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, Reply)