It is unclear what the effects of the government's decision to cap the spending of several councils and fire authorities, including Nottingham council, will be, nonetheless the reductions in the amounts people have to pay are likely to be only slight and in some cases will apparently be offset by the cost of rebilling. The government claims that the decision to use these powers has been taken in order to protect taxpayers from excessive rises, but a more cynical view (and this is unsurprisingly mine) is that they are trying to head off a growing revolt over thecouncil tax, widely seen, with good reason, as inegalitarian and regressive. The failure of the Left to pick up on this issue is unfortunate, although by no means inevitable. In Scotland the Green Party have called for its abolition and replacement with a land value tax while the Scottish Socialist Party have built a large campaign around the issue and called for an income based Scottish service tax. It is to be hoped that the English Left will soon mobilise itself in this regard, because if we don't someone else may fill that vacuum, perhaps even the BNP.