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5 things to change about the UK
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
If for some reason you had to write a list down of 5 workable policy changes the government could implement (so no 'free beer for everyone' 
), what would they be? Rather than just being a waste of time, I thought this thread would help me look at what other people think the MOST important issues in the country are today. Or at least ones that should most definately be changed.
Not ranked, or ought, but here I go:
1. Decriminalise drugs, but still have them prohibited. Have them on supply from pharmacies. Obviously this needs more in depth details on how this would work (i.e. my first port of call would be to ask drugs workers what the best to do this is to stop abuse) but I think we need a shift away from the current climate where drug users and especially abusers are 'hunted' almost, where they can't come out into the open and get help, and change it to be more akin to the way we see alcohol.
2. Maybe unpopular, but stop people making useless journeys. Increase road tax (road pricing would be a nice way), but make some vehicles and modes of transport exempt. So car pooling would be exempt from tax on toll roads, for example. The revenue raised would be injected into public transport, and I'd change the legislation so x amount of profits by the companies that run them have to by -law- be reinvested. It might put some companies off, but I'm sure there'll be more to take up the slack.
3. A slight nudge of the legal system, so new courts set up for sex and violent crimes. The way they are carried out, you can't really compare punching someones face in or raping someone to something like breaking into someones house and stealing their jewellery. One is very personal and the other (although will have personal consequences) is not so much.
4. Devolve some matters of running England to an English Assembly. They could meet in westminster one day a week. This would be to discuss England specific issues (for example, student fees in England). The current situation is Britain wide and England wide issues are both discussed and voted on by the entire British parliament, even if Scots or Welshmen vote on those issues for their own regions.
5. Stop wasted votes in the political system, FPTP with 'top up' proportional representation candidates. If 50% of the people in the UK vote conservative this should be reflected in parliament, unfortunately it's the case that this does not have to be true at all. We've come a long way since having very small constituencies that essentially belonged to a Lord / Lady, but I don't think we're quite there yet.
), what would they be? Rather than just being a waste of time, I thought this thread would help me look at what other people think the MOST important issues in the country are today. Or at least ones that should most definately be changed.Not ranked, or ought, but here I go:
1. Decriminalise drugs, but still have them prohibited. Have them on supply from pharmacies. Obviously this needs more in depth details on how this would work (i.e. my first port of call would be to ask drugs workers what the best to do this is to stop abuse) but I think we need a shift away from the current climate where drug users and especially abusers are 'hunted' almost, where they can't come out into the open and get help, and change it to be more akin to the way we see alcohol.
2. Maybe unpopular, but stop people making useless journeys. Increase road tax (road pricing would be a nice way), but make some vehicles and modes of transport exempt. So car pooling would be exempt from tax on toll roads, for example. The revenue raised would be injected into public transport, and I'd change the legislation so x amount of profits by the companies that run them have to by -law- be reinvested. It might put some companies off, but I'm sure there'll be more to take up the slack.
3. A slight nudge of the legal system, so new courts set up for sex and violent crimes. The way they are carried out, you can't really compare punching someones face in or raping someone to something like breaking into someones house and stealing their jewellery. One is very personal and the other (although will have personal consequences) is not so much.
4. Devolve some matters of running England to an English Assembly. They could meet in westminster one day a week. This would be to discuss England specific issues (for example, student fees in England). The current situation is Britain wide and England wide issues are both discussed and voted on by the entire British parliament, even if Scots or Welshmen vote on those issues for their own regions.
5. Stop wasted votes in the political system, FPTP with 'top up' proportional representation candidates. If 50% of the people in the UK vote conservative this should be reflected in parliament, unfortunately it's the case that this does not have to be true at all. We've come a long way since having very small constituencies that essentially belonged to a Lord / Lady, but I don't think we're quite there yet.
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2. Parliament: Replace the House of Lords with an elected body, where there are a set number of seats, and an entirely national election. This should go some way into redressing the balance that, for example, 5% of the population have certain views, but because they all live in different areas and so none of them are ever the most popular in their local area, they never get their views into a seat in parliament. In other words, it would be based on proportional representation. I'm still not sure how I would impliment this in a way that wouldn't require a ballot paper as long as your arm though.
3. Security/Defence: Scrap ID cards and the trident system, and use the money on less fancy military stuff such as making sure the existing armed forces are actually equipped properly, along with various other things such as an increased scientific research budget, increased teacher training and about a million other things I can't think of right now or have mentioned elsewhere.
4. Education: Ban any selection in schools, including banning faith schools and academies in their current form (but obviously allow setting of students based on ability). Allow private sponsorship and management of public schools, but under no circumstances allow deviations from the national curriculum or selection policies. Replace the current rules on religious education with a national curriculum based on comparative religious study, and introduce philosophy as a secondary school subject. Introduce foreign language education into primary schools with a view to making it a required subject eventually. And on that, require all foreign language education to be delivered in that language in the same way that all other countries do. Literally transplant the Dutch model of sex education into our schools.
5. Transport: Reduce the cost of driving as a base rate, and then increase the cost of driving in places with decent public transport. That way rural people can avoid being penalised for using their cars, when the problem is actually too many people using their cars in urban areas. A large investment in public transport in urban areas, the abolition or car tax, combined with the introduction of road pricing and congestion charges. Part of the aforementioned science budget to assist the vehicle manufacturers research into more economical engine technology. Make all speed cameras out of that reflective material. Funny that they're the only "highly visible" things on the road that don't reflect your headlights. :chin:
6. Health: Honestly don't know where to start.
I'm presuming you've never had your house burgled then?
It IS personal. It is to date the most mentally derivative thing that has happened to me. I will never feel entirely safe in a house ever. I HATE being alone in a house. I know for certain I will never be able to live alone.
Someone goes in your house, first of all just the fact that some scumbag has been through your things is just sickening. But then you know they can get in your house. That they've been watching your house. And they may well do it again.
We had to move house's, granted it was rented so not too much hassle, but if it was your own home, even worse. Once they'd been in that house it didn't feel like our house, our home, anymore. I hated that house. I even hated the area the house was in.
I know not everyone is affected this badly, but a lot of people are. There were four people in our house, two of them seemed fine and two of us are seriously scarred for life.
It's a horrible feeling to not feel safe in your home. I never feel safe in my home. I don't know what level of security i'd need to feel safe but I could probably never afford it.
Your home being burgled IS personal. And yes, it's not rape, that's another level, but at least rape victims tend to get the fact they will be mentally scarred recognised, and usually (i hope at least) are given help and support.
So I therefore, would like to give house burglars MUCH tougher sentences, they're often out very quickly and then just repeat and repeat offend. And granted the fact they're often drug addicts, rather than prison sentences, long sentences in rehab centers.
Sorry for this rant, i wasn't getting at you personally shyboy. Perhaps I should've made my own thread. I just get annoyed when people think burglaries aren't a big deal, as it seems to be a common opinion.
Thanks if anyone has bothered to read all this!
We are running out of anyplace to dump our rubbish.
I suggest we mix it with cement and rocks and things and fill in the English channel and get rid of this island mentality ...ok it served us well in the past but it is seriously screwing up the heads of a lot of politicos now.
We would then physicaly be part of Europe which would be wonderful.
Are you fucking nuts!!!!! Briton is the way it is because we are an Island, and why the hell would we want to be physicaly touching france
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080509/tuk-lifestyle-britain-tourism-offbeat-a7ad41d.html
Yea sorry, maybe I should have clarified my point a bit better.
When you have to face someone in court who has held you down and hurt you or raped you or whatever it's completely unfair on the victim. Like asking a small child to confront their abuser (sorry to compare victims of violent / sexual crime to children, just trying to make the point about being vulnerable).
With burglaries, although they are terrible (we've been burgled but were luckily insured and I try to take the attitude its nothing that can't be replaced), it is just a faceless burglar. If you face them in court you're not going to have flashbacks of the terrible events, I mean I've been attacked and if I see any of the attackers (I mean in a fight, btw) I instantly freeze and want to cross the road, avoid making eye contact and so on.
I've never reported it to the police as you just don't feel safe. With the burglary we phoned the insurance and the police and although we were pissed off it was dealt with quite matter of factly. Of course if you're held hostage in your own home or something that's a different case, but I think there should be courts tailored for the specific violent / sexual cases where the victim may feel too vulnerable to face down their attacker in court.
2. A massive reduction in the size of government. Nowadays, it's absolutely huge, and can people honestly say we are better governed because of it? We don't need it. I'd start by having a cull of the number MPs at Westminster. (literally, if needs be) Scotland's representation at Westminster would be a fraction of what it is now. Wales would be given its own parliament, and also face cuts in the number of MPs it has. I'd also cut the size of the civil service enormously - for example, tax credits are an abominable waste of time. Allow people to keep their money in the first place, instead of funding Gordon Brown's corrupt practice of funnelling taxpayers money to Labour constituencies.
3. A huge reduction in the number of CCTV cameras that litter our streets. Earlier this week, a senior copper admitted they were worse than useless at preventing crime. I suggest we scrap the vast bulk of them. Whilst they're at it, they can also get rid of the masses of metal that are all over our streets these days - pointless barriers that everyone managed perfectly well without in the past, useless signage that just distracts motorists, that sort of stuff...
4. The immediate abolition of the Human Rights Act. Who does it actually benefit, apart from crooks and terrorists? Whenever we're trying to deport a dangerous menace from this country, some bleeding heart lawyer (usually on legal aid) bleats to the court that "my client's human rights would be violated". To hell with them, I say! Britain managed perfectly fine without this wretched law in the past, so why do we suddenly need one now?
5. A reduction in the amount of time that people can be detained without charge. Instead of talking about raising the limit to 42 days, and facing a vote in the Commons which Macavity will almost certainly lose, it should now be cut to a maximum of 12 days, the same as in Australia. The current limit is ridicilously high as it is, and there is no evidence whatsoever in favour of increasing it.
To sum all this up, I'd put Jeremy Clarkson in charge of the country.
-Make much more use of restorative and punitive justice for minor offences. If someone breaks a window/steals something small and they admit the guilt the officer can punish them in a way that prevents that person gaining a criminal record and actually helps the victim. ie if someone smashes a window they have to do unpaid work or try and recompensate the victim. It ensures the offender realises the true impact of what they have done, creates empathy for the victim, and keeps them out of the criminal justice system for minor offences.
-Give PCSO's handcuffs and tazer to all frontline officers.
-Abolish the stop/talk forms, keep the stop/search form.
-Hire civilian statement takers/prosecutors. Once someone has been arrested they do all the work.
-Give PCSO's power to seize uninsured vehicles, not just untaxed and vehicles causing a nuisance.
Military-
-Improve pay and in doing so increase recruitment. I'd double the size of the armed forces.
-Scrap ballistic submarines and put our nukes in silos
Civil
-Increase funds for fusion research
-Increase use of off-shore wind/tidal power
-Scrap road tax, increase fuel duty accordingly
-Scrap any thoughts of congestion charging
1) Abolish peoples right to vote if they earn less than quadruple the average wage.
2) Privatise the NHS and money.
3) Legalise drugs, prostitution, possession of guns, driving without a seatbelt etc and any victimless crime.
4) Break the UK up into at least 4 seperate countries.
5) Abolish income and corporation tax
Here are my own proposals
1. Economy: 50% tax on earnings about 100k; close every single loophole that allows tax avoidance. Name and shame every single businessman and company that cheats their way out of paying taxes; introduce windfall taxes on companies such as Shell, BP or Tesco; introduce penalties to companies that award large bonuses to directors when employees are being made redundant
2. Public Services: Renationalise water and rail services, and with the many billions of Pounds recovered from the point above, bring the railways to European standards; also get rid of wards in hospitals
3. Home & Foreign Policy: Introduce PR in the electoral system; ban the BNP and all fascist/racist political parties thereafter; pull out of Nato, Afghanistan and Iraq; stop selling weapons to brutal regimes, and stop sucking Uncle Sam's cock for no benefit gained whatsoever; embrace the fact that we are Europeans, and should be happy to be so; counter the decades long campaign of hate and lies by the right wing press regarding the EU
4. Education: Replace all religious education for children at school or home with a 'history of religions and their influence on mankind' subject
5. Ethics & personal freedoms: Decriminalise all drugs, legalise euthanasia and all forms of stem research
well firstly if you feel like that you need some sort of therapy, because its not healthy to feel like that. and secondly although i'm not doubting how the incident affected you, but you have obviously never been raped or assulted.i have and it can change your life in ways you never new possible.
Things i would change:
Transport: i would re-nationalise the rail/bus/tube system and have them run so they work together as a network
benefits: i would make it easier for people to get off benefits, and i would overhaul socail services and make them all adhere to the same rules and regulation and make it less of a postcode lottery in what kind of support you get. I would make it so all care leavers got given flats if they have status and were in care anytime before their 16 birthday, i would also make it so care leavers had a alocated worker up until they finished full time education, and i would make sure that those that decide to go on to uni have full fiancial support and have a home close to their uni of chouice for the full duration of their course, and give them the chance to stay there on council house rent for as long as they want or to move back to their LA area.
Health: i would introduce an intergrated system, so that consultants, GPs, and other support/health careworkers worked together and shared information to help patients with complex conditions have better care. i would also fine those that miss there appointments without good reason- I.e. hospitalisation, sickness, etc
Police/crime- i would make PCSOs have most the powers of a PC but not all of the responsiblities. I would get admin staff in to do the papper work that is holding so many bakc from being on the street. i would do something similar to shyboy with drugs, legalise prostitution etc. I would also bring back hard labour in prisons, make long term repeat offenders know the magnitude of their crime, put more mental health workers in prisons, eliminate drugs from prisons, and put together a better taylor made rehabilitation program.
Tax: i'd bring back the 10p tax band, and make road tax much higher for those using very polluting cars. I'd also give people living in inner citys grants to go on holidays in the UK rather than going abroad.
education: i'd give students a better preperation in the run up to uni, i'd give them more finacial support, and take it away from the rich. i'd make more voccational courses available, and increase the number of aprenticeship places. I'd make all teachers take a course in learning difficulties, so they were able to spot and refer cases, and able to work with them in the classroom and understand them better rather than excude them from the learning experiance.
Including the very positive stuff religion has given mankind of course ...and the fact that atheists have been even crueler and killed more people ...Pol Pot Stalin Hitler Ghekis Khan and so on.
Now come on MR, you know better than to drag out that old adage.
Some are a bit err OTT I would say
"Scrap the human rights act"
"Ban certain political parties"
and all of minimi's suggestions :razz:
That is already happening.
I haven't thought much about this but the main thing I'd like to see a big change in is class sizes in schools. I'd like classes in foundation stage and KS1 to be brought down to no more than 20 pupils and classes in KS2 to 25 pupils.
Another thing I'd like to see change is the amount of tests we subject our young children to. I'd like the SATs to be completely scrapped.
Sorry, mine was all about education but its what I feel most strongly about.
I assume you're joking. Legalise posession of guns and driving without a seatbelt? When you've attended a few accidents and seen the results of what happens when you're not wearing a seatbelt you'll change your mind. It's not even as if putting them on is inconvinient, it takes about 1 1/2 seconds.
You think Ghengis Khan was an atheist? Just because his religion no longer exists, doesn't make him an atheist. Actually, I think you'll find that Khan dabbled in Buddhism and Taoism, along with various other long-lost belief systems, but I wouldn't be so disingenuous as to blame those religions for his mass murder. Just like I wouldn't blame Christianity for the 20 million African Americans that were killed largely by Christian slave holders. I certainly would pick out murders and abused that have occured for specifically theological reasons, of which there are many. They all had moustaches too. Does that prove that moustaches are responsible for their crimes?
http://www.uweb.ucsb.edu/~lain/ghandi2.jpg
And yet Cliff Richard's lip remains entirely bald, and look at the evil unleashed on the world.
I picket it out because the others were so laughable it wasn't even worth commenting on them, and because you seemed to be under the impression that posession of a firearm e.t.c. is a victimless crime, when evidently it isn't.
2. Nationalise the transport system.
3. No more than 2 cars per household.
4. Abolish the smoking ban.
5. Increase state pension for those with checkable history of working/caring/disability, free nursing/personal care for all and to fund this; stop benefits being paid out to immigrants' children living abroad and for any able-bodied person who has been out of work for more than a year(with no children under 5).
Did I? I don't remember even commenting on it.
no i wouldnt.
yes it is.
On the radio the other day they related someone saying that they were too tired to wear a seatbelt in the morning. That idea alone was funnier than anything Chris Moyles has ever said.
P.S. Possession of firearms technically is a victimless crime. Like possession of knives or drills or weapons of mass destruction.