Lessons on Tax Protests from a British Cousin
The head of the UK's Taxpayers' Alliance gives tea party attendees the benefit of his experience.
After the dust settled from the April 15 tea parties and before the inevitable ratcheting up for the July 4 protests, I thought I would ask a expert on tax protests how he viewed those hardy souls that ventured forth in the early spring to let their voices be heard all across the U.S.
Matthew Elliot is head of the Taxpayers’ Alliance (TPA) in the UK. It’s an organization that has held politicians and bureaucrats to account over their over-zealous tax and spending habits. Elliot provided the following insights:
AID: Do you think your taxpayer rallies have any effect on the powers that be?
Mathew Elliot: Tax rallies are hugely important because they demonstrate grassroots support for the low tax cause. It’s very easy for any campaign to set up an office in the capital, say that it represents millions of voters, and put a talking-head on TV, but actually getting people out on the ground — getting people to give up their time for a cause — is much more difficult and demonstrates real public support.
AID: Would you ever consider a mass movement on the same day in the UK, like the tea party movement in the U.S.?
Mathew Elliot: At the Taxpayers’ Alliance, we typically hold action days to gather names on low tax petitions and we organize protests outside government buildings and local town halls. We have never held a mass rally, but we have held a rally in Trafalgar Square in London against rising council taxes, which attracted about 500 people, and we organized 4,000 bikers to descend on Westminster Council when they brought in a motor bike tax recently. The Countryside Alliance rally against the hunting ban of over a million people and the anti-Iraq War rally of several million people has really raised the bar. We’d have to be able to match those number to ensure a mass rally was a success.
AID: Do you have any advice for tea party planners in the U.S. based on the experience of the the Taxpayers’ Alliance?
Mathew Elliot: The most important piece of advice I could give from our action days is to make events fun — and the tea parties have followed this admirably. If people are going to give up their time to attend an event, they don’t want to be surrounded by sour-faced protesters. They want to feel positive about their activism, so using humor to convey a serious message is essential.
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Andrew Ian Dodge blogs at Dodgeblogium.
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9 Comments
1. LeighB:Fantastic! Indeed, we the people are tea’d off. I don’t play golf but my brothers do and they could get together a tee party in a hurry. Matthew is right, we need the events to be fun. July 4th is not too far away!
May 5, 2009 - 4:04 am 2. Hueydoc:Protest in front of the TV stations and newspapers- then they cannot ignore you.
May 5, 2009 - 4:42 am 3. Samizdat:I am looking forward to what July 4th will bring.Of The two parties I attended on April 15, 09, the one in Manchester NH had more of the element of fun the British interviewee discusses. It was also informative.
May 5, 2009 - 5:41 am 4. AThinkingPerson:I thought the point about keeping the Tea Parties “fun” and positive is worth noting. Whenever the Tea Party movement takes on the look of a Prop 8 mob, a Code Pink takeover or heaven forbid, an ACORN rally full of screaming people and hate-filled speeches, we’ve missed our opportunity.
May 5, 2009 - 12:50 pm 5. SAY NO TO BIG GOVERMENT:Show Obama, Reid and Pelosi the tea party protests were not “astroTurf” but they were the beginning of a massive movement against massive Government growth and the control that comes with it. Tell them to Empower Individual Americans to take responsibility for their own lives and for the individual to have control over the direction of our country Sign the petition for Individual Empowerment!!! http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Indv1776/petition.html THE ONLY THIS WILL WORK IS IF YOU COPY AND SEND IT TO FRIENDS AND FAMILY THAT YOU HAVE THE SAME OPINIONS AS YOU. ALSO COPY AND POST IT ON OTHER NEWS SITES, BLOGS, EMAIL IT TO ORGANIZATIONS ETC
May 5, 2009 - 1:39 pm 6. BPT (Australia):Good pointes here. The Tea Party movement is slamming the opposition on many fronts, and the media is scared. If they think they are not a threat, then why are they investing so much emotional energy into mocking tax-and-pay family slaves?
May 5, 2009 - 6:11 pm 7. RSP:I don’t think this articles author quite understands. The protests are not fundamentally about, or in response to, any one concrete action (such as taxes). They are about individual rights and opposition to ALL infringements upon them. Taxes are only one such manifestation. These protests would be necessary even disregarding taxes as the government has so rapidly increased violating our rights in the past year or so.
May 6, 2009 - 3:25 pm 8. Andrew Ian Dodge:RSP I don’t think you can actually say that. . The specific aim on tax day was to focus on taxes. Everything that government depends on money, your money, you reduce the amount they have, there is less they can do.
May 7, 2009 - 5:44 am 9. Judy Pepenella:Heuydoc: We are protesting at MSNBC
5/25/09 @ 12:00
Directly in front of their studios
1335 Avenue of the Americas,
New York, NY 10019
There are other groups looking to do the same thing at other studios as well.
CNN is next!!!
Andrew…nice interview
May 7, 2009 - 7:04 am