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.

Suspend foreign aid.
Any immigrant boats caught crossing the channel returned to France and the boats destroyed.
Stop paying France for border control. They are not doing the job properly.
Return all immigrants currently in hotels to France. They can apply for asylum properly from France. This then frees up rooms and funding for Ukrainian refugees.

Stop paying the EU the "divorce bill". We've paid enough.

Let the energy companies pay the "green levy" and other charges rather than the customers. They are making billions in profits. They need to pay for infrastructure, research & development themselves. The companies should have to pay the customer "help" costs. Currently they are being subsidised by the tax payer!
The energy cost rises should be capped at 3%, as has been done in France.
Reduce fuel duty & VAT on all fuel.

MPs are public servants. They should get the same pay rises/freezes as other public sector workers. Their expenses need a HUGE overhaul. They should not be allowed to claim for their fuel bills.
MPs should have to spend a few months a year living on minimum wage. Remind them what normal people survive on. Take them out of the "Westminster bubble".

Care workers should have better pay & working conditions. Care for the elderly is extortionately expensive but the people actually doing the job are not well paid.

Ditto nursery workers.

Genuine disabled people deserve more. More money, more care, more help if they want it. So they can live a life, not just exist.

Invest in alternative power and water sources.
Make sure that any company has to invest in fixing its infrastructure, pipes, cables etc. before any profit is paid out in bonuses and to shareholders.

I like this idea.

Personally I wouldn't do what they keep shouting about and cut taxes. It doesn't benefit those who need the support. Especially those who are disabled and require energy run medical equipment but can't work so don't ph tax.

I also think we should re nationalise energy. Also water and transport and invest more in education.

Can we send Braverman with her 🤣🤣

As long as she can find a nice niche cake shop she can photograph herself at to out in FB I'm not sure she cares where she is tbh.

I completely agree with paying care workers more. But to do this care home fees paid by the LA would have to increase substantially. LA rates are very poor and well staffed homes are often on break even until the last couple of beds are full.

Good care is expensive.

Raise the limit for paying tax to at least £15k income or to the level of full time minimum wage.
Allow non earning / non tax paying spouses to transfer their whole tax free allowance to their spouse, instead of just £1250 of it.

Those two things would massively help low income familes.

Invest in the police and stop this focus on inclusiveness and diversity and start policing the smaller stuff again.

A few million isn’t going to run and maintain our network
who would invest in a company with little or no dividends they need investment
a lot of the uk pension or funded off the back of investment these companies

Where to start with this la la land nonsense.

Forgot this one.
If you work, regardless of how little you earn, you should get National Insurance credits towards your state pension.
It's all very well touting "raising the limit so people pay less". If it reduces the entitlement to state pension, it's not fair.

Renationalise the utilities.
Proportional representation.
Universal basic income for all.
(Ideally gathered from the funds of the billionaires who have made a fortune on the back of excexssive greed.)
Beg, on bended knee if necessary , for Europe to have us back.
Codify our constitution.

Put an extra tax on people who received furlough during lockdowns from the govt

Strongly discourage people from having more children

Get rid of maternity and paternity leave

Reverse Brexit

Slowly phase out paid sick leave from public sector jobs

Means test benefits such as the old age pension

Windfall taxes on those record profits. Renationalise utilities and rail. Scottish Power have paid billions in dividends the last few years. Spanish owned. Look at what Spain are currently doing. Childcare needs funding properly and social care.

People spouting the schoolchild line "re-nationalise the energy companies!" to reduce bills, can you explain what you mean? The energy suppliers generally do not produce oil/gas. Nothing can take away from very high price of gas at the moment.

If you mean nationalising firms like Shell etc it is impossible and the price of gas would still be at record highs.

There already is a lower earnings limit where you still get NI credits, it’s £123 a week, so if you work more than about 12 hours, you get them.

Once all these utility companies get privatised, how would you deal with their staff who would probably be on strike?

This

The Tories will lose the next election if they don’t do more to help people who simply cannot afford the increase in their bills.

1. Address the energy issue. Impose one charge for all energy kinds of supply, so for DD, billed quarterly, prepayment meter, industry. All to pay the lowest tariff the supplier can offer and the same price and taxes.

Start urgent proper negotiations with fuel producers, which I believe have already made some noise about spreading payments. I would put pressure on for them to reduce their margins in these times of crisis. Check the possibility of reducing the price to the minimum with the energy companies and scrap middle parts wherever possible, so deal direct with the producers or as close as possible. Waste to energy plants to work at full capacity and get more wherever possible. More green energy, wind turbines, solar panels, wave power, usage of heat pumps, hydrogen power, the lot. I would form a panel of experts in these technologies and follow their lead. Also invest in R&D on the areas that need it, like batteries. Invest in implemwntation of these technologies, subsiding households to acquire it if needed. The companies emerging from this will be national.

1. Sort other basic supplies, like food. Recently, there was an article about grain wholesalers inflating prices. So ask the revebue guys to thoroughly investigate and highlight any increases beyond inflation. Same cuts in profits to apply to other industries, as an emergency caution.
2. Regulate wages and bonuses on the higher scales. Taxes of transactions in the UK to be paid in the UK, so no abroad tax paradise where anyone can take the huge bonus and wage.
3. GPs to be 100% part of NHS. Train doctors and nurses with no uni fees, but the condition that they will work for the NHS for 20 years. Once we have (finally!) more GPs, then open practices in the evenings too so to be able to see more people. Get people seen for the issues they have, sent to specialists, followed up and have their health check ups by the GPs, who would be in charge of yhe famous triage- as they are the professionals, not the receptionist! If GPs need a secretary to deal with the paperwork, so be it. More doctors and nurses in hospitals to be able to tend better to the patients.

Again, a panel of experts who have worked for long in health care is the best advisor.

1. Check the state of education and strive for a high level. Listen to the schools and teachers' problems.
2. If we do have any money at all, start national companies indeed. Public transport seems to be an area that needs attention, trains specially. So if we do have to start buying trains so be it. But no more disruption to the poor user and huge prices.

First and foremost rejoin the EU.

Scrap Ofsted

Return to a system where every child goes to their nearest school

Empower Headteachers to know what's the best way to run their school and give them more straightforward ways to fund it

Build more and better facilities for the children that cannot access mainstream education

Scrap Ofgen

Drag every CEO of every energy company into a room and make them come up with creative ways to unpick this ridiculous situation we are facing or face draconian fines for operating in this market

Publish which are and which are not prepared to dig us out of this shitshow

This thread is like reading year 5 economics, if they taught economics in primary school.

Lets start with the economy since the magic money tree aka high taxation, money printing and high borrowing always leads to disaster.

Preferential tax rates for tech and finance startups listing on FTSE. R&D investment above £1bn to be matched by 25% by govt. Incentivise infrastructure investment with tax breaks for projects above £1bn and completing before 2030. 0 tax on creative industries to accelerate the growth of foreign investment in UK based entertainment studios. Accelerate free trade negotiations with China, joining of NAFTA and ASEAN. Relax immigration rules for STEM sectors where incoming workers are earning £50k or more. Give the green light to 3rd runway at Heathrow and find a team that can run this airport effectively. 0 tax on all startups and corporations investing in electric battery manufacturing in the UK.

Target 2% inflation and bake into legislation the following from 2024 - minimum wage to increase to £15 by 2026. Personal allowance to increase to £15k by 2025. Reduce top rate to 40%.

Start shale extraction in the short term, 3 additional Sizewell C sized nuclear power stations to be online by 2028. Accelerate Shetlands isle offshore wind project. Offshore wind expansion to conincide with Decommission of nuclear power stations.

Increase places/funding for teaching and medicine degrees by 25% with the stipulation that candidates need to pay back if they leave before they get a certainpay scale in their professional role or before certain number of years. Remove subsidies from all university education that isn’t STEM and redirect to STEM.

@BluebelllsRosesDaffodills did ypu jyst say get rid of maternity and paternity pay?
Population is already in decline in western countries, by the way.
There is a point whete there is not enough young people to pay for the system for the retired people. Some countries are rather close to it. Immigration is needed in those cases.
I do not think we need to punish people for the natural desire to have children. Children are not the cause of our issues.
But if the solution to all this is depopulation of the world, then for me, it is not worthy. Why should I bother for a world that has no future?

In the 70s, The PM (Heath) had the chairmen of BP and Shell into Downing St and pleaded with them to help reduce power costs. It was not possible - even bearing in mind a huge part of BP was owned by the state at this time.

Increase minimum wage significantly, and introduce rent controls with no loopholes. These should mean that no-one who works full time, even at minimum wage, should also have to claim benefits. Allow SMEs a tax relief for a limited time to offset this, if they can demonstrate that they cannot operate at a profit by paying wages in line with cost of living.

Invest heavily in education, early years, childcare and social care. Employees in this sector should be highly trained, well-remunerated and recognised for their value and professionalism. These services should be accessible to all, and to a high standard. Same with healthcare.

Don’t renationalise utilities and rail, but impose strict operating conditions and minimum standards of performance, else they lose their licence to operate, including controls on profits and dividends. Innovation is to encouraged in these industries, but they currently have us, the consumer, by the balls with their high prices & mega profits combo and the shifting of the price cap means they’re virtually a monopoly. Our government are toothless in this (as they are with many issues) and must take a firm stance. (See also the issues around water/sewage).

Increase the financial support given to disabled people and to their carers. £300 carers allowance does not make up for lost earnings of a person unable to work due to caring responsibilities, and a disabled person’s carer being so stretched and undervalued is suboptimal to both.

Enforce child maintenance collection. Vastly improve the level of service given by the CMA, and ensure non-payment is investigated and explored robustly. Would eradicate swathes of universal credit claims and improve outcomes for children.

Tax the wealthy.

Reverse the decision not to investigate covid-related fraud and what I’ll generously call underperformed contracts. Claw back money spent on unusable PPE, fraudulently claimed loans etc.

Measures to ensure MPs behave ethically, including disallowing second jobs, more stringent requirements for personal finances (tax affairs, donations, and suchlike). Second homes allowed where this is very clearly justified, but all travel/rented accommodation/hotel expenditure to be modest and subject to spending limits. Subsidised canteen fine, but a typical work canteen, not the excessively luxurious facilities they currently have.

Absolutely no drinking on the job for MPs. In-house bar scrapped immediately.

Reverse Brexit. End our onward human-trafficking, ie forwarding refugees to Rwanda. Highly consider universal basic income, perhaps modified so offered to all with earnings below say £60k. Scrap work coaches and the like, as admin costs of benefits is excessive.

This would result in increased consumer spending and increased savings (therefore interest) and increase the public purse. Educate the public at large that actually levelling up all of society by ensuring they have high enough quality and quantity of facilities, safety nets and public services, actually reduces the numbers of poor and vulnerable in generations that follow, and this improves society for everyone (including the wealthy, healthy and self-sufficient).

I 100% agree with regulating the wages and benefits that MP get.
Also, if you are a MP, that is it! That is your job, you will turn up for work each day and be subjected to performance reviews and targets setting.