuchJhepubhathvd組 notac∞吋咐th 伽 Government's c酬en- 的7 位onsand standards for publications ofthis sort' (即eTim郎， 17/5/89).The \ seriousness of this omission was compounded by thβdiscovery that the \ equivalent literature distributed by the Welsh Office contained the caveat, j

'in the c酪e of husbands and wives li悅耳 together， and couples living

together 的 thoughthey were m缸ried，each partner could be held sible for the arr阻sowed by the other' (Independent , 11/5/89: 2)

respon-寶島 Government's 帥帥部sment\increased 也efollowing day when 設

emerged that distribution of the Jéaf1ets had continued in spite of the

injuncti冊，and ministers had to explain to enraged parliamentary nents that news of the court' s judgement had come 切olate to prevent the Post Office from con位nuingwi也 theirdistribution

oppo-J

T也a鈍。nand Represen個.tion: The Media, PO加CaI Communica位onand 也ePoIl Tax

At 也efullI王ighCourt hearing on 也ecase, Lord J usti<臼 Woolffoundfor the

Environment 8ecretary, concluding that the leaflet was not literally in郎"

curate 'The worst that could be said about it was 血的 itwas misleading by

omission However, there had to be a selection and a selection was made

As a matter oflaw it could not be said that the department was not entitled

切 exercise its judgement in the way indicated' (Law Report, Th e Tim帥，

17/5/89) When Greenwich Council decided not to appeal, distribution of

也erem訟ning11 million leaflets continued

f

尸門祖血 h 恤e 加仰…… O仰v叫叫阻叫d 曲叫叫帥恥 u 凶呦叫心位伽枷 O叩叭 no心伊削 n 趴山 t恤叫缸

mirrored by cωont仗roversyover i加臼 a 邵cc ∞ O血pan 叮 y恤gnews 血a 阻 nage血.en 凶te 位前 r­

C嗨 吼.þ spokesperson for 血eDepartment of th 加eEnvironment i站 ns剖is鈴te吋 dthe

maI函 np叫pose of John Gummer's articles w的 'toput right mistakes and

misunderstandings and to ensure that 也e publio-had 也ecorrect

informa-位onabout the Community Charge' (Guardian , 13/5/89: 2) Another

as-serted: 'These 缸'e not political articles …Where the Minister co目ects

mis姐forma泣。且，then attribution to local individu也 is necess的， (In品

pendent , 12/5/89) However, the t盯getedcriticism of political opponents

ofthe Government created considerable outrage Leicester City Council

W的 stung 旭torele扭扭gits own news release which complained about '

也epossible misuse by the Government of civil serv也tsand public money

to run a politica11y biased campaign~on 申enew poll 個x' 也eicesterCity

f亡:: ~ Council News Release, 11/5/89[.υa叫 Blunke紋，then Labour's shadow

spokesperson on Local Governmè個t-wenttì盯也缸，claiming,‘the fact 血的

civil servants 缸enot oì:ùy being used to promote propaganda, but also to

attack individual opposition politicians takes 也eissue on from the abuse

of taxpayers' money and 姐to 也erea1ms of cons出ltionalimpropriety'

(Labour Par 1i amentary News Release [D avid Blunkett's Offìce] , 12/5/89) In

也eHouse of Commons another Opposition MP questioned，海 itoneofthe

supreme ironies of history that at the same time as the Tory benches 缸e

prais凶g President Gorbachev for 位y姐g to sep盯atethe p缸tyfrom the

state, they are doing the same in Britain?' (Hansard , 16/5/89, col 186)

Even 血e later 'toned down' Community 堡誼民ß.FlU棋.ts campa區豆豆þ

正函加百可瓦吾吾吾吾ia位onsand the Department ofthe Environment expressed

68

concerns that the adverts would amount 切 a'soft, sub且血inalselling ofthe

poll tax', by giv垣ga false impression of the actual availab也可 ofrebates

under the new system 8imil盯Iy， Labour' s Local Government

8pokes-person spoke ofthe 'justified anxiety 值 tothe exact nature of the

Govern-Chapter 3: Selling Accoun紹bility: Govemment Promotion ofthe Community Ch前ge

血ent'spublicity campaign 80ft selling 也epoll tax would be a gross misuse of taxpayers' money' (Guardian , 15/12/89) On 也e eve of the launchofthecampaigninFebruary1990, theLocalGovernmentInforma-tion Unit complained:

‘On臼 ag剖n，Government publicity spells outthe goodnews, but leaves out the bad, People who 缸enot eligible but who 訂'e misled by the campaign into thin垣ng 也atthey may get rebates will have 切 betold

by their councils what the 趴leposition is No mention is made ofthe

fact that it is central government which is the main determiner of poll

tax levels' (LGIU Briefi呵，No 36, JanlFeb 1990: 1)

Overview of the Govemment strategy From our discu鉛ionwe can disc吋 sixkey featur的 in 也eGovernment's

也 ofthe Community Charge was p叫nf"iT\~nTTl'\1"'lT!3nÎr:uul 呵

'ernment a1 rather thru

一­

on仕oversialnature of tlie poli呵，tfietone and qu組ity 9l

~一一一一一一一一一一一一一一一一一戶一一一戶一一戶一戶

i峭 a甜位v 附 e臼s 。恤 h控悔空堅嘴旦艷蚣哇哇也哇位1垃9叩盟旦盟旦掛亟雖扭吼。恤泣吋be伽e阻

旭 law， then.ig spirit

? Third, irom 血eoutset the Government iden凶edthe media豆豆_aJê磊iliù­

TaCt()r in the ba位lefor public opinion, and directed a considerable amount

v 哥哥在ention tow盯ds 也em 泊 itspublicity work Fourth, the public tion ofthe taxwas organized at bo也 partyand governmentallevel in a '切p

promo-」些空空空空r;wh站直高石頭而在支出品區函這疏而whicht店正

f 、 wasconceived and implemented Fif出品的也gof both governmental

andp訂ty publicity initiatives were specifica11y determined by broader

\旦旦1世Q.élLconsidÿra且ons﹒ Thedescription ofthe Community Ch缸geas the

Conserva位ves'electoral flagship could not have been more inappropriate

Rather, there was a deliberate conspiracy of silence on 也eissue during the

6、 1987 G伽e阻n叫 E恥lec臼叫叫c吋t位i恤 8ixt岫h(伊血伽e 岫凹旦蟬益且翩g隅e睏m螂 of 也伽eGovem

m 帥ent'spublic relations work 哇哇哇生扭頭~llyas events proceeded 的

the policy ~erailed，輕ton會旦fformalpublicity material and news releases

becamemore面豆豆suredand defensive, and greater emphasis was placed on

conven位0型掙祐鼠忌T孟晶石函agementto limit 也epolitical damage

' ,

69

T盟a位onandRepr田間扭曲n:The Media, Political Coòununication and the Poll Tax

In也efollowing chapters we comp盯'ethese strategies with those of the

main opponents of the t澀， and consider 血eir respective influence in

shaping the terms ofpublic and media debate on the issue

LabourP前ty opposi位on

It i~i.n)ip仰priate t切O 恤咖u叫心 t

阻yu剖扭可 sense.TWs is partly õecause L函ouropposition mobilized at both local and nationalleve l However , even more cruci a11 y , although the

the Co血munityCharge w部

valent agreement 卸的 how

叫~由_ 一-司一一~一一一_-←

to differentiate between Labour's natio na1 campaig世ng ag剖nstthe poll

p

T個研pnand Represen純tion:The Media, PO加CaI臼mmu到位世on 祖dthePollT;紹

,{",/

η 計?只主/

!1 • tax , as sanction~~ by the party's National Executive Committee;

municipallocàrauthorities); and 血eac位吋說esofP缸ty)nâÏ間﹒ s , who n:ot /

only soughtωoppose the t路，but also the terms of 仰區屁函 opposi位.on

recommended by 也eP缸紗'sleadership In也issection we focus on

La-bour's national and local camp剖gning.The activi位es of_Pa耶 mavericks-.、

缸eaddressed in 0盯 examina位onofthean位 po11tax movemeni, oe蕊iiS'ëV

of the central role 也可 playedin its formation and campai那ing 弘avalette

andMoon旬， 1992/3).

Jλ ".,(/ La枷伊甸州'gni呵

There were clear parallels between the timing and 扭扭nsityof Labour's

national campai俱ingaga祖stthe po11 t阻 andthe Government's prom心

位.onal 位me祖ble(Justas Conservative Central Office sought 臼 excludethe

iss叫om伽泓7General Elec恤，叫咱our哩呱做些些亞于旭gJff夕

聽βctionbroadcasts (Observ官r，26/3/91: 25); was mentioned in only 也E建立一/

sentences in the Party's official manifes切; and was referred to incidentally 三

恤 onena位onal newspap叮 adver伽ment at 也eend of the campaign (當年C

you're th姐king of voting Conservative, 加 h e叮re 仇，池s a f細 ìnal che呵 que 站 e-φ 叫-闢 4 枷 -1

νD

However, after the Conservatives' emphatic electoral victory, andß$_ è

moves began to promo師也enewt缸，the Labour P缸tylaunched its伽莎)

co叮叮例， e耽吋盯liamentary camp到伊 on the issue 恤England 涵

Wales In September 1987, a前t 街苔F吾苛志濁6面 en 肘c臼 C臼e， t也 heSha吋 dθw Enviro 叫u 任 1- 一內U J

men 削 nt 咖k呻ersonanno 叫 un叫 t伽 he 恥 e叫ca 呻 n 呻咖 p 伊 a 蝴 i站恥 g 伊 nw 胸叫 u 仙Il

位O恤 n ω theβ ha缸rsh 加nessand unm 岫 fai恤 m 沮 mβ臼郎 s鈞s oft吭 hep仰011tax; the preponderance of " 七

losers under1í:1 e new arr祖g面.ents; t缸而迋而E商品已扭扭 Whiteha11

control over local communities'; 'the sinister implica位onsfor personal and

civilliberties'; 也e並~dequacyofthe rebate provisions; and the underm恤，

ing of electoral and democra位cprocesses by driving people ofIthe el凹的ral

re斟ster..Campaign leaflets w前'e drawn up for public distribution and a

comprehensive advice note was sent to a11 Labour groups, local parties and

affiliated organizations (Labour Party News Release [Campaign and

Com-munications Direc扭扭t吋， 23/9/87).

In Scotland, the Party had mobilized earlier against 也epolicy and initially

adopted a more combative approach In early 1987, the Scottish Labour

72

Chapter 4: Promo位ngÐ油ent: An位 PollT揖Campai伊ing

P缸tylaunched a笠控12lf campaign, which used pe位.tions，information

briefu耶 andlegal chall石磊正正互訪public at臨tionto the issue and pressurize the Government One of也emajor initiatives was a‘send it back' campaign which advised the public, through leaflets and press advertis-

血en俗， toquery 也eirregistration forms and 也ereby overburden

也eregis-trationprocess ThePa旬 alsou耶dcouncil囉逾to co11ect the t'àoc但ark缸， r

1992) However，也is 血rtationwith a 討rtuàl-honpayment stance w也

soon abandoned, and after September 1988 the Sco前ishP缸旬'scampaig­

ning conformed more closely to the national strategies employed in Enland and Wales

g-In J anuary 1988, at a national press conference, the Labour P缸tyleader announced the !aunch of a nationwide anti po11 t位 peti向!l-，_The co11ection

tions held during the p缸liamentary passage of the po11 t缸， the P缸ty

attempted to focus public andmedia attention on the likely inequities ofthe

newt也﹒ Forexample, one national advertisment enquired:

'What would you say about a tax that cost a couple in a small flat twice

部 muchasami血on時ein a mansion?'

At a national press conference mar旭ngthe launch of Labo肘'selection campaign, the Shadow Environment spokesperson reve11ed in the ‘huge

andgrow區gembarrassment' of the Conservative P訂tyover the po11 t眩，

and the Shadow Women's spokesperson highlighted the particularly

severeimpa學thetaxwo凶dhave on women (即eMo叫ngS腳， 14/4/88).

In February 1989, the P缸旬'sNa位io!ll!!Executive Committee produced a

L一旦控旦控血型堅慨çomprisin咚咚可你哩。Mnme 也atthe

responsib也tyfor the policy w由 bla益磁石n .: tlle Government and not local authorities; to give people the →臨眩'pn the po11 t扭扭.d dispel public

i俱orance;to help people avoi回話志託puni位ve aspec的;and to argue for

a system oflocal taxation which wouldrelate to people's ab也可臼 pay('Po~

Tax Facts', Labour P缸旬，1989) Aside from releasing a fì盯therswathe of I

campaign packs 祖dbriefings, it was decided 切仕Yto get the Party's po11 I

t磁 protestsponsored Newspaper advertisments urged 也epublic to sign I

theirnameωthe 加typro側，and also con帥u峙的 P訂tyfunds These I

姐姐aladvertisments were fmanced through an appeal to P缸tymembers J

that raised :t:80,000 in 5 days (Guardi帥， 31/3/89) and continued into

1990 Also 坦 February 1989 a 'weekend of activi旬， at locallevel was