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 Make sure that there was no need for WTC. Wages alone should be enough. If a person is working FT and still needs help there is most definately something wrong with the system.
2 Abolish bedroom tax
3 Make unhealthy food expensive and healthy food cheap it seems to be the other way around and the government wonders why we have got an obesity problem.
4 Stop benefit sanctions even criminals eat.

1. Life would mean life not just 15 years.

They were in particular order

Oh can I add one more Castration for rapists.

Hey...any politicians reading..or journalists... who can nudge them .....I hope you are taking note!!!

1. make the NHS inviolate.

2. outlaw pre-pay meters for gas/electricity.

3. build homes for all. No evictions on the whim of the accidental landlord. State backed first mortgages, with rental options for those who don't qualify.

4. a basic standard of living, minimum wage per annum minimum.

5. state bursaries for private schools. Real choice in education.

Real mix here: some very sensible, some nice but uncosted, (NHS spend would require doubling income tax and national insurance rates!) and terrifying fascist policies such as death penalty for immigrants.

Surprised that capping child benefit is popular given the forum.

Here are my 5

1. Increase minimum wage and abolish working tax credits

1. Abolish employee NI and raise the tax rates to compensate (retirees and self employed will then pay the same as the employed).

1. Remove tax free allowance from over 65s (state old age pension to be paid tax-free) but this only to apply to those born after 1945

1. Drop inheritance tax threshold to 100k

1. End bedroom tax and benefit sanctions

Mine are,

1. Provide overnight respite facilities for children that have a parent who is also their Carer, I've probably worded that wrong but if parents had even a couple of nights a month where they could be secure in the knowledge their child was being looked after by someone who was trained and having a lovely time, meeting other children with complex needs. It would make a huge difference to that parent/carers mental and physical health. Carers save the NHS so much money, they (we) need look after too, and it shouldn't depend on our postcode!

1. Businesses should be given huge incentives to employ more people part time and with greater flexibility, i would give anything to work while DS was well but no employer would have me when they risk me buggering off for 2 weeks at short notice. There needs to be things in place to make employers want to employ people like me, I'm hard working and I can travel with my laptop and phone, I can work just away from a set place sometimes.

1. Prison shouldn't be the attractive option, there should be very basic necessities, basic cells, basic meals, working in the day or studying with no choice but to do it. Too many people reoffend because it's easier and nicer for them inside than out.

1. People should be given incentives (especially the elderly) to vacate big council houses, I'm not saying kick pensioners out willy nilly but they need help to match them up for swaps, people to help them move to suitable, smaller places, near family etc. it's not always possible but it must be an option for some.

1. I'd plough money into creating something like a health visitor but I'd start from scratch and make it a whole network to automatically offer and provide access to budgeting and cooking, house care and basic living skills to all parents.

I have no clue where the funding would come from for any of these things though.

Lighthouse we have 3 the same (although I cheekily treated two as one policy).

Chiliplant, 3) is a current law

Great mind think alike, Hands.

I'm adding more to mine (I'm the OP, I'm allowed !)

*Childcare would be free up until child goes to school. This would be capped at a certain limit (say 50 hours a week) and would replace Child Tax Credits. Nursery or Childminders would be paid directly by the government and this would be regulated in the same way as schools. Nannies would be an option for those who wish to spend more money.

I haven't thought this next one completely through, so it may be flawed but in principle:

*State pensions would be scrapped (from a certain age downwards eg. current 40 year olds and under) and replaced with free carehomes for those at retirement age (or under in medical circumstances, for example). The care homes would be heavily regulated and offer comfortable, community living with a focus on individual privacy. Eg. assisted living rather than your traditional dank, cramped house full of the elderly. If people wished to live different once they retire than they should have a private pension set up for themselves during their lives.

(Like I say, I've not completely thought out the second one so it definitely need improvement but I like the principle. Pensions make up the biggest chunk of public spending)

Handsoff7 it maybe law but I have friends that are fox hunters and they admit that they don't bother t call the hounds off. ..nice people that they are..

I like your second one only slightly more than ramrods plan to shoot immigrants.

What you're proposing is broadly the old age poorhouse for everyone under 40. No income - you just get what the state thinks you should have.

The youngsters lucky enough to fund their own retirement get to continue living in their own space and everyone else is institutionalised. It would cost more to provide housing board etc than current old age pensions so we'd have to pay more tax during working years to fund this nightmarish retirement.

Just wondering if OP is actually DC's speech writer desperately seeking ideas to put in the manifesto to be delivered at the upcoming party conference

1. Full life sentences for convicted paedophiles and rapists and murderers, no parole.
2. No immigration until all existing citizens have a job
3. Flat income tax rate of 20% with a £15k tax free allowance for all
4. Abolish inheritance tax
5. Ban all intensive and factory farming in meat and dairy production

Just wondering if OP is actually DC's speech writer desperately seeking ideas to put in the manifesto to be delivered at the upcoming party conference

Mumsnet is usually very left wing so it'd be a radical manifesto for DC.

Sorry, just a plain old Nanny with an interest in politics

1 no one allowed more than one house (if i could this would be all 5 changes, in fact make that 100 changes...)
2 train travel very cheap like germany and very regular
3 nhs - sack the managers and give the nurses the power to decide where the money goes
4 ban footballers being paid more than a doctor (why do we pay men who kick a pigs bladder around more than men who save lives)
5 ban the bbc license

You sure its only 5 as have so much i need to sort out....i haven't touched on...like immigration, parking (which should be free in towns)...

1. Permit a generous tax free allowance e.g. 20k. Increase this in line with inflation year on year.

1. Abolish NI. Introduce a single, totally flat rate of tax e.g. 30% for all earned income.

1. Incentives for investment in geographically deprived areas - i.e. not hand outs, but simple, clear and easy to access tax breaks for companies that actively align towards regeneration projects (key examples being the industrialised north of England, lower west of Scotland, rural Wales and NI).

1. Remove all tuition fees for university courses which supply graduates where there are long term skills shortages. Mathematics, sciences, technology and engineering.

1. Reduce the gap between those on benefits (and thus entitled to a variety of help) and the working poor. E.g. limit child benefit to 2 children, who must be resident in the UK. Increase childcare subsidies for in-work parents. Incentives for employers who offer quality on-site creche facilities for their employees.

I've came across a lot of posts on here about capping child benefit after 2 children, but the 3rd 4th and so on children don't ask to be born do they.What do you suggest happens to any subsequent children they be left to starve. Also what about multiple births

Iliveinalighthousewiththeghost I think it's running the thread off into a tangent but to answer your question, there are two reasons driving my suggestion. One is that the scaling of child benefit (fixed value per child) doesn't correctly reflect the costs of raising said children. The impact of raising your first child is disproportionally expensive vs. follow on children and the way child benefits currently work doesn't take this into account. Second, I would much rather provide incentives so that a larger number of lower income households are taken out of income tax entirely than provide non-means tested benefits which are simply linked to number of children in the household. I'm simply not convinced that the current welfare system works well for those in receipt of benefits or the working poor. Hence my suggestion; I can't speak on behalf of the others who have similar suggested limiting child benefit to 2 children who are resident in the UK. It's only my perspective.

What do you suggest happens to any subsequent children they be left to starve

I also don't think anyone proposing amending the benefits system has suggested children be left to starve

Londonrach, I don't think nurses have the time to do all of the NHS managers work. I also don't think they'd want to spend a huge chunk of time on admin rather than care.

Restrictions on multiple home ownership could be good.

Restricting football wages in the UK would just mean the footballers would all go abroad and the club game in the UK would die - actually I wouldn't mind that one!

I'm with you again lighthousewithghost, capping the benefit to two children might stop some people having big families but others will do it anyway and their children will live in poverty.

1. Make unpaid "internships" illegal. Pay honest wages for honest work. Work experience to be limited to 2 weeks per person per company per year, ages 15-25 only. Everything else is at minimum wage. Volunteering for a registered charity or not for profit excluded.

1. Raise NMW to a living wage and include a London weighting.

1. Reverse the majority of legal aid cuts and allow proper access to justice. At the same time I would sack The Lord Chancellor and Attorney General and appoint lawyers of seniority and repute.

1. Abolish religion from the education system. Make it completely secular. No faith schools, no "acts of worship", no brainwashing in the state sector. If you want your kids to have a religious education you do it in your own time at your own expense.

1. Abolish the monarchy. The other 4 I would do on day 1 - this I would do on day 1 but to take effect at the moment of the queen's death. Have a Head of State in the same largely figurative role with the same residual powers of the queen, elected, 5 year term, maximum of two terms.

Too much to think about but the first thing that springs to mind, is laws to stop rouge Land Lords, renting out hovels to rolling Lodgers, ( ie usually new people each week) that are vile.

I do not believe people should make money from renting out hovels.
There should be basic standards that are met, and if not met, cannot rent out...and punitive measures.

Then there should be swifter laws to deal with nuisance neighbors, nuisance as in constantly causing noise/anti social issues.

Its not fair people's homes are invaded by other peoples noise/smoke and so on. We all have parties we all have BBQ's, we all make noise, every now and then, thats every few months not nearly every night in the week.

Oh and I think bonfires in built up places should also be banned.

1. Make child care tax deductable.
2. Make all state schools completely secular
3. Remove all funding for Faith Schools
4. Make CB threshold per household so two £40k earners will not be eligable but increase the threshold for single income households to £50k.
5. join the government up so all the government dept. talk to each other.

This thread made me more angry than I was expecting. There's a lot of judgement I don't agree with. Especially those about university funding for 'real' subjects. Free education = great but who are we to say what is worthwhile and what isn't? I bet the majority here have spent longer watching TV this week than they have with a solicitor or engineer. You might need a doctor in an emergency, but they aren't making eastenders or Harry Potter or game of thrones - whatever you might enjoy! Why shouldn't people with that passion be taught? Or pay double for the privilege?

And what subjects help humanity and what doesn't? Enriching the mind and soul are just as important to many people. I don't understand most of the stuff in the Tate but many do appreciate it and it brings tourism from all over the world - that's economically beneficial too.

Before anyone starts, I'm not an arts student!

(Was longer thank expected but feel a bit disappointed that people can't see the benefit of anything other than STEM health courses)

In terms of my 5:

1. Free education for all - it's a right, not a privilege
2. Increase the minimum tax limit to £15k to take the lowest paid out of tax
3. Increase investment in green energies - wind, solar, tidal, micro gen - it all needs investing in terms of time and money
4. Compulsory sex and relationship education in schools from year 6
5. Voting from 16 - if they can join the army they should be able to vote for the party that sends them to war.