Have you thought of anything radical, out of the box, that you think would be good for our society?

[waltzingparrot]

I have two:

1. Britain should be 'No Smoking'. I don't just mean no smoking in public areas, I mean we don't sell them . A chance to eradicate smoking. Good for individual health, good for NHS. Govt will have to tax something else.

2. on the announcement of a general election, we should have a media blackout on the subject apart from

Each party can :
drop their manifesto/ leaflet through your door
Make an election broadcast ( can be repeated)
Compulsory weekly attendance on national TV to be interviewed by Andrew Neil, Question Time etc.
And a daily round up of facts on the nine o'clock news only. No speculation.
Keep it limited and contained.

Ban the long and ridiculous Christmas hype and over indulgence. Yes I know it’s a ridiculous idea but honestly, the over spending, over indulgence, utter bollocks, stress around Christmas now is just obscene.

Copper coils also really hurt to fit, even if you've given birth. And they can make your periods very heavy, so it's not really workable to force pubescent girls to have them fitted, and again, why not just chemically castrate the boys, it's 'just' an injection ? And boys can father more children than any women can have.

Tax wealth rather than income.

A new form of national service that means people serve a number of years as an MP rather than elected representatives, a bit like long term jury service.

That when campaigning to become PM candidates are allowed to make three promises as their manifesto and that if they have not delivered 100% on these promises within 3 years their party is not allowed to stand for the following election.

Every girl fitted with a copper coil at puberty, and replaced compulsorily until marriage

How very Handmaidens Tale of you.

Is your name Boris?

Make the Council tips open to everyone - vans , scooters or carrying stuff in on foot .
This would include trade waste .
At present its a PIA to take broken tv along- the staff slow everyone down by asking what have you got ,park in bay one crap in skip one etc
Surely its the best way to clean up the streets .

I think parliament should be a true representation of the demographic of the country. So if 3 per cent of the UK are privately educated then that's 3 percent allowed. If 40 percent of people rent overall then get that in there too. Basically have a parliament that understands the people. Would well and truly pop the bubble of privileged toffs.

School curriculum should be totally overhauled to fit modern times post internet. Topics like researching sources, critical thinking, constitution and politics need to be taught, also finances, computer skills. Lessons should incorporate teaching online and be more interactive, with more choice and fewer GCSEs. Textbooks should be scrapped and instead children be given internet access and a device to see materials on.

Make it a criminal offence with imprisonment for politicians and newspapers owners to lie or mislead the public to secure votes when campaigning.

Interesting thread.

More life skills taught in schools, by specialists. Cookery, more sport, woodcraft, textiles, survival skills. Who knows what they may face in the next 50 years. Teachers given more time to plan and prepare for lessons so they don't burn out.

Smaller classes!

I've been pondering whether making the state pension means-tested would work? So those who are getting a comfortable work/private pension don't get it, meaning there's more money left in the pot for those who need it/less funds needed for pension credit.

How about MPs chosen by public lottery - a bit like jury service?

Oh and a hall of residence for MPs near Parliament, doing away with need for second homes.

I agree with so many of these things but not this

Get rid of the long summer holiday for schools. They should be open year round with each pupil having an annual leave allowance just like an employee that could be taken anytime.

Childcare should be looked at carefully, but education isn’t childcare and I think this would be a mistake.

There isn’t a lot of evidence to suggest that holidays were there for children to help with farming historically, which is often quoted, but it seemed more like getting children out of hot germ-filled classrooms and giving them time to rest. Continual school will also not help the growing SEMH problems in our school children.

Annual ground rent as the only tax.

Basic income.

Universal free childcare available 24/7.

Free public transport

Tax all British citizens living abroad.

Criminalise non payment of child support.

Smaller local prisons that are houses where the prisoners cook and clean and learn good habits for the real world.

Much smaller schools. About 5-600 pupils maximum. No more than 20 in each class. These schools with 1.5k pupils are faceless. Too much precious teaching time and energy are wasted on crowd control.

Mandatory birth control (in a futuristic non invasive way that can 100% be reversed) for everyone that could only be undone if:

• Married 2 years or meet certain conditions that prove you can raise a child alone/in a suitable partnership
• over age 25
• stable, safe, clean home
• steady income and healthy amount of savings to account for maternity leave
• criminal background check vulnerable sector
• both parents must pass couples therapy/parenting classes
• mental health check ins and support for parents
• fertility support provided if required

I'm NOT saying eugenics but I am saying bringing children into this world in a planned, informed and loving way to safe and stable homes. Would solve SO many world problems and reduce burden on the state and environment. This is not to discriminate in any way and programs would have to be developed to support potential parents to meet the above criteria but just think of the benefits. Makes sense to me but would drastically change the world I think.

@bobbikato
I agree getting thing to the local refuse centre for me is a PITA as I dont drive and am not allowed to carry things in ( I have no idea why that rule was made ! )
My solution would be for the council to have skips put dotted around that you could put anything in ( or take out if you wish )
So estate A would have 5 skips left out early on the 1st Saturday of the month , Estate B would have 5 skips put out on the 2nd Saturday of the month and so on.
Areas where there is a high population like high rise flats could have more skips or more frequency .
The skips would have to be taken away at night or some little scrots would set fire to them.
This should stop the huge problem of fly tipping , both the cost to remove it and the damage to the environment.

God, some of these suggestions are an authoritarian nightmare.

@Cinammoncake I sooooo agree with this. When the world is changing so much why is the curriculum as rigid as it is? Do people really need to know how to calculate the value of x or would they be better learning about how to manage their finances?

Instead of putting the clocks forward in spring/backwards in autumn, next spring we just put them forward half an hour and leave it like that forever.

Split the difference and we don't all have to mess about changing clocks and getting used to the change.

Everyone should be made to know what it's like to be hungry. Really hungry. Devise an algorithm (factor in age, BMI, known medical conditions that may be problematical etc.) and make people fast for a period - I know many religions already do this but, if everyone did, I think we would all gain an understanding of how sodding lucky we are in western society and how thin the veneer of this society actually is.

Can we just vote on all the important things directly and not have any elected representatives?

Who decides what the important things that get voted on actually are?

Instead of putting the clocks forward in spring/backwards in autumn, next spring we just put them forward half an hour and leave it like that forever.

But that would mean the sun would never be at its zenith at midday and the universe would stop.

I've long felt that we should use Year 8 or Year 9 as a personal development year rather than making our young people take decisions on and in some cases begin studying for their GCSEs.
In a world where they are likely to live 90 years or so, and have to work till 70, it doesn't seem unreasonable to invest a year in learning how the world works, personal, financial, social development, perhaps some community work, government and politics both local and national. I think investing in our 13 yr olds would give us happier more settled 16 yr olds.

Ban the sale of prepackaged fruit and vegetables, along with all plastic bags. Berries could be sold in little cardboard barquettes as they were when I was a kid.