If you suddenly became the leader of the country, what’s the one thing you would change?

[bluescreens]

As the child of an elderly parent, I’m frustrated by what appears to be pointless bureaucracy when dealing with local councils. When anything goes wrong with my dad’s care, I spend the equivalent of hours (sometimes days) being passed from team to team, trying to get someone to take ownership of the issue and work with me to resolve it. If I were PM, as this is so personal, I’d tackle this straight away. I’d also do a proper, comprehensive review of the NHS and ask the tough questions, with the goal of reforming it while (at the same time) keeping it free or at least very low cost at the point of use. Obviously I’d use my magic money tree to fund all of this! 🤓

This is a semi lighthearted thread - but if you were leading the country, what would you tackle first?

sort out dvla driving test fiasco that has been going on fpr years

I hire apprentices , first question , Do you drive ?
if its a no, its a no from me
These kids need to be able to book a test within a couple of months not 6 !
If they are driving they are more employable

So hard to pick just one!

My fantasy wish list:

1. UK media can only be owned by UK tax payers with no outside funding (Putin and Murdoch have done enough damage with Brexit).

2. Voluntary self-certification for euthanasia. We should all have a right to decide when our quality of life has gone.

3. All properties empty for more than 3 months (those for sale excepted) can be seized by the state and rented out as social housing.

4. Rent caps so landlords cannot charge extortionate rents.

5. A return to adequate funding for all public services.

6. An end to tax free off-shore accounts. If you've got it, you pay tax on it.

7. Deposits payable on recyclable items - as in Germany - refunded when the empties (cans, bottles etc) are returned for recycling.

8. A take-away tax with proceeds paying for more street cleaning/litter picking of take out boxes, cups, bags etc.

9. Utilities must be run 'not for profit' or handed back to state ownership.

10. Rejoin the EU.

Animal welfare laws.

A complete ban on building any new housing.

A huge focus on rewilding as much of the UK as possible.

You do not want the University funding system we have in Scotland. Government caps the number of places Scottish students can be offered, and the funding they give isn’t enough, which means foreign students are funding our universities. Most of our universities are in a pretty poor financial position.

We also have free prescriptions. Lovely though that is, I can easily afford mine and I’d rather the money went elsewhere.

Really? You rather there was VAWAG, expensive utilities, NHS issues, motorists driving without a license/insurance/ved but cyclists are to be targeted in your dream scenario?

You also get a bus pass at 60. It's 66 in England.

Yes because they are foreigners but let's ship our violent, raping arseholes out with them. Might be a difference of opinion then.

If violent men are UK citizens, they cannot be deported. That's the law.

Sadly, the safety of women and girls all too often takes a low priority.

Make Influencers / Content Creators get a proper job and make it illegal to invade people’s privacy through filming for your social media in public.

Punish boy racers with loud exhausts by putting them in the stocks with rotten fruit hurled at them for three days, before being let out and then being sentenced to hard labour for two years. And crush their cars and bikes naturally. Along with all loud antisocial behaviour actually.

Ok joking (mainly), but it seems that low level lawlessness is an increasingly massive and distressing blight on our lives

What I would actually do is take health, social care and education out of politics entirely and put them in the hands of cross party and industry experts who are able to formulate proper long term plans, so we stop lurching from short term crisis to short term crisis.

Which country do you inflict them on though? You can’t send them packing off home if the UK is their home?

Set up a loan system for people to pay for childcare. This would be a similar set up to the student loans, you borrow what you need whilst your children are at nursery, and start paying back when that child goes to school. The amount you pay back depends on your salary and after 30 years the loan is written off.

Introduce a mandatory living wage. Businesses are being subsidised by our benefits system.

Bring utilities back into the public domain but only for a short while, allowing them to be re-tendered to the private sector with more checks and balances on what they can and can’t do. Remove the link between gas and electricity prices, cap shareholder payouts, ringfence infrastructure improvement funding etc.

Remove the political link between the NHS and Government. Funding can only be allocated after an independent body approves it. Short term increase in paying the private sector to shorten waiting lists.

1 year increase in the civil service to allow all the current backlogs to be dealt with, asylum claims, Disability benefit payments, driving tests etc.

More regulation of the financial sector. (I’m reading Gary Stevenson’s book about his life as a trader and it is eye opening)

Increase the tax free portion of salaries, nobody on minimum wage pays any tax.

Massive increase in funding for Mental Health services for both adults and children.

Overhaul the education system to ensure no child is left behind, including a huge increase for ASN provision.

This would all be funded by a short term tax grab on the wealthiest individuals / companies in the country. £1tn of the increase in wealth in the decade between 2010 and 2021 went to the top 1%. Taxing that by a measly 1% would give us £10b. Nobody at the top would notice that going.

All of this would give us a reset, allowing the economy to improve, get people back on an even keel, which would solve a whole load of the country’s problems.

In the longer term, my policies would be about tackling problems before they start. Improving salaries, housing, support services for the poorest and most vulnerable in our nation to ensure the young generation grow up with far more opportunity and optimism for their future. This alone would do more to reduce crime, addiction, poor health outcomes which are over represented in those households living in poverty.

And every one gets free cake on a Friday.

Sorry. I missed the part that said ONE thing.

My one thing would obviously be, forcing people to read posts properly.

Make all expensive flats in London that no one's buying into social housing

Building more properly affordable housing. Get rid of nhs managers

Good luck with that. Some people actively choose that way of life.

I'd also push for more education & awareness of contraception & pregnancy prevention for all ages. My aim is to reduce the number of abortions by preventing accidental pregnancies in the first place. So many posts on here of women getting accidentally pregnant usually v early on in a relationship. Then the dad usually ends up in being a feckless twat which then costs the tax payers money subsidising these families.

This is an added cost to the NHS, abortions cost money so if you can spend more money on contraception and make it a responsibility for both sexes. Taking away the stigma of using condoms for young men would also help.

Abortions should be available for those who need it but we should also concentrate on reducing unwanted pregnancies happening in the 1st place. The number of teen pregnancies has significantly reduced but this number can go down even more. The pill alone doesn't prevent a pregnancy, a condom needs to be used as well. This combined method will reduce the number of sti's, you just need to read the threads on here about this.

All this adds more stress to the NHS and we need to look at prevention as well as cures to reduce the pressure on the NHS.

EVERY crime involving violence should result in being locked up - none of these stupid exceptions such as 'they were drunk' or 'it was not on character' or 'it's cultural'

Triple the number of MPs, pay them £300k a year but demand no other jobs and proper attendance

Oh, and make them live in the poorest part of their own constituency

Actually, scrub those 2. I'd triple the size of the armed forces, put them in charge and fuck off

We have street cleaning where I live but the moment it’s finished people are dropping litter. Stopping eating and drinking on the street might help. In the past people managed without constantly eating and drinking in public!

I would ban that bloody Jet 2 advert 😂

Ban all forriners!

Kick the useless layabouts out and send them back to where they belong.

Oh sorry, I misread, I thought you were asking what the next leader of the country will do.