UK ministers believed implementation of the poll tax in Scotland was “proceeding smoothly” in its early weeks, previously secret papers show.
Scottish Secretary Malcolm Rifkind told the cabinet in April 1989 that the number of people who would refuse to pay would be “relatively small” north of the border.
Just 20 months later, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher resigned.
Sir Malcolm now admits that non-payment UK-wide contributed to her downfall.
The cabinet papers also show that defence chiefs approved plans to shoot intruders at the Faslane naval base on the Clyde after activists broke into the control room of a nuclear submarine.
The security lapse left Mrs Thatcher “utterly horrified”.
Media captionPoll tax "not unwelcome" at first in Scotland And they detail a row in government over funding for Gaelic television.
Chancellor Nigel Lawson opposed extra public funding because he did not want to “inflict more on a largely unwilling audience”, a letter from his department sho..
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