Ways to change the UK for the better....

[allsquareknickersnofurcoat]

We always see suggestions in random threads of what we need to do to improve life in the UK for the average working person. I'm curious what you would do, with all the ideas together in one thread...

(PS before anyone points it out, I know its not an AIBU, but I'd like to see the honest answers that this area produces. Plus you can decide if each others ideas are Unreasonable )

I shall be back asap with my own list.............

Heres a controversial one to get you started: If you are a young mum that still lives with your parents and doesnt work, you shouldnt get healthy start vouchers to spend on formula

karma, as xstitch said there are many antibs that are suitable and unfortunately many doctors just don't have the information - or don't bother to look it up! In fact many hcp are woefully uninformed when it comes to breastfeeding. Something else that should be changed!

I'm not sure the climate is very healthy. Personally I'd like to see a doubling of the hours of sunlight and a doubling of the average temperatures. Plus siesta time during the months of April to October. Surely the Coalition could manage that.

I think children should start school later.

That sounds great quattro :)

Develop and implement a computer system that will irradicate all the benefit fraud in this country!

It's a shame I stopped then, cos it was going well. Still, he had 4 months of bf and back then weaning was started around that time, so I would have been changing his diet soon anyway. He's 10 now. Am feeling quite old, but that's another thread!

And one to eradicate tax evasion CityGirls

Actually talking of tax evasion - did you know that Rod Stewart is not domicile in this country so that he doesn't have to pay a massive amount of tax?

Is that tax evasion?

No

Isn't it?
So if you earn, lets say over £150k on which you pay £60,000 of tax.

Then you put the remaining money in an off shore account legally, which you don't pay tax on the interest unless you bring that interest back into the country, is that called tax evasion?

To clarify:

As an individual, you are taxed in the country in which you are resident or ordinarily resident

Rod Stewart lives in Los Angeles. I am sure that he pays US taxes as appropriate. The fact that he chooses not to pay the fairly extortionate (one of the highest in the world) UK taxes does not make him a tax evader. It means like a lot of very wealthy people that he has a choice of where to live and pay his taxes. He's chosen not to live in the UK. Pretty rational choice, in the circumstances.

By the way, if you start insinuating that he is evading taxes, I'm sure that sort of comment is defamatory. You might want to get that comment deleted.

Actually Quattro I wasn't getting at Rod Stewart, I was getting at our obsession with tax evasion just because someone has an off shore account.

Plus I was asking a rhetorical question, I was asking it because I know for a fact he doesn't evade tax - if that makes sense.

You are confusing the concepts of residence and domicile, by the way.

What you are talking about (I think) is the situation where non-domiciled individuals pay income taxes on offshore income only when it is remitted to the UK.

For the avoidance of doubt, Rod Stewart is not a non-dom. He is purely and simply not resident in the UK, therefore this does not apply to him.

The non-dom situation is perfectly legal by the way. Not tax evasion.

I think we may be on the same side - my question has alot to do with bankers!

Sorry it's late I didn't make myself very clear and I don't want to end up being "done".

I was really referring to those that are resident in this country and then keep money off shore for the purposes of not paying tax on the interest, although I believe that rule may have changed/be changing and all interest is taxed irrelevant of where in the world it is.

Karma was insimuating that some people may be avoiding taxes etc I'm sure you catch my drift with the rest of my remarks.

"Those who earn more than 25k should pay for their own medical treatment."

I earn 40k, have various health problems including lung damage and work full time. I do not get any disability benefits - and don't need them.

But if I had to pay for my own medical treatment there would be no point for me to work. My GP visits, occasional hospital visits and medication would cost a large chunk of my wages if I had to pay a commercial rate.

And nobody is going to offer someone like me medical insurance unless pre existing conditions are excluded.

It would be exactly the same for my OH who has a rare medical condition caudsed by a gene mutation. OH works full time, but requires specialist operations every so often to stay mobile.

I think lots of people forget that there are lots of people with chronic medical conditions who don't get disability benefits and work full time. Would you rather we were on benefits?

BTW you would not know if you met us or knew us casually that we had anything wrong with us.

I saw free childcare instead of CB suggested on another thread, I like that one.

The UK is a marvellous place.

Keep the countryside open.

OK, if you want suggestions:

If second homes owners were charged triple the council tax and also made to donate to the local school and PO in their chosen village;
If second home owners' objections regarding affordable home building in the said villages were disregarded;
If people who choose to live on benefits when they are quite able to work were obliged to do the work which councils are abandoning due to budget cuts, such as litter picking, gardening, graffiti scrubbing and public toilet servicing;
If banks who were bailed out by the country were forbidden to pay bonuses until every single penny is paid back (or the bonuses were distributed among tax payers seeing as they are the share holders, or alternatively added to the Treasury);
If schools were given more power to discipline pupils who need it;
If Keep the Sure Start programme was kept and indeed expanded;
If all but non-violent criminals were made to spend their sentence doing community work;
If people minded their own business about women who cannot BF;

I think the country would be a little happier.