Tax. No one loves it, but it's a fact of life. The art of taxation lies in raising enough without ruffling too many feathers. In a democracy, taxes have to be fair, too.

So what do you feel about council tax? The Liberal Democrats want to abolish it and impose a local form of income tax instead. The Tories have announced that they will freeze council tax bills for two years if they win the next election. Right now, Labour's quiet on the issue.

Let me know what you think. I'm not so interested in how much we pay. This is more about whether council tax is fair, whether it's the best, most efficient way of raising the money - and whether we really would be better off with an alternative.

Don't forget, incidentally, that a very large amount of local spending comes from Whitehall and other external funds, including the European Union. Even if local authorities could extract more from these sources to keep council tax down, such aid doesn't come free of charge. The risk is, of course, that central government gets stronger - and councils lose even more control over local affairs.