
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 22, 1991                   TAG: 9103220116
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: LONDON                                LENGTH: Short

UNPOPULAR BRITISH POLL TAX REPEALED

Prime Minister John Major's government completed one of the most dramatic political reversals in recent British history Thursday by announcing abolition of the unpopular poll tax, a cornerstone of predecessor Margaret Thatcher's rule.

Michael Heseltine, the Conservative Party maverick to whom Major gave the job of dismantling the tax, told the House of Commons that the government would replace the measure with a new system of modified property tax that would take into account the number of adults in each household.

Heseltine said the new system, which like the poll tax is designed to pay for local government expenditures, would be fairer and easier to collect. But Bryan Gould, the opposition Labor Party's spokesman, called the move "the most complete capitulation, the most startling U-turn and the most shameless abandonment of consistency and principle in modern political history."

Officials said the new measure would not take effect for two years. In the meantime, the government said it would ease the burden of the poll tax by distributing nearly $8 billion in grants that will reduce the average bill by more than $250 from its present level of about $750.

by CNB