Petition Scrap central revenue and let locally elected councils decide on taxes

As a taxpayer, it is increasingly frustrating to watch the hard-earned money that gets paid in taxes being squandered here, there and everywhere by public bodies who see it as 'free cash'.

The UK gives billions of pounds every year in foreign aid to countries that don't need it; quangos set up at taxpayers' expense preside over trivial concerns that affect relatively few sections of our society; and vast sums are diverted to prop up economically unviable areas of the British Isles with tax breaks and opportunities not seen elsewhere. So my proposal is simple: scrap central revenue and introduce a system similar to the United States whereby a locally elected body in each county can set and collect its own taxes. With a body reliant on the votes of the local populance to stay in power, it means local taxpayers get to decide what money is spent where, and how much.