The First Of Many?

By · April 24, 2006 at 11:30 am · No comments · Latest News · Report an error ·
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The local Croydon news site is reporting that a “disgruntled resident has refused to pay £20 of her council tax bill, the amount levied towards the cost of hosting the 2012 Olympic Games.”

And so it begins.

52-year-old Helen Burrows is quoted as saying that the bill “is completely out of order” and that she has “no real interest in the Games,” because, “they will not benefit me or my family and I don’t think it’s fair only Londoners should have to pay for them.”

We have a good idea that Mrs Burrows is possibly the type of person who would think about refusing to pay her TV licence just because the Beeb employ Graham Norton, but there’s no doubting that this kind of thing is going to catch on and the first ‘disgruntled’ pensioner that goes to prison over it is going to make certain tabloid journalists very happy indeed.

Croydon Council have responded by pointing out that “Residents simply cannot pick and choose which parts of the council tax they wish to pay.” Bummer.

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  • Capitano

    Hats off to Helen Burrows. Her refusal to foot the bill for the Olympics is in the tradition of Henry David Thoreau, the American pioneer of civil disobedience. An objector to the Mexican-American war, he protested by refusing to pay tax, and was imprisoned as a result. Like Thoreau’s, Helen Burrows’ action is non-violent, principled and logical. It is also effective in highlighting how strange it is that we should never have been given a say on whether we wanted the Olympics in the first place – and when we won them, how they should be paid for. In a climate where being enthusiastic about the games is held up as a civic duty, it was high time somebody raised the issue. Mrs Burrows deserves credit, not ridicule.

  • http://www.londonist.com Rob

    Capitano – you’re dead right. I don’t know why we hadn’t pointed out the similarities betwen the US-Mexican war and the 2012 Olympics before. It just seems so obvious!

    Seriously…If you read Londonist regularly you’ll see that we’ve always questioned various aspects of the 2012 development programme as well as celebrating aspects of the bid and the opportunities the games will offer.

    Similarly we’re all for people raising valid, well-thought-out objections but, let’s face it, Helen Burrows is no Thoreau and her argument that she shouldn’t pay because the games don’t directly benefit her family or that pensioners shouldn’t pay because they might die before 2012 are misguided and don’t help anyone’s cause.

  • http://www.londonist.com Will

    When I’m old there probably won’t be a state pension system. Consequently, I have no interest in funding it with my taxes now. Why should I? I won’t benefit. Sod pensioners, it’s me, me, me.

    That’s about the same level of argument.

  • http://www.sizemore.co.uk Mike

    I’m with you Will. Fuck the Olympics and fuck the pensioners.

    Now if we can only come up with a way of disrupting the games and culling some of the old folk at the same time… they probably wouldn’t notice a few pounds of semtex in those shopping trolleys that they’re surgically attached to.

    Did you ever get that copy of The Anarchist Cookbook back from your mate in Leeds?

  • Capitano

    Rob – I chuckle at your response, but as funny as it is, it doesn’t address the point – which is that so far as I know the idea of taxing Londoners – and only Londoners – for the Olympics has never been put to us in any election. It smacks of a backroom deal and as a result, the levy’s legitimacy is open to question.

    Btw, seems to me you misrepresented Mrs Burrow’s views, too. She doesn’t appear to say anything about not wanting to pay for an event that one may not live to see. That would, indeed, be preposterous.

    But I’m sure at 52, Mrs Burrows – neither particularly old, nor probably even a pensioner – has as much chance of witnessing the games as you and me. Fact-checking, anyone?

    As for Mike, blowing people up – spoken like a true Londoner.

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