to ask if you were Prime Minister - what 5 changes would you make?

[ABowlofPetunias]

Inspired by other threads re: benefits, tax etc on AIBU.

If you were in the position to make 5 changes to legislation/tax/law/policy etc in the UK - what would they be?

(I understand that being PM wouldn't mean you can just snap your fingers and it be done, but this is theoretical!)

Mine would be:

1. Change the VAT threshold to be fairer to small businesses - create a system that takes into account size of business, number of employees, profit margins etc instead of penalising business that may have a turnover of over £81k but VAT registration means business death.

2. Change Employers Tax and contributions to reflect the size and scope of the business to encourage employers to hire more staff with higher wages.

3. Cap travel costs such as train fares

4. Ban unfair fees (Estate agents fees for tenants, surcharges, registration fees etc)

5. Lower VAT back to 15%

Would love to hear other MNetters rule the country plans

1. Have a 20k tax free allowance and abolish tax credits.
2. Increase capital gains tax to 40%.
3. Increase the threshold at which higher rate tax kicks in to 60k.
4. Build more social housing.
5. Basically, tax income less and assets more. Make work pay.

1. Make University free for those who enter jobs like social work, teaching, nursing and do at least 5 years on the "front line" ie not in leafy suburbs. Also, no tuition fees for courses that lead to jobs in shortage areas - Stem subjects etc. Charge double for degrees in Media Studies and Golf Course Management.

1. Cap child benefit at 2 children but only for children conceived after the date of the change.

1. Make parents far more accountable for the education and actions of their children. Make parenting courses compulsory for those whose children are late, do not do homework or are not being well served by their families.

1. Break the link between school holidays and the agricultural year. Give all LA freedom to set holidays as suits their area which will make holidays cheaper. Parents who travel miles to educate outside their LA will have to take this into account.

1. Make all politicians do compulsory front line work experience for about 6 weeks a year in something relevant to what they do. They wouldn't mess with schools so much if they actually worked a school day.

Sorry - teacher and parent. Can't see beyond that.

1. ( Cheeky extra) ban all future talk of another Scottish independence referendum - we can't take it up here!

2. Cap child benefit at 2 children but only for children conceived after the date of the change

Wow...we will have to tell the government the precise date on which we had sex and conceived! Interesting...

1. Child benefit for 2 children only.
2. Child benefit paid for children living in Uk only.
3. Scrap oap free bus travel standard 50p fare whatever distance
4. Vat back to 17.5%
5. Increase tax on cigarettes

1. raise minimum wage to £10ph
2. abolish tuition fees
3. treble the NHS budget
4. tax cigarettes out of existence and alcohol to a luxury
5. bring back the stocks for anti-social behaviour/drunk and disorderly

And to save me namechanging to add another 5

1a Council houses for those on low incomes only
2a Prison sentences to be harsher and to include more community service/restitutional work
3a Bankers bonuses to be abolished
4a Nationwide policy where the lowest paid employee is earning no less than 10% of the highest employee in that company
5a Enforce the equality act particularly in regards to hate crimes against disability

NotYouNaanBread Not possibly ban (or tax) the import of food. Any food. Farmers have no more right to protection from imports than any other producers. The Corn Laws were repealed in 1846 and we don't want them back. Ever.

1. Abolish the right to buy council homes.

1. Increase minimum wage and increase tax allowance.

1. Abolish tax credits.

1. No immigration of unskilled workers.

1. Elderly occupiers of social housing of 3 bedrooms or more to be moved to smaller properties in order to help families in overcrowded accommodation.

1. Build more housing.
2. Build more housing.
3. Build more housing.
4. Build more housing.
5. Build more housing.

1. abolish tax loopholes for corporations (Starbucks, Amazon, google tactics etc)
2. massively simplify tax credits etc. maybe reduce corporation tax but increase NMW so taxpayers stop subsidising big business
3. make child support a deduction from earnings like PAYE. Seize assets of non payers
4. abolish state funded faith schools and make teaching of religious propaganda (as opposed to fact based RE) in schools illegal 5)introduce quotas for women on boards

1. Suspend MPs who treat the House of Commons like a rugby boys' debating society or comedy club.
2. Abolish the House of Lords.
3. Devolve more powers to Scotland, England, Wales and NI.
4. Issue a full, frank apology for colonialism and the British Empire and cancel out any debt from nations we colonised.
5. Any politicians who partake in hate speech are barred from politics, eg Nick Griffin. If you can get fired from a normal job for something, you shook be ousted from politics.

1. Leave the EU
2. Introduce points based immigration like Australia
3. Reintroduce grammar schools, ban public funding for faith schools and reform education to focus on acquisition of knowledge rather than "skills"
4. Reform Welfare to proactively support those stuck in the welfare trap psychologically, build self esteem and skills.
5. Reform justice system to standardise sentencing

1. Would be to address Islam but my comments on that would no doubt get this post deleted.

Increase investment in the nhs
Remove tax from sanitary products
Go back to the days of children attending local schools (no issue with having grammar schools)
Better care for the elderly, disabled and vulnerable
Stricter prison terms for certain crimes

1. Childrens centres and vastly increase funding for early years support. These are vital and the impact of early intervention is massive.
2. Breastfeeding peer support prgrammes across community/hospital everywhere.
3. Put the WHO code into law.
4. Make tax allowances transferable for married couples (fully).
5. Raise taxes, if necessary.
6. Sort out public sector pay
7. Sort out the benefits system so people aren't relying off food banks
8. Increase mental health services funding
9. Allow summer born 4 year olds to defer by a year and go into reception.

These are not necessarily in order, and more than 5 oops!

All to carry ID cards, with DNA on file.

Absent parents to have their child support payments deducted from their wages through the inland revenue, with the same penalties for non payment as non payment of income tax.

All child support payments to be included in means testing for tax credits.

Abolish inheritance tax.

Build more homes.

Reintroduce grammar schools nationwide
Huge tax breaks to attract more businesses to the North
Introduce a flat rate of tax for everyone
Leave the EU
Renationalise the railways

Waxydaisy....what does 'sort out public sector play mean?'

Pay..not play obviously!

1. Abolish house of Lords and invest the money saved in the NHS
2. Invest more in Scottish roads, starting with dueling the death trap that is the A9
3. Greater devolution for all UK countries and regions - smaller local authorities and greater local autonomy
4. Make the tax system fairer so lower incomes are taxed less and much, much higher incomes are taxed much, much more
5. Make it a legal requirement for all governments, govt departments, company boards etc etc yo have a minimum of 40% female representation

1. Simplified tax system to take those earning under 15-20 k out of tax- scrap tax credits - no point in taking it away only to give it back as 'benefits'! Anyone working full time should be comfortably better off than on benefits. Large employers to pay proper wage, companies earning billions in profits should be paying wages that don't need 'topping up'. Support small business only with wage help.
2. Build council housing but eligible tenants to be low waged and working
3. Prison sentences to be served in full, no time off for good behaviour..if they had behaved in the first place they wouldn't be there.
4. Refusal for asylum to anyone already in this country. They should apply in first safe country. Anyone claiming here is not an asylum seeker!
5. All immigrants to have health insurance and be self funding for 3 years minimum including education.
6. Close tax loop holes and tax avoidance scams schemes.

I agree with so many of these!
Particularly love the "cabinet ministers and MPs in general need to be more down to earth" mentality (so true) and some very interesting views on education.

For those who want to spend more money on the NHS - where would you allocate that money? eg. salaries, more jobs, better equipment etc.

Some of you guys might not make it to the top though if you can't count to 5!

There needs to be a law that deals with twats.

So many of our problems are caused by twats. Selfish, entitled twats. Abusive twats and violent twats. Thoughtless, disruptive twats. Twats in cars. Twats on 'buses and trains. Twats in call centres, shops and offices. Twats everywhere. Even twats in our own houses sometimes.

I think that Behaving Like A Twat ought to be an imprisonable offence. We'd never have enough prison space but many offshore islands in say the Outer Hebrides would be suitable, especially in winter. And they ought to wear T-shirts with TWAT written in big letters across the front and their cars should display T-plates so that we know when a vehicle is being driven by a twat.

Bit difficult to expect a PM to have a policy on twats when he is one himself, of course.

OK here goes..

1. renationalise gas,energy,transport,NHS (thanks Cameron for that one)
2. stop tax avoidance/regulate banks
3. ban fox hunting 4)more money put into day centres/respite
4. more help for genuine refugees (fair points based system for immigration)

1. Tax alcohol highly so it becomes a luxury, tax shit food phenomenally so that no one buys it, legalise and tax soft drugs, and abolish the sale of cigarettes to those born after 2000, freeing up nhs and police force from doing a massive amount of excess work.
2. Create a new tax system, tax free Allowance of say £15k then flat rate tax of 25 percent. Cuts out all the loopholes, unfairness and other shite. Same scenario for companies.
3. Cap benefits according to regions, and at a maximum payment for 2 children.
4. All care homes should be free, or at least far cheaper, so that oaps who have paid their entire lives do not have to spend their life savings while others who have no savings whatsoever get an equal amount of care.
5. And make overwhelming changes to child protection. Not sure exactly what I would do, but the entire system needs overhauling. No child should be unsafe.

Boris