Forum menu
What policies would like you introduced into the political discussion that you would actually make you get out of the house in 100 days and vote for?
I have 2:
1. Scale back all the armed forces leaving enough to defend our own borders, stop sending troops abroad. Plough all that money into education and the NHS but mostly the NHS.
2. Legalise marijuana. I like a smoke from time to time, I despise the fact that this makes me a criminal.
Any good ideas? let's hear 'em.
scrap hs2, spend the £80billion-or-so on proper cycle infrastructure.
remove religion from schools.
bring in landlord taxes and empty-house taxes.
Don't pay attention to any poll other than the election; Politicians do what you're elected to do.
PR
No religion in public life / school
Scrap our Nuclear deterrant
No lobbyists
MP's have only one job
Vote for none of the above box that's counted
To win you need a majority of all the boxes ticked including none of the above.
social housing.
scrap hs2, spend the £80billion-or-so on proper cycle infrastructure.
Aye that would work when you want to get from Manchester to London.
Not sure I agree with HS2 though, so spend the cash updating the current network. You don't need to get to London 10 minutes quicker.
bring in landlord taxes.
Nowt like tarring with the same brush 😀 What extra should I be taxed on exactly?
No religion in school +1
MPs actually doing their job
Fund social projects that engage and help with disaffected youth.
Stop moving the goalposts within education. Let teachers teach.
Scrap HS2.
Ditch Trident replacement.
Keep marijuana illegal but have far more stringent legislation around alcohol.
Ban anyone that wants to be a politician from being one!
Nuke France
Jail for people who fail to use their indicators while driving, or who suddenly move to a position on the road rather than using indicators and think that this is sufficient. It will not do.
Vote chambord.
Direct democracy on the 'direction' of legislation (rather than drafting or proposing)
MP's to have had at least 10 years experience in 'proper jobs'
House of lords to be made up individuals nominated by leading professional bodies as the pre-eminent in thir field (medical, scientific, legal, engineering/infrastructure....) as well as top military, civil service. Queen/gov left out of the process entirely
Everybody (16+) to do, say, 2hrs community service a week
Free beer and strippers.
Rewilding of much of the upper river catchments of the UK
Shorter term (deficit wise)
Massive taxation on vehicles
Radical scale back on services provided by the NHS, preventative medicine the responsibility of the citizen with incentivisation through taxation
Simplification of tax and benefits system with benfits going through PAYE system as a means of making means testing simpler to remove universal benfitis from the wealthy
Eat the rich.
Any transaction that takes place in pound sterling, from a physical UK address did not take place in Luxembourg, or Dublin, or the Cayman Islands, it took place in the UK. So the company that is party to that transaction pays full tax on all profits generated on transactions in the UK.
Some good ideas above. Concur with the reduction of armed forces and nuclear spending.
Nationalise rail and make it more affordable to travel.
Stop the right to buy scheme.
Rent cap on private lettings to bring rents back in line with social housing.
House prices to be capped and rise only in line with inflation.
^^^ This for one. Earned in the UK? Taxed in the UK.
Possibly adding a single law that boils down to "don't be a cock". Being a twitter troll? Guilty of being a cock. Run a cyclist into the gutter? Guilty of being a cock.
It would be broad enough to take into account any number of offences and would be far more useful for stopping people getting off on loopholes. You'd need 100% trustworthy judges though.
A total ban on salmon netting.
Compulsory rigorous PT in all schools, six form colleges and universities, lets burpee this nation back to prosperity !
Increase in National Insurance if they could guarantee that every penny would go to the frontline of the NHS. Oh and never ever repeat the PFI funding nightmare of our NHS.
Any transaction that takes place in pound sterling, from a physical UK address did not take place in Luxembourg, or Dublin, or the Cayman Islands, it took place in the UK. So the company that is party to that transaction pays full tax on all profits generated on transactions in the UK.
Surely this is set by EU charter (which is why dealing with the issue has been so hard)?
So, we would have to leave the EU to do it? Still up for it? What if that destroys the free trade agreements we have with the rest of the World? Hurrah, we get to keep all the taxes, but the entire export sector is destroyed, so there's nothing to tax anyway.
regards defence spending, a similar argument applies, are we better and more secure within NATO, benefitting from the mutual defence agreements of article 5, or without it? Arguably it's cheaper to put 2.2% GDP into this collective defence with its associated responsibilities than to run an armed forces big enough to independently defend our own borders.
An identical argument applies to nuclear weapons of course, about 6% of defence budget is spent on running the nuclear deterrent, would a 6% bigger military provide us with the same level of security long term? Nuclear weapons are arguably remarkably cheap compared with the conventional alternative.
All these are examples of why single populist policies taken in isolation are such poor things to vote on.
I wouldn't stop the right to buy, but make sure if the council sells a council house, it builds two more.
Punitive taxes on landlords with more than two properties.
Scrap 'Help to buy' and other dangerous and pointless inflation of the property market.
Renationalise public transport and utilities.
Decriminalise all drugs and treat drug addiction as a health problem.
Scrap the nuclear deterrent/trident.
Taking a scientific and evidence based approach to forming policies.
Strong emphasis on education.
Pay HMRC staff better so they can close tax loop-holes rather than flocking to the private sector to advise them on how to exploit them.
Investment in renewable energy technologies to make them more cost efficient, with a view to be coming world leaders in the field and exporting the good work.
Person standing to be an MP must have been a resident of the area for 5 years.
Renationalisation of the railways, implement a structured plan to bring down fares and in doing so encourage more people to use public transport.
Fuel provided for public transport to be free of duty and VAT.
Invest in a proper cycling infrastructure.
A code of conduct that all leaders and marketing departments political parties must adhere to which will ensure that misleading the electorate becomes an imprisonable offence.
How would I pay for the above? According to the New Statesman in 2011 and PCS in 2014, tax avoidance cost the UK between £70-£80bn. If we ensure that those loopholes are closed and the top 1% pay their tax then I'm sure that the state could find the money.
Of course, this being STW, someone will come along and tell me that I'm completely wrong...
Just for the sake of numbers we have 191,410 active personnel in the forces, from a country of 64 Million, hardly huge. Compare that with 1.4 Million NHS staff (UK) and 1.3 Million employed in schools (England)
Free beer and strippers.
White wine or fruit based drink for the ladies?
I'd vote for any party that promised one or more of the following...
Move to delegate-based system of representative democracy where all local and national representatives are bound by law to enact the wishes of their electorates.
Legalisation of all drugs (although I'd accept marijuana as a starting point)
Abolition of Trident
Dismantling of the arms industry.
Re-nationalisation of the railways
Mandatory life driving bans for anyone who seriously injures or kills another road user through careless or dangerous driving.
Do nothing to the education system for the whole parliamentary term. As opposedto changing it to fit whatever latest idea you came up with in the pub.
Allocate percentages of transport spending to rail, bike, walking, buses, cars etc. so the money is more spread iand better distributed. E.g. for every £1 on car/lorry infrastructure 10p goes to bike infrastructure and 10p to improving rail services tc.
Scrap trident (Although I would keep the rest of the military for now). I don't think we need to nuke the world but there are instances when I believe military intervention is required as long as it is not an illegal invasion.
Probably a bit harder but. Simplify the tax and benefits system. Don't take money off people in tax to simply hand them cash benefits back. Set the lower tax band at a living wage so you only pay tax above this. try and combine NI and Income tax. Design a benefits system where by people have enough money for a living wage (i.e. top up system) and they don't become worse off for working.
Remove the ban on foxhunting.
1) Nationalise infrastructure - so power, telecoms, transport, health provision etc.
2) Create a government IT agency to bring it all in-house. Make them pay well to get good people and keep them.
3) (and I appreciate this is controversial) scrap MPs and introduce digital democracy.
If we ensure that those loopholes are closed and the top 1% pay their tax then I'm sure that the state could find the money.Of course, this being STW, someone will come along and tell me that I'm completely wrong...
I don't think you're wrong, but I think in practice it might be a little harder than you are imagining....!
Pay MPs the average wage.
Make firms increase their employees' incomes at the same rate as returns to capital. (Piketty)
Renationalise the railways and make the subsidies work for the passenger not the railway companies. cf. trains in Italy
Abolish student fees.
Legalise recreational drugs so that supply can be controlled for purity/quality and to be properly taxed. Win win.
Abolish independent schools.
All 2nd houses currently being bought via expenses to be turned over to Parliament who take over the mortgage. That way parliament owns the houses and no expenses other than maintenance need be paid once the mortgages are paid off. Houses banded according to position and allocated by lottery.
No religion in public life at all (disestablish the church, no state faith schools etc)
Renationalise the railways and the power/water companies
Bring back dog licences at a realistic figure (£100?) heavily restrict types and numbers of dogs.
I'm liking the council house sale/building one above.
Decriminalise all recreational drugs.
Combine NI and income tax.
Give HMRC extra staff to help stop tax evasion and close all tax avoidance loopholes.
Consider scrapping Trident
I don't think you're wrong, but I think in practice it might be a little harder than you are imagining....!
I'm sure it won't be easy! Fact is that Reaganomics simply doesn't work. Social mobility has ground to a halt, yet the top few percent of earners have barely noticed that there's been a recession. The balance of society is all wrong IMHO, we keep punishing the poor for being poor, our taxation system has increased the cost of living for the less well off and yet it doesn't seem to affect the wealthy.
In addition, I'd like to see a punitive taxation on empty/second homes.
Free beer and strippers.White wine or fruit based drink for the ladies?
I'm all for equality so they can have beer with their strippers, too.
Spend car and truck tax (road fund licence as it once was) on fixing roads. Pot-holes and white lines to start, then cameras outside schools and on light-controlled junctions.
MPs have to have lived in the area for ten years, and any children attend local schools.
A block of flats convenient to Westminster for MPs to live in at an economic rent. Then they can claim no further expenses for accommodation in London.
Off the top of my head,
Compulsory to vote, with a none of the above option.
MPs to have a minimum of 5 years real life work experience, with exceptions for stay at home parents.
Scrap HS2, spend the money on improving existing public transport and new cycle facilities, repairing roads properly.
Social housing.
No development on green field sites until all the brown field sites have been built on.
Sort out the mish mash of age limits. Surely voting/drinking/driving/shagging/marriage/watching certain films should have some consistency
Legalise drugs and brothels. We can't stop it, let's stop wasting money trying.
There are certain things a government should ensure security of. Off the top of my head, food, water, power, defence, arguably other. If we aren't self sufficient in those, we should be.
Review VAT, reduce it on essentials, increase it on luxuries. And take it off bikes, lights and helmets.
All new houses to have solar panels. We are either taking it seriously or not.
Compulsory to vote, with a none of the above option.
This - with a count of the none of the aboves to be published alongside the election results.
Parenting licence with a series of tests before being allowed to procreate (males fitted with some sort of cork until test passed?)
Scrapping of Trident and Daily Mail.
Damn! I forgot the compulsory voting with the 'none of the above' option.
De politicing the NHS and making it run as UK business with a trusted and proven business leader to also avoid chopping and changing policy depending on whichever way teh wind is blowing.
Some unconventional ones...
Abolish income tax and replace it with a progressive combined Property and Wealth tax.
Pay ceiling of 10x lowest salary for executives in Public sector organisations, PLCs and private companies.
0.5% Tax on savings above 1M.
Nationalise utilities & transport.(rail and bus)
Payed for in pounds - pay tax in pounds.
No religion in state schools.
Private schools are not charities.
Criminalise zero hour contracts.
Legalise all drugs. Tax their production and sale.
good work all.
some nonsense, as expected
but a surprising number or recurring themes.
decriminalise/legalise drugs
nationalise infrastructure
pull HS2 before someone says "... but we have invested so much in the planning we cant turn back now..."
something something something - to fix the wealth/poverty housing based disaster
dont be a cock law - for not guilty pleas, jury to decide.
none of the above.
i dont support
further reduction of the military
removal of nuclear deterrant
but do think that both and the intelligence services could do with some balanced PR.
im also not addressing the finer points, financing etc. This is about policies, not balancing the books - thats for the elected government
Lots of sensible policies here; you'd all get my vote.
Mandatory Oktoberfest in July.
Let's form a party and have a party. There's some good ideas here, I shall forward the link to Werstminster (an honest typo!)
Let's form a party and have a party. There's some good ideas here, I shall forward the link to Werstminster
I'll not mention the name just yet, but a lot of these policies are already the policies of one party.
Improve house building standards.
Improve transport links between North East/Scotland and the rest of UK.
Ban GreenPeace and Oxfam.
Ban Bono from being allowed in the UK.