Protest
Some vague numbers:

Around 10-12m of them were under the age of fourteen and would not have understood. A similar number would be retired and not want to travel to the big city to join a protest/riot.

In London, 2 million people joined on February 15th 2003. Throughout the country another one million people protested.

Out of the "eligible people", 3 in 35 million - around 10% - felt sufficiently angry about it to demonstrate despite the fact that Blair had his lips around Bush's appendage.

Now that is a statement.

Poll Tax Demonstrations (the Riot) that changed the policy attacted 200,000 people.
(jdharding, Sun 14 Nov 2010, 20:22, 4 replies)

There were 250,000 on the Countryside March
and that made no difference either. Even Blair now says the Hunting Bill was a mistake.

100% true fact.
(TheFlyingOnion. looking forward to, Sun 14 Nov 2010, 22:31, closed)

Mass non-payment was more effective at stopping the Poll Tax
just saying, like.
( wotofco pissing in your swimming pool, Sun 14 Nov 2010, 23:53, closed)

Oh please...
The Poll Tax "riot" changed nothing, regardless of how many misty eyed loons tell you otherwise. The tax would have stayed in place until the next election, but for the fact the government replaced the old leader with one who had not nailed their colours firmly to the mast of the charge and how could be open minded about a change without losing face. The acknowledgement that the tax was all wrong was not down to a bunch of unwashed smashing windows near Trafalgar Square, but the realisation that the maths were wrong and that far from addressing the inequities of the old system it had benefited far fewer than had original been believed - mainly because the need to set a new rate from scratch had opened the doors for the local councils to completely rework their entire budgets to dramatically increase the burden on their residents in a manner which nobody could have predicted beforehand.

Hence the change to Council Tax was actually preceded by the 1991 budget which extended government subsidy to local authorities (paid for by a VAT increase) so that everyone got £140 off their annual bill and thus made it a little less painful.
(TalkbackStuck making obscene phonecalls since, Mon 15 Nov 2010, 0:18, closed)

3 in 35 million
by your own logic though, thats still 90% of the eligible who dont give a fuck...
( PMGT -Bacon., Mon 15 Nov 2010, 0:50, closed)

logical fallacy here, and in to some extent in the OP
It is a safe assumption that the people who were protesting did give a fuck, however we can't make the assumption that those that did not protest did not give a fuck. It could be that those not protesting (of the 35 millions) could not attend because they were ill, had to work, were out of the country, could not make it to a place to protest, did not think that protesting would make a difference, had not even thought about the issue, did not know that the protests were happening... etc etc etc etc etc
( Sextant goes to him is emotionally erect, on this day, Mon 15 Nov 2010, 7:48, closed)

True
I have never attended a protest and this usually boils down to:
- I did not know of one until it was pasted on the news.
- Some turn nasty - I do not want my head kicked in by either side or by those in uniform.
- If I travel there, where would I park my car?
- I need to get a day off work.
- The missus would 'protest' at me, refer to point 2.
- Protests, petitions, violence, peace - simply put, anything short of hostile takeover has been shown to be little effective unless near election if your REALLY REALLY lucky.

Basicly, I do give a f***, but those who are protested against seem so give each one of us a f***, day in, day out. It's simply too painful to walk, let alone attend such events.
(FunOnABun Smears lard on you!, Mon 15 Nov 2010, 16:34, closed)

Which also kind of illustrates one of my other points...
We, in this country, do not suffer enough for anyone to fight and/or die for change.

What I mean is, if this was America in the 1950s and you were black (you may already be black, I don't know. I'm not black so lets pretend I am...), and you'd spent the best part of your life being called a nigger, being forced to attend black only schools, being forced to sit at the back of the bus, never getting decent jobs and basically living as a third class citizen, and there was a civil rights protest, would you really give a shit about where to park your car, or getting a day off work?

My point is, I'm sure you do care but maybe you just don't care enough.

Incidentally, I've never been on a protest march either, for exactly the reasons you described.
( PMGT -Bacon., Tue 16 Nov 2010, 3:32, closed)

Thats a very good point
and one I have considered and there are two conclusions I think can be drawn here:

1) A lot of people do give a fuck and therefore protest marches are a really shit way of getting your point across because so many people can't get involved for the reasons you stated above...

or

2) Most people don't give a fuck.

One of those two things is the case.
( PMGT -Bacon., Tue 16 Nov 2010, 3:15, closed)