If you were ruler for a day, what minor irritations would you fix?

[Enko]

If you were ruler for a day. What minor thing would you fix.

I am not here talking stuff that would have long lasting political impact or getting rid of people permanently I am talking the smaller irritants that makes your eye roll and you are like "someone should do something about it"

Well for one day you are that someone what would you do?

For me. Potholes on my road and roads near by to be fixed (I would say all but I dont think 1 day would be enough time) but as many as they could manage in each city for the day

Also I would have someone drive around the towns cutting back hedges that are 1/2meter to 1 across the pavement. I know they would look shite after butthat's my minor irritant.

Cyclists, at least on country roads where it's impossible to overtake them. I'd let cyclists who really need to use a bike for transport use roads in towns or cities, and cycle paths. Alone. Never, ever in packs. Anyone who is doing it for a hobby would be banned. And anyone ever doing it wearing bright lycra would be sentenced to hard labour.

Also anyone riding a very loud motorbike/car, anyone who drops litter and anyone who cuts people up.

People who pull out in front of you making you brake, and then drive 10mph under the speed limit would of course be hanged.

This is what I’d do too. Get really irritated at ‘zombies’ - people so engrossed in a phone that they are unaware of anyone else.

And least two days a week there would be no tv at all so families can find ways to connect and do things together. I feel so bloody sad when I see parents with their head in their phones not talking to their kids and families sat in restaurants all on their devices rather than talking to each other. Do a puzzle, play a game, sing songs rather than watch tv

edited for spellings

I would go back to the old days when naughty kids were given a good hard slap and reminded of their place as members of the community who contribute nothing until they find a job and pay taxes.

I would make it the law that people say anything / everything rather than anythink and everythink, Makes me stabby

Why? I didn't realise that people had such strong views until I joined MN. So now I leave them on purpose to wind people up.

😆 I love this comment. I would taser everyone for any misdemeanor.

There are three things that have the biggest negative impact on my quality of life.

Pavement parking
Off-lead dogs (and dogs generally being everywhere)
Noise pollution

So I would ban pavement (and cycle path) parking.
Dogs would have to be on short leads in shared spaces (but the carrot would be a nationwide network of dog exercise areas where they could be off-lead)
I'd also introduce rules to reduce noise levels and there would strict noise nuisance laws (not just at night).

I agree about litter too but I think I'd only have time to sort out the three above in a day.

This is so true. What is wrong with these councils? This is why I was in favour of the unitary authority idea as I hoped for more cooperation.

People with a full time job don't have time for that.

Yes, this!

Shall we send this thread to Andy Burnham? So many good ideas on here.

Lots of people with full time jobs manage to find time to look after their gardens. If you can't be bothered then don't buy a house with a garden that's too big for you to manage or pay for a gardener.

Also yes to this

A huge yes to that. Whenever you start to see congestion and slow moving traffic on a motorway, after a few miles, you almost always find a couple of lorries side by side, neither of whom are going to get to their destination any quicker by leap-frogging.

There was a classic example on the Eddie Stobart documentary series a few years ago showing two "professional" lorry drivers chatting to each other on their radios, "racing" alongside each other, doing the leap-frogging, no doubt causing miles of tailbacks behind them, only for them both to stop at the same service station for a break with a few seconds of each other.

Just why?? Is it some kind of willy-waving competition to see who can get to the next service station 2 seconds ahead of the other??

They don't find the time, they enjoy it as a hobby. That isn't the same.

I do agree that you shouldn't let your lawn get out of control (at least the front one that everyone can see) but you shouldn't be mowing your lawn all the time anyway, it's better for the environment to leave it for a few weeks.

But we can agree on new rules for garden maintenance that accommodate both neatness and environmental impact :)

I don’t agree but ok
ideally if you don’t have time to tend to a garden, please pave it over and keep it tidy
I’m not demanding they’re a landscape gardener or can make dolphins out of hedges
tidy is perfectly fine

I do wonder at times whether they do it deliberately to annoy everyone else on the road all the time.

The case I always remember is being stuck behind a lorry for miles on the A9 (two way traffic only). The second it became a dual carriageway the arse pulled out and sat alongside the lorry that had been in front of it, stopping anyone from getting by on the short stretch of dual carriageway).

No don't pave it over, that's really bad for the environment.

No, that's too lenient. The car would be crushed in my world. Not with the driver in it.

Ah yes that's reminded me - aeroplanes to be boarded from the back. Although I recently flew and was sat near the back and they actually had stairs on the back and it STILL took ages to get on and off, and I was only 6 rows in! God knows how long it would have taken if I had had to get off at the front. I'd probably still be on there.

Agree, but if it's valuable work, they can be paid. No need to do it for nothing (not all jobless people claim benefits, they may have savings and so don't qualify). I don't for example see why pet sitting should be done for free.

Although thinking about it, maybe this is work our newly released prisoners could do (maybe not the pet sitting but maybe something like litter picking).

100% this too!

6 months in prision for anyone caught flicking cigarettes on the ground.

I've totally forgotten something.

In my world all businesses will have to have staffed call centres and an email address. And if you contact them, they have to substantively resolve your query that day or the day after. Unless it's really complex. No hiding behind bots and "your call is important to us" messages. Nope. You answer the phone on the second ring, you LISTEN to the person and you deal with their enquiry. And you employ enough people to read emails and deal with them properly.

Yes, this is a really good idea as well. It could easily be done by an amendment to the Highway Code.