In 1987, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher proposed replacing the system of
local property taxes with a fixed charge per person—the so-called Poll Tax. This change
would have greatly reduced taxes for people who owned expensive houses, but would
have increased taxes on people who owned no property.
The Poll Tax, however, was deeply unpopular with the public. In Scotland, Anti-Poll Tax
Unions quickly developed, calling for mass nonpayment. This movement spread into
England and Wales, and in 1990, some 200,000 citizens demonstrated in central London
in the Poll Tax Riots. Facing this public and parliamentary pressure, the Conservative
party abandoned the Poll Tax by 1993, moving to a more limited local tax.
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