New political party
Discussion
I suggest that by the next election we begin our own party based upon the wisdom of PH. No half baked policies, just common sense that the vast majority agree with, but are either too afraid or too institutionalised to stand up for. First step would be to pass laws that forbid the ECHR and our own lawyers from challenging the basis of legislation passed by an elected parliament, then let rip:
I suggest we start with:
Everyone who can work, has to work, even if it is for their benefit money.
I suggest we start with:
Everyone who can work, has to work, even if it is for their benefit money.
Jaglover said:
In a First Past the Post election system we have to work with the three parties we already have.
Not true.
Look at the Labour party. When they started the two main parties were Conservative and Liberal. Now Labour have all but anhilated the Liberals and look like being elected for a third term.
I'll add a few policies of my own:
scrap inheritance tax, stamp duty and employers and employees national insurance and tax on pension funds.
introduce a flat rate tax to replace income tax.
introduce an elected judiciary.
ring fence all motoring taxes to be spent on transport.
Reform the health service in accordance with "doctors for reform"
Pull out of the EU political system but retain trading agreements, which is what we actually voted for in the first place
Get rid of as much red tape and excessive legislation as possible. I'd start by ditching the last thirty years worth unless there is a very good common sense reason not to. If you doubt the need for this just think when was the last time someone said to you "I'm glad employers have to fill in 3500 extra forms per year to keep the EU happy" or "I'm glad the police won't come when I call because they are too busy filling in forms"
School disipline to be enforced. If you can't behave in a school where smacking is banned then you'll be sent to one where it isn't.
Cut 80% of the funding to higher and further education, reduce the number of students by 90% (we don't need 50% of our children to get over rated and over priced degrees, we need more like 5%) and use the resultant doubling of money per head to restore grants.
Reform maternity leave. Taking nine months off and expecting an employer to just wait for you to make up your mind during this time is taking the mick. Link paid leave to years of service, no automatic rights on your first day at work. Offer an alternative, state managed system, for women who don't want to come back and who hand in their notice, which is sufficiently generous to make it a viable and popular choice.
Sorted
cymtriks said:
Not true.
Look at the Labour party. When they started the two main parties were Conservative and Liberal. Now Labour have all but anhilated the Liberals and look like being elected for a third term.
When Labour started they had a ready made political base in the Trade Union movement.
Education:
-Scrap SATS tests. They are of no benefit to anyone other than government statistics-mongers
-Pare down the national curriculum and keep it as a reinforcing measure to be applied to failing schools. Allow teachers to teach it their way, notify them of topic guidelines but don't bind them hand and foot over each lesson
-Introduce CCTV cameras in classrooms and a security enforcement service who respond to bad behaviour and reinforce the teacher's authority.
-Introduce more practical subjects such as engineering and maintainance, leading into apprenticeships through practical exams.
-Bring in tougher streaming and the ability for teachers to exclude pupils based on video evidence.
-Get rid of top-up fees or any notion of Graduate Tax. Existing fee structure, though debt-inducing, is not necessarily financially crippling to graduates getting into work. Raise the repayment threshold from £10k p.a. to £15k p.a. and £25k in London.
-Scrap degrees deemed unnecessary where on-the-job training or apprenticeships would be more appropriate.
Law & Order:
-Scrap prison sentences for petty crime and bring back 'chain gang' community service, electronic tags and curfews.
-Remove scameras that aren't in accident blackspots. For the ones that are, detail the blackspot in a roadsign and have a 'your speed' flashing detector before the speed camera.
-Remove all speed humps and slaloms.
-Introduce a 2-tier prison system, one for 10-years-to-lifer prisoners.
-The other as a secure hospital and retraining institute for criminal alcoholics and drug addicts. Drug addiction should be treated more as an illness than a crime.
-Legalise cannabis but crack down on everything else. Proceeds of crime from drug and arms dealers can be confiscated and used to fund more police officers.
-Introduce the concept of 'zero-sum' rights. If a criminal breaches his responsibilities by committing a crime, they forfeit their rights to everything except deliberate death, serious injury and extended kidnap.
-All Police form-filling to be scrapped unless absolutely necessary (ie incident reports and criminal records). All criminal records to be biometric.
-Parents to be directly responsible for the actions of their children under 12 and both parents and children up to 16.
-Upon reaching voting status at 18, all citizens to sign a citizen's contract agreeing to both rights and responsibilities entitled to. If a serious crime is committed their personal contract is rendered null and void.
Transport:
-All alternative fuels to be allowed to be sold through petrol stations.
-Road tax to be scrapped and recalibrated to be put on fuel use - the more you use or pollute with, the more you pay, no need for classification of cars or computer networks
-Scrap bus lanes. Consider introducing underground tram systems and/or raised monorail systems where buses are deemed absolutely necessary.
-Priority on bus fares for the disabled, students and the elderly.
-Re-open branch line railways.
-Non-urgent freight to be transported partially via canal if possible.
-A two-tier driving licence to be introduced:
-'Basic' licence is the one you have now. Holders must have a green 'P' plate and are restricted to non-motorway roads and FWD cars of up to 1.5 litres and 80 bhp.
-'Advanced' licence is awarded after motorway, night, skidpan, RWD and 4WD lessons and test, following which, all cars allowed, lowered insurance premiums and use of motorways is granted.
-Introduce a three-section windscreen disc, comprising tax, insurance and MOT notification. A car without this can be impounded by the Police.
-Re-introduce the 25-year rolling tax exemption clause.
-Replace scrapyards with breaker's yards, who recover all the usable parts of a car, sell them on and recycle the rest.
-All buses to be subject to strict emissions and mpg efficiency tests. If they fail, the bus company will not be allowed to use them until rectified.
-Motorways to be governed by electronic signs with variable limits up to 100 mph, dependant on condition of road. No scameras on motorways.
Environmental:
-Cars to no longer be the central focus of environmental policy. Hit the biggest polluters from the top down - factories, aeroplanes. Car pollution is irrelevent compared to these.
-Replace current coal-burning stations with nuclear, solar, hydroelectric and wind farms where possible.
-Invest large amounts of money into developing greater advances in synthetic oil technology and alternative fuels.
-Offer discounted methods of curbing the pollution of everyday objects, ie LPG conversions for thirsty cars, house insulation, solar panels etc.
-Replace as much supermarket plastic packaging with biodegradeable materials where possible. Introduce quotas on supermarkets to provide a certain percentage of recyclable and biodegradeable products each year.
Immigration:
-All immigrants to be registered as either 'asylum seekers' or 'economic immigrants'.
-'asylum seekers' must remain in an EU country until their case is cleared. If they are fleeing disaster or persecution, it is our humanitarian duty to offer them protection.
-'economic immigrants' will be assessed on their skills and whether they are currently needed in the UK.
-If an immigrant wishes to become a British citizen, the Citizen's Charter (see law & order) must be understood and signed. The citizen's charter is written in English and Welsh only - work it out. Once this is signed, they may be considered British citizens and allowed voting rights and a passport.
-An agreement must be reached with Britain's European neighbours to house immigrants whilst their status is processed in Britain. Any failure to comply will result in an EU fine.
Agriculture:
-Allow farmers to process oilseed rape as biodiesel. Offer grants from the government to build processing plants for the purpose.
-Fight to end EU control of agriculture.
-Offer tax breaks for both quality home produce, and 'fair trade' produce.
Right. Who knows anything about the economy?
-Scrap SATS tests. They are of no benefit to anyone other than government statistics-mongers
-Pare down the national curriculum and keep it as a reinforcing measure to be applied to failing schools. Allow teachers to teach it their way, notify them of topic guidelines but don't bind them hand and foot over each lesson
-Introduce CCTV cameras in classrooms and a security enforcement service who respond to bad behaviour and reinforce the teacher's authority.
-Introduce more practical subjects such as engineering and maintainance, leading into apprenticeships through practical exams.
-Bring in tougher streaming and the ability for teachers to exclude pupils based on video evidence.
-Get rid of top-up fees or any notion of Graduate Tax. Existing fee structure, though debt-inducing, is not necessarily financially crippling to graduates getting into work. Raise the repayment threshold from £10k p.a. to £15k p.a. and £25k in London.
-Scrap degrees deemed unnecessary where on-the-job training or apprenticeships would be more appropriate.
Law & Order:
-Scrap prison sentences for petty crime and bring back 'chain gang' community service, electronic tags and curfews.
-Remove scameras that aren't in accident blackspots. For the ones that are, detail the blackspot in a roadsign and have a 'your speed' flashing detector before the speed camera.
-Remove all speed humps and slaloms.
-Introduce a 2-tier prison system, one for 10-years-to-lifer prisoners.
-The other as a secure hospital and retraining institute for criminal alcoholics and drug addicts. Drug addiction should be treated more as an illness than a crime.
-Legalise cannabis but crack down on everything else. Proceeds of crime from drug and arms dealers can be confiscated and used to fund more police officers.
-Introduce the concept of 'zero-sum' rights. If a criminal breaches his responsibilities by committing a crime, they forfeit their rights to everything except deliberate death, serious injury and extended kidnap.
-All Police form-filling to be scrapped unless absolutely necessary (ie incident reports and criminal records). All criminal records to be biometric.
-Parents to be directly responsible for the actions of their children under 12 and both parents and children up to 16.
-Upon reaching voting status at 18, all citizens to sign a citizen's contract agreeing to both rights and responsibilities entitled to. If a serious crime is committed their personal contract is rendered null and void.
Transport:
-All alternative fuels to be allowed to be sold through petrol stations.
-Road tax to be scrapped and recalibrated to be put on fuel use - the more you use or pollute with, the more you pay, no need for classification of cars or computer networks
-Scrap bus lanes. Consider introducing underground tram systems and/or raised monorail systems where buses are deemed absolutely necessary.
-Priority on bus fares for the disabled, students and the elderly.
-Re-open branch line railways.
-Non-urgent freight to be transported partially via canal if possible.
-A two-tier driving licence to be introduced:
-'Basic' licence is the one you have now. Holders must have a green 'P' plate and are restricted to non-motorway roads and FWD cars of up to 1.5 litres and 80 bhp.
-'Advanced' licence is awarded after motorway, night, skidpan, RWD and 4WD lessons and test, following which, all cars allowed, lowered insurance premiums and use of motorways is granted.
-Introduce a three-section windscreen disc, comprising tax, insurance and MOT notification. A car without this can be impounded by the Police.
-Re-introduce the 25-year rolling tax exemption clause.
-Replace scrapyards with breaker's yards, who recover all the usable parts of a car, sell them on and recycle the rest.
-All buses to be subject to strict emissions and mpg efficiency tests. If they fail, the bus company will not be allowed to use them until rectified.
-Motorways to be governed by electronic signs with variable limits up to 100 mph, dependant on condition of road. No scameras on motorways.
Environmental:
-Cars to no longer be the central focus of environmental policy. Hit the biggest polluters from the top down - factories, aeroplanes. Car pollution is irrelevent compared to these.
-Replace current coal-burning stations with nuclear, solar, hydroelectric and wind farms where possible.
-Invest large amounts of money into developing greater advances in synthetic oil technology and alternative fuels.
-Offer discounted methods of curbing the pollution of everyday objects, ie LPG conversions for thirsty cars, house insulation, solar panels etc.
-Replace as much supermarket plastic packaging with biodegradeable materials where possible. Introduce quotas on supermarkets to provide a certain percentage of recyclable and biodegradeable products each year.
Immigration:
-All immigrants to be registered as either 'asylum seekers' or 'economic immigrants'.
-'asylum seekers' must remain in an EU country until their case is cleared. If they are fleeing disaster or persecution, it is our humanitarian duty to offer them protection.
-'economic immigrants' will be assessed on their skills and whether they are currently needed in the UK.
-If an immigrant wishes to become a British citizen, the Citizen's Charter (see law & order) must be understood and signed. The citizen's charter is written in English and Welsh only - work it out. Once this is signed, they may be considered British citizens and allowed voting rights and a passport.
-An agreement must be reached with Britain's European neighbours to house immigrants whilst their status is processed in Britain. Any failure to comply will result in an EU fine.
Agriculture:
-Allow farmers to process oilseed rape as biodiesel. Offer grants from the government to build processing plants for the purpose.
-Fight to end EU control of agriculture.
-Offer tax breaks for both quality home produce, and 'fair trade' produce.
Right. Who knows anything about the economy?
Twincam16 said:
-Re-open branch line railways.
-Non-urgent freight to be transported partially via canal if possible.
Most rail routes in the UK are bankrupt. Branch lines doubly so. There was a very good reason for the Beeching cuts in the 60s - there was no traffic on the branch lines.
There is a move at the moment to reopen the Waverley line from Edinburgh south to Galashiels, or even to Hawick - about 50 miles (it used to go all the way to Carlisle). The economics are disastrous, but the lentilists still want to push £150m of public money into this scheme. Even with such investment, with no requirement to return the capital, it will run at a loss and require permanent subsidy.
And as for canals
... We need some investment in trunk roads where the bulk of transport is free to move from source to destination, independently of external scheduling. Transport, of itself, is not costly (well, not hugely so), but the cost of loading, unloading, and cross-transport links is huge - both rail and canals have a major problem in that you have to get both to and from your nearest loading point.
I’m with you on most of this except:
In addition what would your policy be on “Social welfare”? I mean when you think about it we give free money to people unemployed but make people who want to make a real contribution to society in furthering their education borrow money. Surely one of the greatest injustices in our society!
cymtriks said:Can you explain this move further? I can think of a number of negative aspects but not very many positive ones for average Joe.
introduce a flat rate tax to replace income tax.
cymtriks said:Could I suggest that we just really invest what we have to in our youth? As long as a skill is needed students should be able to obtain grants. Less art students and more students who can make a genuine contribution to society!
Cut 80% of the funding to higher and further education, reduce the number of students by 90% (we don't need 50% of our children to get over rated and over priced degrees, we need more like 5%) and use the resultant doubling of money per head to restore grants.
In addition what would your policy be on “Social welfare”? I mean when you think about it we give free money to people unemployed but make people who want to make a real contribution to society in furthering their education borrow money. Surely one of the greatest injustices in our society!
Size Nine Elm said:
-Re-open branch line railways.
-Non-urgent freight to be transported partially via canal if possible.
Most rail routes in the UK are bankrupt. Branch lines doubly so. There was a very good reason for the Beeching cuts in the 60s - there was no traffic on the branch lines.
There is a move at the moment to reopen the Waverley line from Edinburgh south to Galashiels, or even to Hawick - about 50 miles (it used to go all the way to Carlisle). The economics are disastrous, but the lentilists still want to push £150m of public money into this scheme. Even with such investment, with no requirement to return the capital, it will run at a loss and require permanent subsidy.
I was thinking of all the congestion buses cause, and the fact that they're probably the most inefficient form of transport going.
Manchester's superb Metrolink system has extended the tram network (which doesn't clog up the roads like buses do) into some of the old Branch lines out towards Trafford and they've got plans to do something similar in the direction of Stockport. This would remove the need for the disruptive bus service clogging up the A6 and make for better traffic flow all round.
My 're-opening branch lines' comment was meant to be in tandem with the trams and monorails idea.
Twincam16 said:Why not just integrate the 3 into 1 disc since they are all legal requirements? You gain the disk upon providing your tax and insurance documentation and computer records check out. Perhaps a unique electronic beacon also instead of a disk so that cameras can photo cars without and cars that are stolen can be easily tracked?
-Introduce a three-section windscreen disc, comprising tax, insurance and MOT notification. A car without this can be impounded by the Police.
speedy_thrills said:
-Introduce a three-section windscreen disc, comprising tax, insurance and MOT notification. A car without this can be impounded by the Police.
Why not just integrate the 3 into 1 disc since they are all legal requirements? You gain the disk upon providing your tax and insurance documentation and computer records check out. Perhaps a unique electronic beacon also instead of a disk so that cameras can photo cars without and cars that are stolen can be easily tracked?
That's kind of what I meant, sorry if it wasn't clear.
Twincam16 said:
That's kind of what I meant, sorry if it wasn't clear.
Brilliant! The man is a regular genius!
Perhaps one more little suggestion where you said:
Twincam16 said:
-'Basic' licence is the one you have now. Holders must have a green 'P' plate and are restricted to non-motorway roads and FWD cars of up to 1.5 litres and 80 bhp.
-'Advanced' licence is awarded after motorway, night, skidpan, RWD and 4WD lessons and test, following which, all cars allowed, lowered insurance premiums and use of motorways is granted.
Great idea generally except it is very essential that everyone has the right top use motorways, perhaps just restriction of lanes so that people on a “P” plate can only use the two outside lanes leaving the inside and hence fastest lane(s) to those drivers who have adequate driver training to use the inside lanes. Also forget this engine restriction stuff, just limit the speed of a “P” plated vehicle.
Not sure about legalizing cannabis, we hardly need another way for people to intoxicate themselves.
Great stuff people! Keep up the good work all. I’m off to bed.
Twincam16 said:
Education:
-Scrap SATS tests. They are of no benefit to anyone other than government statistics-mongers
-Get rid of top-up fees or any notion of Graduate Tax. Existing fee structure, though debt-inducing, is not necessarily financially crippling to graduates getting into work. Raise the repayment threshold from £10k p.a. to £15k p.a. and £25k in London.
You proposed a wide range of policies, some I agree with others not-but I thought I would narrow my reply down to the field of education.
SATS tests are very useful because they show 'value added by a school'-any school can pick bright well behaved kids and then have good GCSE results.
Tests at 11 and 14, allow parents to see which schools are doing best under the circumstances.
As for top up fees-why shouldn't students pay a proportion of the cost of educating them at university?
Jaglover said:
SATS tests are very useful because they show 'value added by a school'-any school can pick bright well behaved kids and then have good GCSE results.
Tests at 11 and 14, allow parents to see which schools are doing best under the circumstances.
Surely a report at the discretion of the teacher would provide a better all-round picture of an individual student. My Mum has worked in all fields of education and currently works in a private special needs college, where she compiles reports based on a student's work in key areas throughout a year, and she says it's far more accurate than a SATS test.
The problem with any exam is that it is never truly an accurate reflection of a student's knowledge. It does not take into account research methods, its outlook is highly restrictive and the conditions under which an exam is taken are never replicated in any other working situation. An unrepresentative for of assessment that needs to be cut down on IMO.
Jaglover said:
As for top up fees-why shouldn't students pay a proportion of the cost of educating them at university?
Because they already do. I already pay tuition fees and they're expensive enough and once they're paid they're paid and I can get on with the rest of my life paying back a loan as and when I can.
What Labour's top-up fees (and the Liberal Democrats virtually identical scheme that they've lied about in order to corner the student vote) propose is that you pay the 'actual' money once you leave, and the rate and amount can change depending on how the government is feeling that week. It turns a simple loan repayment into a tax I would have no control over.
Twincam16 said:
Surely a report at the discretion of the teacher would provide a better all-round picture of an individual student.
An individual report might well be a better guide, but only those students taught by that teacher would be comparable.
Be careful you do not swallow wholesale the message of the teaching unions. They are against tests not because they worry that the little lambs might be over examined, but because they worry that it reveals that schools with identical intakes(in terms of ability) perform very differently.
As for tuition fees-there are two models in funding universities-the American model of fees, and the European model of state support. The American system provides a far higher standard of education, but at great individual cost to the students. I think personally we should be between those systems. The tuition fees providing additional finance and discourage those who will benefit the least from going to university.
Which is why I agree with the main policy of Labour in this area, however I would scrap the socialist elements such as the access regulator.
speedy_thrills said:
I’m with you on most of this except: cymtriks said:
introduce a flat rate tax to replace income tax.
Can you explain this move further? I can think of a number of negative aspects but not very many positive ones for average Joe.
cymtriks said:
Cut 80% of the funding to higher and further education, reduce the number of students by 90% (we don't need 50% of our children to get over rated and over priced degrees, we need more like 5%) and use the resultant doubling of money per head to restore grants.
Could I suggest that we just really invest what we have to in our youth? As long as a skill is needed students should be able to obtain grants. Less art students and more students who can make a genuine contribution to society!
In addition what would your policy be on “Social welfare”? I mean when you think about it we give free money to people unemployed but make people who want to make a real contribution to society in furthering their education borrow money. Surely one of the greatest injustices in our society!
Flat rate tax is normally assumed to constitute a much higher personal allowance followed by a single rate of tax thereafter. The values would be set to make Mr average no worse off than now. The obvious benifit for the lowest economic group would be the bigger personal allowance, generally assumed to be set at about 12K per year. Many part time or low paid workers would nothing at all. The very rich would of course do better still but this is not about the top 1 or 2 percent, it's about the rest of us. If they do well out of a system that greatly simplifies things for the rest of us then fine. I am assuming that the flat rate income tax replaces the taxes that I suggested scrapping so it would be the standard rate of income tax plus the employers and employees NI as well, probably a bit more than 30%.
As for education we don't know what we will need in the future. Today we are told that there is a shortage of scientific degrees but in the future a resurgent film industry or successfull advertising sector might want more fine art degrees. I want the best to be allowed to get a degree but only the best. And that they are properly funded with a grant, not a lone that ends up as a life long debt.
Social welfare. I would hope that by making it easier to get on in business less welfare would be required. I don't want to penalise the unemployed, I want to make it so easy to get a paid job that hardly anyone needs these benefits.
For education, we don't need 50% going to university - but neither do we need 5%.
We need to go back to what we had 25 years ago, namely 10% going to a 'good' university, another 10% going to quality technical colleges to gain vocational education, and maybe another 10% going to colleges to gain HNC/HND qualifications. Renaming all of these as degrees from universities is pandering to PCness 'you can all win', and does nothing for real life ability and education.
If does appear to keep a huge number of school leavers off the unemployment figures though...
We need to go back to what we had 25 years ago, namely 10% going to a 'good' university, another 10% going to quality technical colleges to gain vocational education, and maybe another 10% going to colleges to gain HNC/HND qualifications. Renaming all of these as degrees from universities is pandering to PCness 'you can all win', and does nothing for real life ability and education.
If does appear to keep a huge number of school leavers off the unemployment figures though...
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