What would you do if you were in charge?

[Workaholic94]

I am just asking on a totally lighthearted basis about people’s opinions of what they would if they were in charge of running the country? What rules and laws and taxes and things would be fair for everyone?

I am not starting this thread to start anything, I am just genuinely interested as I’ve been on annual leave this week and I’ve found myself thinking about it when I get “downtime”.. I know I have just made myself sound completely sad and pathetic 😅

More taxes
There is literally no other way to get the money needed for social care , health and education
I think we waste money on consumer shit we don’t need , and ruin the planet 🌎

A moderate more gender and race equal government

A deeper look at education and outcomes , learn from schools that succeed

Invest into education even further
We will all die anyway
Continue to teach kids about a more equal diverse society

Centralised NHS spending

Focussed investment into growth sectors and ease of doing business with the UK

Make everything online , we’ve managed it with the vaccine
It’s cheaper easier

No one would vote for me

Resign!

I'd make it a socialist republic. Tax the rich, universal basic income, increased funding for nhs social care and education, scrap trident, stop tax avoidance, public transport in the public sector. Stop people not registered in the UK buying property here, bring back council housing, rejoin the EU customs union and single market.

Ditch the monarchy, they can keep a castle each. Abolish heredity peers. Bring in proportional representation.

Bring in a dog license scheme that means if you get caught not picking up your dogs poo or hanging it in a bag on a hedge you lose your dog.

Define 'the rich' @wonderstuff

I would also add additional taxation which makes me massively unpopular but it's common sense.

I’d ban football, meat and fish eating, rape seed crops.

I’d fill our fields with vegetables.

Can’t see me lasting long.

More taxes in my dictatorship, too.

I'd cancel HS2. Immediately. Today.

I'd ban all online gambling.

I'd put up thousands more speed cameras.

I'd put a stop to businesses shirking their responsibilities to their employees, and force them to put zero-hours employees on proper contracts.

I'd introduce a national maximum wage. Anyone earning more than that would have to pay 75% tax on earnings above the maximum.

I'd put an end to buy-to-let mortgages.

@LadyGAgain everyone with more money than me?

Certainly I'd go for council taxes reflecting actual house values in the hope that would reduce house values in very expensive areas and raise taxes from the super wealthy. I'd tax luxury items like air travel heavily, incomes over 6 figures I'd definitely consider the rich.

I didn’t mention what I’d do, I would organise all taxes and set a minimum national wage for all, and I would set a working minimum wage which was 10-15% higher so if you are in employment it works out better to work but the families and people that can’t aren’t being left in poverty. The welfare portion would still need to pay some taxes and etc though.

I also think the health care system could be changed as well. It is not fit for purpose being free for use at all times. I think GP appointments should be paid, I think midwife appointments should be paid, I think dentist appointments should be paid but then any diagnosis & treatment be free. I think ambulances should be charged unless an emergency and I think A & E as well if it’s not an emergency.

I think PP’s are right large businesses and individuals who earn of a maximum which would be set have a higher tax charge. I also think NI should be changed to be some kind of Voluntary health care plan. NI is supposed to be for sickness, maternity leave etc. I think there should be a health care plan and income protection in case of serious health where you are unable to work and maternity leave and sick day & eventual maternity leave.

I also think schools need a huge looking into. The classes they teach are so dated and some frankly are pointless. I think schools should start from 3 and you spend primary learning the basics. I think high school should be done by 16 but all the things you learn are tailored to be. I think it should be 3 days a week science, maths and English etc. Then a Thursday and a Friday should be processing how to be an adult & life skills. There should be cooking (not baking cakes like what I did 🙄) and finances like budgeting, basic IT Skills should come under these day. There should also be life skills like first aid and other life lessons.

What I meant by the wage increase and minimum national wage is that anyone over 16 is entitled to this amount each month and that could be built up by either full salary, salary and welfare assistance or welfare assistance. The money would be enough to live but there would also need to be a rule around they pay their taxes like everyone else.

I think the council tax needs to continue to paying for local services only and that should be removed from the income tax guidance.

I also think there needs to be more suitable council housing rather than what is being built now. I think bungalows and maisonettes are good for families and households who cannot maintains gardens. I say this as someone who works for a HA.. we built far too many 3/4 bedrooms when we need more 1-2 bungalows and maisonettes so individuals can live independently and not affecting or being affected by other household benefits etc.

I think road tax should pay for the highway and everything included in transport to be honest.

I'd start at the bottom and work up.

I would not get distracted by the many noisy voices from the top bit of Maslow's pyramid. That's what's going wrong now.

I would surround myself with clever people who could work out the best policies to achieve these aims. I would keep my eye on the ball and be ready to squash any self-serving BS from these clever people.

To require planning permission to change land registry boundaries.

I am currently looking for a house and the number which people have made unsaleable are incredible. Selling off parking to a neighbour, selling off their garden/ side access/ garage etc.

People building houses inbetween and behind houses - Its a quick buck for the council, another set of council tax. In the long run the whole area becomes degraded and all the good shops/ amenities/ businesses leave because no one can find a suitable house to live in.

@LemonSwan, yes that is something which I cannot stand. We are currently looking to move too and every house has been affected sale wise by some decision a previous owner has made.

I loved a house but the seller was splitting the land and advertising it both as two
Separate purchases. They had only bought it in October 2019 but they wanted an extra £130000 in total for selling the land.

I didn’t know this when I originally saw the advert so I rang the EA and they said the garden is being split down the middle and sold separately. I declined going to view then & next thing they rang to say they were selling it all together now but still for the same price so it was like £450000 altogether

I’d raise taxes for everyone so that we can have better health services, education and social care. Also giving a wage rise to those public sector workers.

I’d make it much harder to avoid work so less benefits for those able to work but choosing not to. I’d create jobs more jobs in the community so that there are jobs for people to do, especially in areas of high unemployment, and would expect people to do these jobs if they can’t find employment by themselves. No benefits for those refusing. These jobs would be paid the living wage.

I’d raise benefits for those genuinely unable to work, such as those with disabilities or long term Illnesses so they have a decent amount to live on.

Would love to know if anyone was in charge and they raised taxes. What would you do if raising taxes actually raised less money?

Make alcohol illegal. Higher taxes. Stricter pet laws.

Education - free nursery until the age of 6
6-11 a primary curriculum based around basics and play with some discrete subjects being introduced in the later years
11-18 a much reduced compulsory curriculum and more flexible optional curriculum in which schools are not penalised for providing the best education for each individual
18-21+ far fewer university places needed/required but with career-based academic progress open to others - this would require HE colleges to offer a completely different and more diverse prospectus and hopefully their clientele would be more diverse too.

@EscapeDragon

I'd cancel HS2. Immediately. Today.

I'd ban all online gambling.

I'd put up thousands more speed cameras.

I'd put a stop to businesses shirking their responsibilities to their employees, and force them to put zero-hours employees on proper contracts.

I'd introduce a national maximum wage. Anyone earning more than that would have to pay 75% tax on earnings above the maximum.

I'd put an end to buy-to-let mortgages.

This, pretty much.

Oh Lord, so many things.

Increase the rates at which gov't subsidises/pays for childcare places, and widen its availability.

Free university education for degrees/vocational training in teaching, early years, nursing, medicine, social care, with higher starting salaries in each.

Take the wind out of the sails of the housing market with much tighter regulation and a widespread nationalised house-building programme.

A nuanced and fit for purpose immigration policy that actively welcomed people from anywhere in the world to do the jobs that we have acute shortages of here.

Yes, taxes would be higher. Soz.

Boris? Is this you phishing for ideas?

Ban the awful divisive identity politics that seem to be running wild in our universities.

Stop all this 'taking the knee' blx.

Longer sentences for violent criminals.

Stand up to cancel culture and sack those which seek to sack others for exercising free thought/speech.

Properly, and I do mean properly, investigate and rigorously prosecute the muslim rape and torture gangs that are still preying on vulnerable white girls up and down the land.

Cut taxes.

Dismantle the NHS and replace it with a European style - insurance based model that actually delivers.

End the licence fee and force the BBC to compete with Netflix, Amazon etc.

Charge Jeremy Corbyn and John Mao Donnell with treason/aiding and abetting terrorists or something, for their past IRA support.

Then big street parties everywhere in honour of Brexit.

My fourteen day plan:

Day 1: Legalise guns. Kick Scotland and Wales out of the UK.
Day 2: Introduce legislation to limit who is allowed access to guns.
Day 3: Legalise cannabis, to be taxed and sold in the same way alcohol is. Invade Scotland and Wales and force them back into the UK, but without rights. Continue the "not really getting involved" policy on Northern Ireland, it's too much of a headache.
Day 4: Bring back the death penalty, for murderers and rapists.
Day 5: Make the death penalty be carried out in public, and on television. Ban shit like "The Drag Race" and "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" from television, and wipe the tapes.
Day 6: Extend the death penalty for anyone who commits a third criminal offence, with the caveat that offences can't all be tried at once (i.e. you have to be convicted of the first offence before the second is committed for the second to count).
Day 7: Start stockpiling nuclear weapons. Legalise euthanasia and create "suicide booths" in the same way we have passport photo booths, eg at supermarkets.
Day 8: Not allowed to share this one, sorry you'll have to wait until I'm in power to find out.
Day 9: Confiscate the assets of the criminals defined on Day 8, and place them on a bunch of "prison ships" left to float around in the north Atlantic until they die of natural causes, eg starvation.
Day 10: Promise free and fair elections no later than 2081.
Day 11: Clear all the people out of a large city like Birmingham so it can be used as the set for a kind of Hunger Games/Battle Royale/Purge style reality show.
Day 12: Get rid of daylight saving. Just get up an hour earlier or later if your job means you need that.
Day 13: Free ice cream day.
Day 14 onwards: Conduct an extreme Labour tax policy coupled with an extreme Tory spending policy, lining my own pockets so I can escape to a remote island in the Pacific when the US declares us a rogue state.

"Sensible policies for a happier Britain" as the Prince Regent said in Blackadder the Third.

@Thisisworsethananticpated

More taxes There is literally no other way to get the money needed for social care , health and education I think we waste money on consumer shit we don’t need , and ruin the planet 🌎

A moderate more gender and race equal government

A deeper look at education and outcomes , learn from schools that succeed

Invest into education even further
We will all die anyway
Continue to teach kids about a more equal diverse society

Centralised NHS spending

Focussed investment into growth sectors and ease of doing business with the UK

Make everything online , we’ve managed it with the vaccine
It’s cheaper easier

I would!