Economy
- "Trickle-down wealth" does not happen above a certain level of income. The very rich almost always invest money in various ways (e.g. trust funds, overseas accounts, exploiting tax loopholes, etc.) to keep it within the family. As this money is not spent in the UK, it does not help economic recovery. Tax rates for the wealthy therefore need to be fairly high.
- Minimum wage needs to be revised regularly and be sensible.
- Zero hours contracts may help businesses over less bouyant periods but mean that employees cannot count on any or specific hours being worked in a week/month.
- It does not appear that the banking sector is yet adequately controlled.
- There should be a legal requirement for schools to provide a library, suitable for their pupil age range.
- There should be a legal requirement for school music services to provide music tuition.
- The school curriculum should include citizenship as a compulsory subject.
- Provide a new 'school leaver certificate' with employer input, that focuses on an adequate level of written and spoken English, arithmetic, creating CVs, social interaction with customers, basic hygiene and nutrition, civic knowledge, etc. (This would help those who lack the ability to pass GCSE and A level's at specific levels, even with several resits - resulting in demoralization).
- Grammar schools do not facilitate social mobility and should be phased out.
- Set a 20mph limit in all towns and urban areas.
- Retain the ban on hunting.
- Require labelling on electrical goods to indicate its environmental impact.
- Require the setting up of recycling units for items currently difficult for the population to dispose of other than in landfill (e.g. some plastics, CDs, DVDs, tetrapacks). All plastic items must indicate the materials they are made of.
- All packaging should be recyclable if at all possible.
- See the Zero Waste Alliance 10 point plan.
- Organise medical waste collection separately (nappies, sanitary products, incontinence products, etc). It may be necessary to make some charge for this.
- There should be more focus on healthy living programmes to address issues (such as obesity, smoking, eating disorders, alcoholism and drug dependency) before they develop.
- Food labelling: the traffic light code should be made compulsory. Ingredients should be in larger print. Low sugar and low salt products should be promoted.
- Move the dietary advice strategy from 'low-fat' to 'low-sugar' (specifically fructose). Food labelling should split the sugar content into glucose and fructose. In 1945 just 25% of our sugar intake was in the foods we consumed; now 75% is already in food. The 'eating fat will make you fat' theory was based on erroneous interpretation of data.
- Bring in legislation that will curb the influence of the food and drinks industry on health policies. By not making salt and sugar reduction compulsory we have not made the progress we might have made. The legislation on advertising of food and drink could also do with a review.
- The above policies will also help to reduce pressure on the NHS, currently attempting to treat many problems due to an ageing population with an unhealthy lifestyle and too little exercise.
- In 1994, 75% to 80% of prisoners were under 30, from broken homes, poorly educated and often in for drink, drugs and car related offences.
- If sentenced for drink or drug dependency related offences, they should initially be treated for the dependency in specialist units, before completing sentences in prison.
- If in for less than 24 months, they should have intensive education in basic hygiene, civic values, basic literacy and numeracy, and cooking skills. Dependent on the length of sentence, they should also follow a course of training in one or more skills that would help them find jobs on release.
- Copy new 2016 French law that bans throwing away in-date retail and supermarket food waste; shops must give food away to charities or for use as animal feed, with heavy fines and even jail sentences to back up legislation. Italy has a similar law. [While the nine major uk supermarkets do donate unsold food to local food banks and charities, the proportion still thrown away is not published. Approvedfoods.co.uk sells food on or approaching its best before date at a discount.]
- Product packaging needs to be more recyclable.
- Educational strategies are needed to encourage people to use less energy and to recycle more.
- Implement the findings of the Leveson Report in full.
- All broadcasters and newspapers should be impartial and check facts fully. Media owners should not be able to use a media product to promote a particular political viewpoint.
- UK print press and broadcast media must be legally required to be neutral during UK local and national election periods.
- Move to Single Transferable Vote for elections to Westminster Parliament (and local councils / unitary authorities)
- Stop the heckling - Parliament looks worse than a school classroom on a bad day.
- Put a stop to philibustering (talking an opponents bill out of time).
- Reform the way private members bills are dealt with.
- Restrict the amount of advertising (press, broadcasting, house-to-house deliveries) each party is allowed during the election period, and in between elections.
- Restrict the amount anyone can give per year to a political party. Or stop it altogether and allocate public funds by proportion of total votes cast in previous election?
- MPs cannot have other employment during their terms of office.
- Ex-MPs should be restricted in the jobs they take on after leaving - e.g. not working as lobbyists for at least (5?) years.
- Move to proportional representation - some people's views are never heard or taken into account.
- Cannot accept paid adverts from political parties or candidates.
- Any feature or editorial on the election (irrespective of political party) must be treated the same throughout an election period. E.g. all such material is always on the recto (or the verso) side.
- All facts regarding statements by or about political parties must be verified to avoid misleading language or inaccurate facts.
Military (usually euphemistically called defence)
- Get rid of all nuclear arms (e.g. Trident)
- Cut down the arms industry, and gradually reduce the amount of arms sold to other countries.
- Reduce the armed forces. We should be training a competent emergencies response force instead.
- Revoke Article 50 and Brexit - we need to be in Europe.
- Find better ways of sending aid to less advantaged countries, so that funds and equipment do not end up in the hands of corrupt regimes.
- Support projects and agencies that focus on issues including (but not limited to) educating women, family planning, raising marriage age and restricting the dowry system so that it does not impoverish families, eliminating female genital mutilation and female infanticide, challenging perceptions around rape and spousal abuse, and ensuring women have the same legal rights as men.
- We have made distastrous decisions attempting to influence politics overseas in recent history and should stop this and concentrate on providing humanitarian aid - including acceptance of refugees.
Original post 7th October 2015
