You are given the power to make three things illegal. What would you choose?

Glad to see someone else feels the exact same way about cats!

Anyway my personal 3 things are

1. Engines over a certain noise decibel level, some of the boy racers that go over the road behind our estate are deafening
2. Door to door salespeople
3. Also I think if kids get done for antisocial behaviour or get suspended from school for a serious reason like bullying or anything illegal, the parents should receive a fine as well. Would definitely see a decrease in the little scrotes up to no good in the streets and at school

Tiktok Shop
Noisy Chewing
Driving too slowly on a motorway slip road

Your number 3 is an interesting one, on the one hand as a HCP I love my job and would happily take on extra overtime. if not for the thought that it’s not only the work I’m taking on but the increased risk of being involved in more cases and all the repercussions if something went wrong. I actually used to go and do extra shifts on lower pay as a healthcare assistant so could sidestep that risk but unfortunately they stopped us doing that.
Our jobs would be a lot less stressful without the fear of litigation and the NHS would save billions and far more time to just give better care as we wouldn’t be doing so many tests and procedures just on the very remote chance of there being a problem rather than us actually thinking there is realistically a problem …. However there would potentially be a lot of ethical problems with that and would it be fair to the patient if they landed with a lazy bad apple of a practitioner who wasn’t a conscientious as most of us would still aim to be, due the professional immunity . it’s a difficult one 😕 Plus I think it would definitely have a negative impact institutionally

1. Alcohol (sorry, I know, but it’s my choice!)
2. Loud motorbike/ car modifications
3. Social media for under 18s

No you don’t

but you are a “fan” though

So I don’t own a dog then

No
your dog died a few weeks ago
but certainly a positive view of dogs!!

Does it mention anywhere here that I own a dog? You’d be a terrible lawyer.

they do indeed @DogsandFlowers

The "pretend" self employment really needs to be cracked down in lots of different industries, not just takeaway deliveries. Not only does it cause the lack of responsibility of the "employers" in terms of sick pay, holiday pay, employers NIC, etc., it also fuels tax evasion and benefit fraud in the black economy. Rachel's NIC hike and increased employee protection laws will do the opposite and drive even more employers/fake self employed down the pretend self employment route to avoid them.

I would also make it law that delivery companies like uber eats, deliveroo etc have to provide employees with compliant e-bikes - not these modified dangerous ones they often use. And that they are employees with rights, not self employed subcontractors. I dislike sharing the little cycle infrastructure we have with what are essentially mopeds.

I would make it law that if a business is paying its staff minimum wage then the owner/CEO can only take a minimum wage amount too.

sick of companies making vast profits but only paying their staff as little as they can possibly get away with.

People will still have money to spend, they can spend it on something else, creating jobs elsewhere.

Then the people who rely on those jobs, need benefits, because in many towns, hospitality is the main employer. So no savings made. Restaurants do take out. Deliveroo etc now means delivery is possible from any food establishment.

My cat has never killed a bird or any other animal.

Yeah, you can't possibly know that.

Ah OK. So disabled people can still access food, but have to pay much more for it?

Oh, cheers. So disabled people who rely on these services and pre-prepared food would starve, then. Nice.

Unfortunately, the UK can't dictate what taxes are payable on hotels, cruises, attractions, etc in other countries run by firms registered in other countries! We can just about increase taxes on air fares by increasing our UK airport taxes, but that's about it really. Unfortunately, it's part of why UK holidays are more expensive because we charge VAT at 20% on UK holiday accommodation, UK attractions, etc., but we can't impose a similar tax in other countries, many of whom deliberately have lower VAT rates (or no VAT at all) to attract tourists from higher tax countries like the UK!

No need for a ban of takeaways, just need to tax them more to make them more expensive. 20% VAT on takeaways etc isn't enough to combat the health/social costs they cause. Also make a "NIL" VAT threshold for all takeaways so the smaller ones (and tax evading ones) can't avoid VAT registration and can't avoid charging VAT on your kebabs, fish & chips, burgers, etc. The costs need to be significantly higher to discourage people from buying it, and for those who can afford it, then at least lets get a lot more tax revenue to go towards the costs of obesity and the costs of clearing up the litter etc.

I wouldn’t go for an outright ban but I would use taxation. Mirroring the approach to independent school fees, I would very significantly increase the cost of air travel so that the passenger pays the true cost of their flight to the environment, as well as to the destination cities. We’ve seen, with the arguments in favour of taxing independent school fees, that people are comfortable with an outcome whereby only the very wealthy can access the good or service they used to enjoy.

People who can no longer afford to fly to their chosen overseas destination can always opt to holiday in the UK (which anyway is getting hotter) and the tax revenue can be invested in more sustainable forms of transport like trains and cycle lane infrastructure, or into improving uk tourist destinations so they can properly manage and benefit from the influx of new tourists.

I’d do the same for cruises, for all the same reasons.

This thread is terrifying

My cat has never killed a bird or any other animal.
And when it comes to “destroying nature for no reason” I think as a human you are speaking from a position of the utmost hypocrisy tbh 😂. If I can’t have my cat, maybe we should strip you of your phone, your car , the right to travel by air , need I go on? Maybe we should lock all humans inside , after all they do a hella lot more damage to the “natural” ecosystem than my cat, and why should they be allowed out just to “have some fun”.

IMO too many things are legal nowadays that should not be.

I would legalise cannabis but illegalise a lot of other things. Including alcohol and dogs.

Like what...?

I would ban all takeaways/fast food/home delivery food and ready-to-eat food in supermarkets etc. To combat the obesity epidemic.