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. Increase minimum wage to a living wage.
2. 90% percent on the super rich
3. Abolish private schooling
4. Free university
5. Close tax dodging loop holes so wealthy people cannot store money abroad etc.

5
well I would
1 stop making the most vulnerable = disabled people, paying for stuff. so they would be 100% protected
2 stop talking about "families" and start helping hard working people. not just people who have a family.
3 help young people to get jobs, I would fund that using the money made by tuition fees
4 abolish the bedroom "tax" and build more social housing, no more affordable housing that no one on min wage can afford.

1. I would not abolish tuition fee's except if you are learning a trade.
2. child benefit would only be paid up till 19 if child is in full time education and only ever paid to the person caring for said child .

I would also stop church/private, any school apart from SN school claiming charity status, Hate crimes of any type would be actually taken seriously.

My 5, totally based on things which have pissed me off recently.

1. grant all tenants longer term rights to inhabit their homes so they don't have to risk eviction for requesting repairs,on the whim of a landlord without any justification whatsoever.
2. retrain all staff working for income support and student loans company so that they each understand their own rules.
3. introduce free bus passes for anyone in full time education.
4. student loan amnesty for anyone working in the public sector for 10 years or more.
5. enforce current laws regarding serving drunk people more alcohol.

Have a realistic view of cars and travel.

Accept the fact that people commute both for work, shopping and pleasure.

Improve station parking and provide train and bus park and rides for all cities.

Ban councils from charging for parking in small market towns. It's killing our high streets and making the roads in dangerous as people park anywhere free.

Improve rural transport where it's possible and massively improve school buses.

Hugely improve FE level 2 education. Not every child who doesn't get a C in English wants to do social care or car mechanics

Sort out maternity pay/flexible working etc so no child has to go to nursery before a year old and no child under 6 has two FT working parents.

I don't live in the UK anymore but things I would suggest (things my family moan about) would be:

• Invest in upgrading public transportation (trains being a big one) and make private rail firms reduce/cap ticket prices in return for government investing in the railway infrastructure.
• Heavy discounts for installing Solar power panels on buildings. I know that might sound funny given that the UK isn't the sunniest spot in the world but even grey gloomy light produces solar energy. I live in Seattle and there has been a large push to increase adoption of solar panels on commercial and residential buildings. (Ironically Seattle is the number #4 highest city for melanoma cancers in the US - even the gloomy light will get you!)
• Ban fracking. Trust me, everything I read about the issues it causes here in the US scares the living crap out of me.

Rather then 5 specific changes, huge changes in 5 areas....

Radicalise education and make it more creative generally. Also school play orientated and open to flexi schooling up to 7 years. Lots of forest schooling, excersise and creativity. Also making tuition free for uni students yet charge over seas students appropriately.

Health push involving radicalising food in hospitals, schools, prisons etc so that it was all properly healthy and nutritious and nothing like the rubbish served at the moment. Also making entry to council leisure centres extremely cheap. Then taxing fags, booze, sweets, cake, crisps, pastry covered items so that they were double or triple the price.

The vulnerable - ensuring carers and the vulnerable were properly supported, trained and appreciated. Making the minimum pay per hour 10 for a care related job.

Environment. Set up cycle paths everywhere to promote a greener way of getting about. Enable more working from home to cut back on car use. Make public travel cheaper. Increase the cost of petrol and make environmental cars much cheaper/cheaper to run. Encourage sharing

Politics. Pay politicians by the hour, reducing entitlement to expenses. Make things more transparent - so laws aren't sneaked through and the public have more say.

1. Raise the age of starting school to six. We now have children who have just turned 4, barely out of toddlerhood in school . Children in Europe start school older and do just as well or better.

1. Re-nationalise water, gas, electric and trains. Example of why: water companies are committed to re-newing miles and miles of pipes each year. However, say a pipe needs an urgent repair, Ofwat rules demand repair is completed within X time. Penalty for failure to comply is massive. The result is the water company does a temporary repair instead of taking time to do a full repair. DH used to work for a water company until 3 years ago so I know it goes on.

1. Be picky about immigration like Australia

1. Drivers should be re-tested every 5 years from the age of 70. Nobody would driver after the age of 85.

1. Pay day loan companies banned.

If I could have extras. Re-introduce pub opening hours. Booze would only be sold in off licences not in supermarkets.

Legalise cannabis for medical use.

This thread is great for adding posters on here to the 'people I wouldn't want to know IRL' spreadsheet.

PrimalLass

'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'

Very much agree with this. Including no celebration of religious festivals (Christmas, Eid, Diwali etc)

1. Close the legal loopholes that make it possible for corporate giants to avoid paying tax in this country
2. Reintroduce a supertax on very high earning (top 1%) individuals
3. Introduce a high purchase tax on 'mansions' (precise definition of a mansion to be confirmed) and a high tax on profits from property development of the property-ladder type
4. Build more and better social housing, while scrapping the bedroom tax and excessive estate agency admin fees
5. Raise the minimum wage to a living wage and have done with tax credits, workfare schemes and the like.

Mine would be more than a little controversial I'm afraid;

1. Introduce a steeply progressive inheritance tax up to 90% for unearned wealth of over, say, 2m to ensure merit is rewarded, as opposed to the good fortune of who you're born to

1. A huge public housebuilding programme to dramatically reduce house prices and rents

1. Phased abolition of Housing Benefit (once the supply of houses had facilitated a massive drop in house prices and rents) to ensure the taxpayer no longer subsidises price-gouging landlords

1. Phased increase of the minimum wage

1. Phased abolition of Income Support, Tax Credits etc as employers take on the burden of paying living wage, instead of the taxpayer subsidising big business

These five policies would go some way to delivering a fairer, more sustainable society that rewards hard work and ability, while eliminatng some of inequities that poison life in modern Britain. Tory and UKIP supporters would hate every sinelge one of them!

1. Change inheritance tax so that it's payable by the person receiving it (so you'd pay at your marginal rate on anything over say 40,000)

1. Introduce a flat tax with a personal allowance (whilst at the same time pressing on with the anti-avoidance legislation)

1. Ensure that ALL landlords are registered and regulated (possibly to the extent that speculators just wouldn't bother)

1. Pay those that choose to take themselves out of the public sector (private hospitals/schools) 50% of what it would have cost the State to provide the same service.

1. Limit defined benefit pension contributions for the public sector to whatever the national average wage is (they can have defined contribution thereafter).

1. Link (initial) out of work benefits to reflect your level of contribution in the 3 years prior to any claim.

1. Sanction NRPs that don't pay child support (remove driver's licences and passports) - also the same sanctions for RPs that obstruc access.

1. Properly regulated and standardised credit scores for everyone.

1. Complusory steak and BJs every Thursday.

10. Compulsory math lessons so that people can count properly.

That's it!

Right

1. have a price index or benchmark that takes into account the longer term environmental impact of things; and plan to get prices in ££s matching over an agreed period. (price of oil, veg including environmental impact, travel, clothing, etc)
2. Have a real proper working wage and make sure you illustrate how much less benefit will be needed to subsidise all the people who work full time but can't live. 3)Work internationally to make agreements so that countries don't need to relocate their headquarters elsewhere for tax breaks (it aint gonna work any other way). 4)Educate towards a country of responsible, intelligent and fully-rounded people who value 'success' in a more nuanced way than 'money' 5)War, sort it out.
3. Be a bit more 'pay it forward' with healthcare and trust that investing in improving education and lifestyle choices will pay dividends down the line.

Good luck to me with that then

Sorry......

11. CGT (at that aforementioned flat rate) to be paid on profits that arise from the sale of you principal private residence (adjusted for inflation and substantiated capital improvements)

1. out of europe for migration , tougher crieria. Job waiting, able to cover cost of nhs treatment
2. reduce benefits. Element of more money if you have paid in
3. no money for faith schools -> asisted places in private instead.
4. raise tax on junkfood/cigs/alcohol
5. raise wages/cap management pay and bonuses especially in inappropriate areas like banking 6 make absent fathers pay maintenance. 7 no extra money above 2 kids 8 abolish tv licence instead adverts 9 limit council housing to while you need it not permanent

10. Share tax allowance with partner so 1 working parent would have £20k
11. Schools provide after school care until 6pm
12. Free public transport. To reduce pollution 13 no supermarket deals on junk food. To make fruit and ceg comparitively cheaper 14 realistic uni fees. My course was not worth 9k/yr could have private education in class of 30 not 15 hrs with 200! 15 campaign and support to allow people to have kids younger 16 2 ivf per couple across country. But try to identify issues earlier so that is not needed 17 free sports centre activities especially for kids

Naty Yes Yes and Yes to:

6 (though I 'd prefer absent parents - rather than fathers)
9 (I've long argued for fixed term tennancies)
11
12

In fact, I was pretty much onboard until 15!?!?! How young is young?

YY to ridding the liscence fee.

1. I would get rid of all funded childcare places and use the money to discount places for anybody that wants or needs them, making it cheaper for working people and less of a barrier to work.

1. I would privatise the NHS. Controversial maybe but it really works with companies like one2one midwives, outsourcing care regardless of the area provides extra jobs and better care. It might not be standard "in hospital" care but it works.

1. I would make prison sentences harder for violent crimes and more community service / asset control for non violent crimes.

1. I would change the curriculum to teach actual life skills. Sex education and relationships from a younger age, Financial skills, Legal matters, Dealing with bills ect.

1. In all honesty, I'd get myself a nice new house. Nothing overly huge or fancy. Just nice.

Younger parents would be say 25, so not that young. If we could have bought a house younger, got jobs quicker out of uni we wouldnt have been nearly 30 ttc #1. Waiting lists are probably packed with people who have waited longer than they intended through circumstances.

Agree with your life skills definitely. Especially as the government are cutting citizens advice bureaux aid. NHS one is strange t me... When it becomes privatised share holders want profit so the bottom line is always cut leading t less training,pay rises and definitely less carers per resident. X

Link (initial) out of work benefits to reflect your level of contribution in the 3 years prior to any claim

Malice, I thought that was already more or less the case. I wasn't entitled to any support when I finished my PhD. Though I'd been working PT throughout (often FT hours) as a university teacher. That was probably less to do with the system than the shitty pay you get as a member of university 'affiliate' staff - it worked out at less than a pound an hour in the end, with all the prep that we didn't get paid for. I had worked full time before then, but not since the start of my PhD - almost exactly 3 years. My NI contributions in that period just weren't high enough and my DH earned more than 17 grand.

Corey I beleive you're correct; however, the link is fairly loose. I was thinking more along the lines of: 3 years paid in at 60k per annum, means 3 months benefit at 30k per annum (as an example).