If it was up to you, which laws would you change, or at least get a debate going on?

[DNR]

Loved the why do you obey laws thread so...

Absent parents should be put in jail.

Tougher laws for fly tipping and littering in general.
It's disgusting, ugly and a health hazard ...

Tougher laws on pet ownership. To many people get away with serious neglect and even if caught, they can just acquire the next pet a few days later.

It’s always seemed weird to me that you can have sex at 16/join the army/get married with parental permission but the age to vote/drink is 18 and randomly driving is restricted until 17. I feel like these things should all be lined up together.

I would tighten up massively environmental protection. Don't know what, I would leave that to climate change experts.
Jail for absent parents who didn't pay child support.
Make hitting children illegal.
Enforce existing laws.
Crack down/close loopholes on tax evasion/avoidance by big companies, follow new EU rules on this.

I would stop the building of homes that retail over 250k in the greater London area, and 100k outside London.

I would make childcare for work purposes properly tax deductible. It has always seemed mad to me that I can include 'use of a room at home as an office' as an allowable expense, but I can't include the most essential item.

Nmw to apply to all equally, if you're paying tax and an adult, people need to be treated equally.

Tighten up employment law around maternity discrimination, extend protection to male employees more pragmatically e.g. around the right to take paternity leave, so more men take it up (these need to go alongside a general culture shift but law and finance underpin the existing issues).

Driving laws when doing something that harms another, more severe.

Laws on environmental issues reduced e.g. make it difficult for people to be prosecuted for dumpster diving unless damage caused etc.

Vastly increase punishment for a range of hurt crimes e.g. sexual assault crimes, animal harm crimes.

Make more people accountable for manslaughter charges when they have a duty of care e.g. company directors whose employees die on the job but don't have safety equipment or there's a proven culture of cutting safety to meet deadlines.

I will probably get flamed for this and I have no idea how they could possibly enforce it but make career breeders or people who refuse to get jobs on benefits to do things for the community to 'earn' their dole money. For instance volunteering, helping the elderly, litter picking etc.
To be very clear, I have absolutely no issue with people on benefits if they genuinely need them be it due to illness, disability, emergency, carer for others, in a job that doesn't pay a living wage etc, but what does wind me up is people who have never worked, have no intention of ever working or contributing to society and just have more and more children to get the bigger houses and get more money.

Just another lurker go ahead and educate us then or just jog on

I'd like an emoji with its tongue stuck out and wiggling its ears. Designed just for pompous you

Agree with a few here -

100% believe cannabis should be legalised.

I also think that there should be stricter laws on where you can smoke at all though.
They did well when banning pubs/bus shelters etc, but I'd like to see it stretched so that you can't smoke through really busy areas/town centres. I always seem to get caught in people's clouds of smoke when I'm with my toddler

I agree with the PP about how benefits should be tightened. Completely supportive of them as well for anyone who does need them, including parents that use them because they wouldn't be able to afford childcare while they work etc, but there's so many people who just have zero intention of working whatsoever.

I'd make the consequences for domestic violence/harassment and rape a lot worse and stricter. I feel the justice system lets victims down a lot.

I think there should be more severe charges for people who lie about crimes/rape.

I'd like to see single/ resident parents financial security protected and absent parents who avoid paying or manipulate the system be fined significant amounts of money and for society to judge them rather than just turning a blind eye.

If a mum of young DC has a new partner she has to take his income into account for any benefit calculations, he enters into the relationship possibly not realising the financial commitment. So many threads of women finding themselves in real hardship for trying to create a two adult household. A two adult household with stability gives greater chances for both adults to work and share responsibilities longer term. It shouldn't have to mean sacrificing the children's security.

Man walks out on DC moves in with another adult. Two income no kids household. Other persons income is not considered relevant. The fact the man has children should be seen by society as a prior obligation like tax obligations and any other adult entering into that situation where children are already in existence should also be included in the financial commitment.

Either both parents partners or neither! By making it the resident parents (let's face it very high percentage women) it puts women at a significant financial disadvantage.

Stricter animal abuse laws/punishments and more laws regarding humane/quick/painfree deaths in slaughterhouses and tighter laws on animal testing.

Would also love to see them clamp down on littering more and strengthen other environmental protection laws.

I think there also needs to be laws on capping rent as the price of renting is obscene for so many people. Agree with a PP who mentioned about 100% mortgages for those that have paid rent on time, continuously and successfully for X no of years.

Oh, and I also agree with laws around flexible working, accommodating mothers with children etc.

This year has been a hard one for me - I was 'let go' from a job I loved and worked really hard for because I was single handedly trying to deal with DS being ill regularly with chest infections. I was late a few times but never absent, always worked overtime if they needed me & in one instance even stayed in work while he was in hospital as I was so concerned about being sacked.
Plus, job searching after that proved to be extremely difficult with hours not matching childcare hours etc etc.

@ParkheadParadise (great username btw, hail hail) agree on not proven verdict. It really needs to go.

I would switch over subsidising flights to trains. Why is it cheaper for us to fly to Paris than get a train? So wrong.
I would lock porn down so it was very hard to access and only available to 21 plus.
I would make misogyny a hate crime and get very tough on street harassment
I would ban cars from city centres
I have loads I didn’t realise I was so bossy!

I would like a Good Samaritan law. I'm obligated to help in a medical emergency but if in the course of that I say, break a rib during CPR, I could be sued. It's not ever been upheld in the UK but still safety would be nice.

Legalise drugs. Tighter controls on it and make some money for the health services treating addicts.

Stronger punishment for neglect of children.

Living wage / universal income

Cross party ring fencing of health monies

@ParkheadParadise (great username btw, hail hail)

No other name comes close DrScaryAlone😂😂
HH

Animal welfare. Huge overhaul as to what counts as cruelty or neglect, with long custodial sentences, fines and life time bans. Everything from buying a dog when you haven't got a clue to tiny cruel cages at pets at home, not to mention malicious cruelty.

Ban factory farming, reform welfare and ban live exports. Bring back local slaughter houses with mandatory use.

Bring back the death penalty. And sentences to reflect the harm done to others. So eg somebody that destroys someone's life with a petty break in or mugging doesn't receive a lesser sentence than someone that steals via hacking from a large company.

Massive tax reformation. Basically I'd make everyone liable for a minimum amount of tax and national Insurance from 18 until death. With the amount increasing based on income, assets and savings. The responsibility of proving you can't pay it/ aren't liable lying with the individual. Whether that be someone on a low income ticking the relative box, or big companies having to jump through impossible hoops to try and prove their turnover wasn't indicative of profits. The poorest shouldn't be paying a greater % of their income on tax, and in any demographic, everyone with the same income/ assets should pay the same amount as each other.

Increase child maintenance, failure to pay to be treated as a crime and bailiffs sent in to recoup late/ absent payments.

There aren’t many I’d change but I’d massively improve enforcement and sentencing.

Prison should be for violent offenders, and for certain crimes they should be getting mandatory ACTUAL life sentences - csa, rape, murder those convicted should NEVER be released. I’d include as violent offenders those who view images of child abuse (as indirectly perpetrating violence) and drivers who kill due to their irresponsible driving (drunk/drugged drivers, pissing about on phone, reckless drivers, greatly excessive speeders, those who carry on driving when they KNOW they shouldn’t like the glasgow bin truck driver that killed pedestrians 5 years ago)

The argument against this is usually “prisons are too full” well to make room for these and other violent offenders I would put low level drug offenders (not dealers) into good rehab programmes rather than prison, and white collar offenders on tags/house arrest AND take all the money they’ve stolen off them and ban them from web access and being company directors etc for life.

I’d make not paying cm a CRIMINAL not a civil offence, with criminal penalties up to and inc tagging/house arrest and change the calculations to a more realistic amount. I’d also make it a matter of public record who the deadbeat nrps are.

As a veggie yes I’d want animal welfare massively improved, I think forcing vegetarianism on the country wouldn’t work but we really should do the very best we can for animal welfare.

Introduce an actual living wage, without the age banding. It’s ridiculous that a 20 year old and a 25 year old can be doing EXACTLY the same job, making their employer the same amount of money yet the 20 year old gets nearly £100 a week less in a full time job! It’s ageist bollocks!

I’d ban discrimination by landlords/letting agencies/mortgage companies against tenants in receipt of benefits

Although actually I think a universal basic income might be a better way to go.

ParkheadParadise, we’ve “spoken” on a few occasions and I have the greatest sympathy for the hell you and your family have been through, but I’m afraid I think abolishing the not proven verdict would more than likely result in more not guilty’s than more guilty verdicts. How would you have felt if the person who killed your daughter got a not guilty verdict? wouldn’t that have been worse than not proven? And my understanding is that while it’s not officially the case, an accused person who gets a not proven verdict if they’re accused again of a similar crime it generally works against them?

Of course ideally he should have been found guilty, I think there are huge issues with people serving on juries being prejudiced in many ways.

Agree with banning cars from city centres. Would also ban parking on pavements and bus routes.
No smoking in public places (including the street).
Would not require cyclists to wear helmets (countries with high levels of cycling like Denmark and The Netherlands manage just fine without such a law).
Anyone who commits any form of antisocial behaviour should not expect human rights legislation to apply to them.

Making men ( and women) pay towards their children’s upkeep after a relationship has ended. I know it sort of is the law but time and again these ex-partners are able to wriggle out of this arrangement.
Dangerous driving ( often ignored)
Dangerous cycling ( usually ignored)
Tax laws need an overhaul ( my lowly paid daughter has just been stung for a three figure sum as the payroll staff submitted incorrect figures but it’s clearly ‘her’ fault!!!)
I’d also like to see parents, whose children clearly have severe SEN , but who refuse any support , advice or interventions , brought to account.

I'd make much tougher laws on child maintenance, deduction of earnings or benefits if they don't pay, and make it more realistic.
I'd also make people more responsible for their own alcohol consumption and any behaviour resulting from this. And in addition, if you're caught buying your trashed mate a drink because he's been refused service you should face the same concequences as the bar staff would for serving someone who's drunk.
Tougher driving sentences and if convicted of life, then that's what it is, inside for life.
An assisted suicide/euthanasia law because I've watched too many people die slowly and painfully.

Tighten up on sentencing for existing crimes first would be my focus.

No more upper/middle class kids getting let off of a jail sentence because ‘they wouldn’t cope in jail’.

No more female paedophiles let off with gentle sentences.

If a person is caught in possession of photos of abuse, they should be treated as an accessory to that crime and a danger to society - not given a fine and community sodding service.

Remove GDP as the sole focus of western economics.

Decriminalise drugs, the smugglers and 'king pins' are never caught, it causes misery and is also the cause of most crime.

Once decriminalised it addiction can be treated as a social problem, and doctors would be able to prescribe heroin, not just methadone.

Abortion on demand.

All NHS managers / senior staff would have to spend one week a year working as a health care assistant.

Child maintenance would be paid by the government to NRP, a minimum amount like a pension plus additions based on need and NRP's circumstances. The amount would keep the child in the same level of comfort as they were before the parents split. So if the child was in a private school the maintenance would include an element to pay for that, the same for any hobbies.

The amount would then be recouped from the NRP in the same way as a student loan is, and attract interest the same way. No adjustment for further children, and unlike student loans no write off.