The regime of Margaret Thatcher replaced local taxes on property with a single ‘flat’ tax per head of population. The tax proved cumbersome to collect and met with mounting resentment; one in five adults had to be summonsed for payment. On 31 March 1990 a massive demonstration in Trafalgar Square turned violent. By November 1991 Thatcher had resigned, the ‘poll tax’ widely cited as an immediate cause of her demise. It was shelved and replaced with a modified property tax.
This was a huge and spontaneous uprising against taxes and labour service imposed by the colonial French. It began in Dai Loc, where several thousand camped peacefully near the building of the French administrator and cooked meals until others arrived to take their place. The administrator ordered troops to fire on them; the protest escalated and spread to Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh and Hue. Tax collectors, police officers and interpreters were captured. The first peaceful mass demonstrations against French colonial rule, their brutal repression set the tone for the violent conflicts to come.
