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The Edinburgh Peoples Festival launched its ‘20 Years after the Poll Tax’ Exhibition at the Radical Book Fair, in the Out of the Blue Centre in Leith, on the evening of Wednesday, 28th of October, 2008.

It was 20 years ago on April 1st 1989, that Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Government imposed the Poll Tax. This exhibition is the story of how resistance was built up and exercised by the communities of Edinburgh and the Lothians. It is the story of the Anti-Poll Tax groups and the Lothians Anti-Poll Tax Federation, and their contribution, alongside Anti-Poll Tax groups throughout Scotland, England and Wales to the defeat of what Thatcher termed her ‘flagship policy’.

Twenty years ago, on April 1st 1989, Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Government implemented the Poll Tax in Scotland. Resistance to the tax was strong throughout the communities of Edinburgh and the Lothians.