Upcoming Events

Antrim | Miscellaneous

no events match your query!

New Events

Antrim

no events posted in last week

Blog Feeds

Anti-Empire

Anti-Empire

offsite link North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Slavgrinder Ramps Up Into Overdrive Tue Nov 12, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link ?Existential? Culling to Continue on Com... Mon Nov 11, 2024 10:28 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link US to Deploy Military Contractors to Ukr... Sun Nov 10, 2024 02:37 | Field Empty

Anti-Empire >>

Human Rights in Ireland
Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.

offsite link Top Scientists Confirm Covid Shots Cause Heart Attacks in Children Sun Oct 05, 2025 20:31 | imc

offsite link Fraud and mismanagement at University College Cork Thu Aug 28, 2025 18:30 | Calli Morganite

offsite link Deliberate Design Flaw In ChatGPT-5 Sun Aug 17, 2025 08:04 | Mind Agent

offsite link AI Reach: Gemini Reasoning Question of God Sat Aug 02, 2025 20:00 | Mind Agent

offsite link Israeli Human Rights Group B'Tselem finally Admits It is Genocide releasing Our Genocide report Fri Aug 01, 2025 23:54 | 1 of indy

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link Sadiq Khan Called ?Disgrace? for Claiming ?From River to Sea? Chant is Not Antisemitic Sat Oct 11, 2025 11:00 | Will Jones
Sir Sadiq Khan has been called a "disgrace" by a former Labour minister after he suggested that protesters who chant 'From the river to the sea' are not antisemitic, despite it calling for Israel to be wiped off the map.
The post Sadiq Khan Called “Disgrace” for Claiming ‘From River to Sea’ Chant is Not Antisemitic appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link How Many Gulags Will We Need to Rid Us of the Progressive Blob? Sat Oct 11, 2025 09:00 | Graham Cunningham
Across the West, the Right is in the ascendancy, but an Establishment Blob of millions of progressive Lefties remains implacably opposed. Graham Cunningham ponders how many gulags will be needed to resolve this situation.
The post How Many Gulags Will We Need to Rid Us of the Progressive Blob? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link The Left-Wing Bias of World Mental Health Day is Enough to Drive You Insane Sat Oct 11, 2025 07:00 | Steven Tucker
Alan Partridge is back to promote World Mental Health Day. At least, that's how it appeared to Steven Tucker when he saw the 'Printable Affirmation Cards' produced by the Mental Health Foundation.
The post The Left-Wing Bias of World Mental Health Day is Enough to Drive You Insane appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link News Round-Up Sat Oct 11, 2025 00:29 | Toby Young
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link National Trust Puts Vegan Tampons in Men?s Toilets Fri Oct 10, 2025 17:28 | Will Jones
The National Trust is under fire for putting vegan tampons in men's lavatories, dispensing them from a large box fixed to the wall near the urinals with the message: "Got a period situation going on? We got you."
The post National Trust Puts Vegan Tampons in Men’s Toilets appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en

offsite link Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en

offsite link The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Threat of mass non-payment forces postponement of water charges

category antrim | miscellaneous | press release author Tuesday September 06, 2005 18:38author by . - We Won't Pay Campaignauthor email wewontpay at btconnect dot com Report this post to the editors

Water Charges postponed for a year

Press Release issued by the We Won't Pay Campaign

We Won't Pay Campaign

Press Release 6th Sept 2005 - For immediate use

Threat of mass non-payment forces postponement of water charges

The We Won't Pay Campaign today claimed that the threat of mass non-payment of water charges is the real reason why the Government was forced to postpone the controversial introduction of the 'tap tax' until April 2007.

Ciaran Mulholland, Chairperson of the We Won't Pay Campaign stated "The Government know that if they were to introduce water charges next April as they originally intended to, they would face a mass boycott. They have failed to convince the overwhelming majority of people of the case for water charges. They have lied to people by accusing us that we do not pay for water, when we already pay for water through the rates."

Mr. Mulholland warned Minister Shaun Woodward that unless his water charges plans were completely dropped, the campaign would continue to sign householders up to the 'non-payment pledge'. "It is obvious Ministers are planning to make some amendments to how water charges are introduced in an effort to try and pull the wool over people's eyes. The real reason for water charges is to eventually privatise the water service. Water charges in England & Wales have soared since their introduction. This postponement only allows more time for our campaign to continue to grow. No matter what changes are made, the We Won't Pay Campaign will continue to call on people to refuse to pay this unjust double-tax."

Related Link: http://www.wewontpay.tk
author by nowatertaxpublication date Sat Sep 10, 2005 23:23author address author phone Report this post to the editors

might be the anti water charges campaign in the south, which incidently was a complete victory. When the water was switched off, the cheeky campaigners, switched it back on again!

author by nowatertaxpublication date Sat Sep 10, 2005 23:22author address author phone Report this post to the editors

about 3 months hundreds of pickets, god know how many blockades and 25 in jail you mean. get your facts right, do you work for 02?

author by iosafpublication date Wed Sep 07, 2005 18:18author address author phone Report this post to the editors

statistically the poorest month, fewest people can pay bills or make ends meet or have stores in. Its interesting to note that all poverty taxes are being protested again. In the UK a vicar just went to jail today for not paying a 67council tax bill
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/northamptonshire/4221728.stm
this follows increased worries at council tax charges in wales and scotland. Another OAP in Devon is facing jail-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/devon/4177318.stm
And the issue is heating up in Scotland. Water and in charges are the Irish equivalent.
How much money do they need? What do they build with it?

author by Roger Clifford - Craigavon Trades Councilpublication date Wed Sep 07, 2005 16:39author email rog1clifford2 at hotmail dot comauthor address author phone Report this post to the editors

Not being a member of the SP I can't comment on what they might or might not do. But in the absence of any constructive suggestions from Oh 2 I assume the message is "just pay up and shut up"

author by Oh 2?publication date Wed Sep 07, 2005 16:17author address author phone Report this post to the editors

"If however we do get to the sad situation when water rates bills come through our letter boxes, what tactic apart from non payment would Oh 2 suggest?"

What will you do when the sad situation arises that three weeks after households have their water cut off the SP abandon the campaign en masse (well the 20 or so of them up there)?
What lessons have been learnt from their involvement in the bin tax campaign in the south?

author by Roger Clifford - Craigavon Trades Councilpublication date Wed Sep 07, 2005 15:09author email rog1clifford2 at hotmail dot comauthor address author phone Report this post to the editors

If Oh2 has some constructive suggestions on tactics I would love to hear them.
The CAWC will use any tactic to defeat this unfair double tax. If however we do get to the sad situation when water rates bills come through our letter boxes, what tactic apart from non payment would Oh 2 suggest?

author by Oh 2?publication date Wed Sep 07, 2005 14:00author address author phone Report this post to the editors

How long did there 'We won't pay' campaign last in Fingal after the council acted. About three weeks, that's how long. They are going to try to replicate the same campaign up North. No bloody hope. Try some other tactics. Parroting slogans doesn't work!

author by Locaterpublication date Wed Sep 07, 2005 13:20author address author phone Report this post to the editors

You do realise where we are talking about don't you? The '6'. The elections were there this year.
Do keep up.

author by Darraghpublication date Wed Sep 07, 2005 13:06author email darragh25 at hotmail dot comauthor address author phone Report this post to the editors

I imagine this u-turn has got more to do with a general election on the horizon and the current government trying to lose its image as an administration that has saddled us with double taxes. They will no doubt introduce water charges after they get re-elected, (and call me a pessimistic but they will get re-elected), and give us all the two fingers once again.

author by Roger Clifford - Craigavon Trades Councilpublication date Wed Sep 07, 2005 12:37author email rog1clifford2 at hotmail dot comauthor address author phone Report this post to the editors

Whatever way you look at this, be it partial, temporary, a victory is a victory. The campaign was far from perfect, and no one is suggesting the war is over. But the fact of the matter is in April 2006 I (Nor anyone else in Northern Ireland) will be getting a water charge through my letter box.
I can agree with Dave about being mindfull of the governments future maneoverings. However given the aim was and is to privatise the system, and the poor state of the system, surely this would be a greater incentive for the government to press on with these charges to get the revenue stream up and running as soon as possible. As Cairan correctly asserts, the very fact that this revenue would be in serious doubt has obviously influenced the government's decision.
With this victory under our belt, which must come as a great suprise to the sceptics who assumed these charges were inevitable.The coalition can now move forward to defeat these proposals once and for all.

author by Davepublication date Tue Sep 06, 2005 22:58author address author phone Report this post to the editors

This is just silly and undermines the possibility of building a strong campaign. Are you really saying the British Govt saw 300 people on the streets in Feb and thought shit, we better do a u-turn? Maybe they saw the 5 campaigns in Belfast and thought jesus these people are organised (not).
The reality is that they are determined to privatise the system yet the infra-structure is so bad, no private company would touch it with a bargepole, they need more time to lay the basis of a functioning pipe network and system that are attractive to big-business. Dovetailing this, is how does a devolved Storrmont regime react - how can they be brought (bought) on board?
As part of a campaign that advocates non-payment I would love to say it is the strength of opposition that has knocked them back - this is completely false - as anybody on the ground would be aware. We need to keep our eye on their maneouverings without crying wolf about non-existent victories.

Number of comments per page
  
 
© 2001-2025 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy