Depends. Business rates still exist & are set by central government. The local authority is just the collector, but get all the bad press.
Full disclosure; in another life I ran an independent High Street shop & had the joy of paying this un-proportionate tax. It’s one of the reasons that the project wasn’t viable.
Yes - but a lot of UK local government funding comes from central government not rates or council tax - and IIRC the Government grant has been cut in real terms by something like 40% since 2010.
So the councils get the flak for council tax rises and poor service but the real culprit in large part is the Tory administration at Westminster - no surprise there.
They also encouraged local councils to get into public/private partnerships to fund things like town centre regeneration - something that councillors were not really equipped to deal with - so some councils have found themselves saddled with huge debt due to unwise investments.
For example Woking Borough Council’s previous Conservative administration signed up to a disastrous mega development project which has left the council (since 2022 run by the Lib Dems) effectively bankrupt.
I am currently helping the Woking Citizens Advice Bureau by filming a video to promote their crowdfunding appeal - forced upon them because as part of its enforced cuts programme Woking BC is removing their grant entirely from 1st April.
This is just one small example of the havoc that has been wreaked upon local services in the UK since 2010.
I used to work with two British born Muslim chaps who considered themselves to be moderates and we spoke about this on several occasions. Of course, the Christian church is no stranger to controlling entire continents through fear, but that religion had a reformation.
So hearsay only, no proof.
You shouldn’t need to. If you know the address where you were last registered to vote then that’s all you should need. Voter registration rolls are kept permanently and should be accessible by the appropriate authority that now covers that address, even if the authority has changed. I’ve used voter information online to track ancestors as long ago as the 1920’s
He’s the founder of the Workers Party of Great Britain, who are affiliated to the Communist Party of Great Britain. Although the leadership of the CPoGB do tolerate him, ordinary members (of whom I know a few) think he’s just a dick. As do most other people in politics.
I class Galloway as a ‘celebrity’ rather than a serious politician, his latest foray into the halls of Westminster will only last a few months as he’ll be beaten in the GE once Labour get their act together in Rochdale.
I’m now thinking of that classic monologue in Team America about how the dicks, pussies etc interact in the political world. 
Looks to me that this guy Galloway is the UK equivalent of Jen Luc Melenchon. What does his election have to do with living in France?
It is of interest to those who have a UK vote & therefore follow the politics of that country.
What makes you think that this forum has to be exclusively about living in France ? We are allowed to talk about other things 
Also I venture to say that the majority of us are citizens of that country, and in many if not most cases, of no other.
Like him or loath him, he’s right 
Many towns and villages have lost their identity through central control in UK whereas in France it is still possible to get things done by a visit to the Mairie office of your commune which in our case has around 600 inhabitants.
Indeed, he almost got me wanting to vote for him myself, if I could. 
And I wonder ruefully if he was to stand in Broxtowe, would I actually do so, as I sit here nursing my newly restored democracy, missing entirely since many years, and pondering the misery of voting tactically for the useless followers of Mr. wishy washy Starmer.
I really think it’s like the end of Animal Farm David, when the pigs and the humans get together. I look from the Tories to Labour and back again and I can’t really see any difference, just Labour folk aren’t as intrinsically nasty.
I think Labour ae frightened of being ‘Labour’.
Well, they do want to get elected this time round.
Supposedly, people are paying more tax than ever yet the public coffers are empty so where the hell has the money gone?
Labour will no doubt tinker round the edges (private schools etc) but billions are needed for public services so nothing much will change.
And Liz and Kwasi wanted to hike it higher.
