If you were the PM what would you do to fix the mess we are in?

[HoppingKangaroo]

Just that really, if you were the prime minister what would you do to help fix the country and the cost of living crisis.

Look at proper subsidies to encourage people to fit solar power.

Currently there is absolutely no incentive to fit them as a landlord - and like them or lump them this country has a lot of landlords. It's very difficult to get them in a council house, so the poorest in the country are likely to be the most likely to be relying on the grid. Even the incentives for home owners are poor.

Getting people to fit solar panels would reduce reliance on solar panels. If you also fitted batteries at a subsidy you could do so using a contract that in winter ensured they were filled from the grid at off-peak and the power was then used at peak, so the pressure on the grid was lower.

Or, you know, we could just stand around bitching about how awful it is to be forced to look at wind turbines and solar farms whilst the country burns.

@EtnaVesuvius I agree, I said that in my earlier post.

Reduce reliance on the grid even. Proof read that twice and still missed it!

I get what you are saying but would it not be better to have more people contributing to tax revenue because they earn a decent living wage. Once you earn over just under £100k you start to lose your personal tax allowance as it is. By around 108k its gone completely ( Figures may not be exact but it there or there abouts. Adding on a further 5% seems disproportionally harsh. We need to think of creative ways of getting a reasonable amount of tax revenue from the wealthy. I don't earn £100k, so this is not aimed at protecting my pay packet.

Put an energy cap on businesses. We are going to see an unprecedented number of businesses closing unless this happens

It's nothing to do with guilt or innocence. It's just the drain on society of looking after the elderly, or paying to sustain an unproductive (retired) member of society means there should be a cap on age. I think the Eskimos were onto something with this.

From a purely economic standpoint, this would be an amazingly effective policy.

But you're paying to sustain unproductive and mainly dangerous members of the public in prisons. Why the elderly and not prisoners?

@absolutelyanythingwilldo but where do you draw the line, my parents pensions are considerably more than minimum wage and they spend that money back into the economy. Where do you draw the line with prisoners does someone doing 6 months for a bar fight that will come back out and continue as a say plumber on 60k get the same death sentence as a murderer.

Prisoners can work while incarcerated. Plus there's the whole maybe they're innocent thing. Happens more than we like to admit apparently.

The 70 age limit is fair and applies to everyone.

I'm not suggesting that we execute prisoners, I just couldn't understand why absolutelyanythingwilldo just pensioners instead of prisoners. The prisoner would have been the obvious choice. Do you really want to live in a society where execution is compulsory beyond a certain age?

No, this is purely based on a universal age limit.

Spending money is not what drives an economy, it's productivity. Money is just an exchange of value. If the money was not paid out in the form of a pension, what would it be used for instead? It's not just sitting in an account somewhere, it will be invested back into the economy.

Because it's not a punishment. It's a fixed life span. Apart from the massive economic advantages, a fixed lifespan benefits people in so many ways. People can plan their lives with more certainty, many long illnesses will be avoided completely along with the cost to the NHS and the relatives around them. Pensions would be optional and people would save less into them as annuities would be much better.

Labour's 2019 manifesto was very precient. Had all the things people are screaming for now such as nationalising energy, water and rail companies and decent broadband for all. Corbyn was actually right 😭

www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/12981_19-Easy-Read-manifesto.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjSlOKQh-35AhWrS0EAHSGOCkUQFnoECAwQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1mpUCkVlPhT2oYtLv1utSz

@GreenLunchBox well, not everything we're screaming for. I see nothing in there about culling the elderly. 🤔

renationalisation of the energy companies (and probably more tbh).
Windfall taxes on corporations
Higher taxers for rich people
Universal basic income
Rejoin the EU
Remove charitable status of private schools
Reform childcare, treat it as infrastructure and maybe free for all.

Huge investment in the NHS

Probably lots more too.

I think government should close the tax loopholes as that would generate more money for the economy.

Child maintenance should be taken at source from absent parents similar to the American system.

Plastic surgery for purely cosmetic reasons shouldn't be done on the NHS. If you want it then that's fine as long as you pay for it

I'd change the child benefit rules to include joint income as well as single income households at over £70k +.

Extremely rich pensioners don't need free prescriptions, travel & TV licence, these things can be means tested.

Again as I've said before, anti vaxxers & people with unhealthy lifestyles & habits need to take out private health insurance to offset the cost of treatment.

I'd look at disability welfare and see how it can be overhauled to support the most I'll and vulnerable in society. The current PI0 system is cruel and horrific.

70k being the cut off point for child benefit

Stop being weird 😂

Plastic surgery for purely cosmetic reasons shouldn't be done on the NHS. If you want it then that's fine as long as you pay for it

I've never heard of anyone getting this on the NHS

I've heard of a few people who have had boob jobs on the NHS citing mental health issues if not done. How genuine it is I don't know but I'm sure se people would cheat the system if they could.

I think reconstructive breast surgery on the NHS is available after a mastectomy, and that is as it should be, in my view.

If you've fallen for this nonsense I've a bridge I could sell you.

The increase in costs in the NHS is primarily to do with people living longer and us having more available treatments. It is accept earlier death or fund the NHS properly. I quite like being alive, I like my parents being alive, so I think we should have a try at funding the NHS at a level commensurate with other European countries before we opt for the euthanasia/dying in the streets route.

I agree that NHS funding needs upping but where that money goes also needs reviewing. There is also no point whatsoever in doing this unless you look at how social care is funded and how we care for people in care homes when they become ill. Winter bed pressures are partly driven by a high number of frail, elderly people who are living in care homes. Some things are unavoidable admissions-for example, no one would seriously suggest a hip fracture should be dealt with in the community-but so many things could be done in the care home especially if it is already nursing.

I already said upthread about satellite services-community IV teams, GP led early sepsis intervention, etc. This would save so much money for ambulances and NHS beds. An average NHS bed costs £2800 per week. A LA funded nursing bed around £800.

I would also split accident and emergency and have an ambulance triage unit, rather than ambulances joining the main hospital in flow. People in ambulances have already been assessed by a HCP as needing hospital care-they don't need to be triaged again. Some hospitals do something similar to this with trauma units which bypass A and E up to a ward. I think we should have this for medical too. Someone who has had a myocardial infarction will need a hospital bed. They don't need to be sat in A and E for 6 hours waiting for one.

Would also more clearly define a majors and minors in A and E-some minors could be given appointments to come back.

I could go on and on, but in short, a complete reform focusing on efficiency hand in hand with investment in patient facing staff.

I think the French have it right on this but not sure a pool tax would be so lucrative in our climate. Real luxuries should be taxed more:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-62717599

All of this.

Although I bet you could do it without more investment just by diverting funds from elsewhere in the NHS.