Calling all UK dictators. Which one of these would you pick?

[TheABC]

Judy finished another thread with posters talking about their European experiences for energy and inflation. What struck me was the amount of long-term planning their governments did or continued to do compared with ours. So...if you were crowned our dictator, which would you pick for a better functioning country?

A) quadruple social housing and regulate the rental sector (moves us closer to Sweden/Germany)

B) Free or really low cost public transport (Luxemburg, Spain)

C) Scrap all student tuition fees (various places in Europe)

D) Free child

D) Free child

Imagine the paperwork though

Damn thing posted before I finished!

D) Free childcare for a year (Nordic)

E) Something else.

It goes without saying you can demand batshit things as well, such a ban on lycra, doubling bin collections or forcing everyone to have a cat named Larry.

I've got one child, I really do not want a second thanks.

Tell Judy I have enough children, thanks.

Thank god for no compulsory child.
I would say rent regulation good, but increased social housing has flaws. In East London they removed rows and rows of horizontal slums and replaced them with rows and rows of vertical ones - I'd rather live in a little house, than 14th floor of a piss soaked block, no matter how swish it looked outside.
Free transport 👍
Free childcare for a year is a dip in the ocean for some or of no use for others. My DC is way past that stage and I'm struggling more now than I did when she was little.
I'd like to see a ban on second homes/BTLs, charging for non emergency health care and more plentiful, more affordable after/before school care, especially for children with additional needs.

Of those, I'd go for A. But I'd counter with:

E) invest heavily in renewable energy (and I don't mean nuclear), mass transit and desalination research. Funded by taxes on non-essential (ie holiday) aviation, residential properties used for investments, and private cars. All new housing and business parks etc to have the latest energy tech and solar panels etc as a requirement of planning permission. The rest of it is meaningless if much of the planet is uninhabitable because of climate change.

I'd raise the tax rates paid by very high earners, and clamp down on tax avoidance/non-dom. I'd use the proceeds to offer large incentives to reduce energy use and retrofit homes with energy-saving measures.

There are many other things I'd do to create a more just, equal society but having decent homes is a pretty good start.

I'd also offer incentives to have just one child but that always seems to get people frothing.

I'd start with public transport - reopening the branch lines, even, and running trains all over the country. This would relieve some of the housing crisis on its own as it would be feasible to live in places without a strong local economy.

Divided cycle lanes that don't cross traffic.

Then city planning, using the 15 minute city model and building medium density apartment blocks with inner garden courtyards/pocket parks. Mixed use and mixed class buildings with businesses, social housing, private ownership and private rent in one building.

No sprawl, fewer cars. Of course after the transport was sorted I would make private car ownership almost completely unaffordable except for mobility users.

A massive insulation programme. Wraparound care. Sovereign wealth fund. Land value tax.

I don't think I would make tuition free as I don't think everyone going to university is a great idea. I would absolutely ban private wheelie bins in most cases and have public waste and recycling points sunk into the ground like in Amsterdam. This is entirely because I can't remember when to put my bin out.

Social housing is for life, and all benefit in a way. That is what I would choose.

E. Longterm sustainable green energy plan

I will vote for all of this!

E) Put that pathetic Johnson bloke in stocks and have rotten vegetables lobbed at him for a few hours, then consider A to D.
Could the OP clarify the Free Child bit please?

A- the housing market is insane, we could almost suck up the fuel prices if people weren’t paying 3/4 of their income on rent!

a) too much income is tied up in housing

plus if more people felt happier & more secure this may lead to improvements in healthcare & lower crime.

I think I'd go for free transport, although social housing is a close second.

The right to travel (well, free movement, really) should be fundamental, but in many areas buses are so thin on the ground and expensive that people are trapped - particularly the old and poor.

It always seemed to me pointless to have a loneliness tzar when people can't afford to go to the next town to visit a friend, and free transport to make that easier would help with Mental Health costs, as well as cut emissions and make parking easier for those who do need to drive. It would probably help small businesses (and therefore employment) too, as people would be more likely to go to neighbouring towns to shop or get services if they could do so easily and cheaply.

Cycle paths connecting all towns and villages.
public transport is often lacking in more rural areas, but I’d happily cycle the 8 miles to our nearest tescos, and bring shopping home in panniers, if there was a safe cycle path to go on.
I loved travelling to the Netherlands for just this reason.

A.

A

If the free child should have been free childcare, I have lived somewhere which had A, B, C and D. It’s easy enough to have, you just have to vote for it.

Think it's meant to be 'free childcare'?

Assuming D is free childcare I'd pick that one! Although tbh I'd take a free child too if they were handing them out without the 6m of vomiting and painful childbirth bit before😀

A) but also ALL new housing social, private or for rental to be built to super high efficiency standards (passivehaus or similar) with modern heating/ electricity generation systems - pv/heat pump/ district heating.
Greatly reduce the demand for energy but also utilise other systems, same goes for water usage.
No get out clauses for house builders due to profit. I'm sure if faced with the prospect of no house building at all unless with the new rules they will find a way to make it stack up.
I would also want investment in education (wide not just maths and science) because lifting up the next generation rather than dumbing them down will help the country in the long run.

😂😂😂

I love MN humour! Yep, the free child was supposed to be "free childcare" as the lack of affordability really impacts women's earning power. Although the idea you can skip childbirth and the 4th trimester of shitty sleep is a tempting one.

@LegoFiends, which country do you live in (if you are happy to say?).

@wonkylegs - that's a really good point about housing standards and insulation. Since we are dictators, perhaps solar panels on all public buildings, too?

@Str8talker - only a few hours for Johnson? The queue would snake around the M25! I reckon we could charge for it and wipe out a day's worth of Government debt in the process.

Austria

All of them, but A) as first priority.