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.

You can't solve it. That's the thing.

Oh, we're pretending we can? Print a billion pounds for every man, woman and child on the island so they can outcompete Johnny foreigner for resources on the global market of goods, services and commodities.

Might as well go with the delusion the central banks have, it's worked out so well for them so far.

Well if I was Borris and I genuinely (impossible in his case) wanted to do the right thing and help the country, I'd admit the Tories are useless and suggest a quick election and handover the baton to labour

Well said!

"Nationalise everything" is an easy tribalistic cry but isn't practical and would put us in a worse position...

... shame it's not logic but instead nationalistic vitriol that wins votes

It’s basically several pages of words. Nonsensical, filler words with no substance, regurgitated narrative you can find on most social media threads like this one.

Indeed. A political rant, not a hint of a serious economic proposal to actually increase productivity or generate wealth or good quality jobs or future industries or how to fix our power and food security issue. Nada. He is an absolute joker.

Reversing Brexit is impossible. Actually impossible. The UK will never be able to re join on the same terms, including keeping the sterling. It’s fantasy’ land. Best to move on from it and think ahead.

I'm well aware of that. That's why it was such an utterly idiotic thing to do in the first place. But any Government wanting to improve things for UK citizens would have rejoining the single market at the top of its agenda.

Breathalyse all MPs before sessions and make them perform regular, witnessed drug tests

Less funding for arts and media and more on critical thinking and STEM subjects - we need computer programmers, informatics and digital workers, doctors, nurses, care workers, biochemists, engineers and biologists and fewer Owen Jones, Benjamin Butterworths and Piers Morgans

Less emphasis on university degrees for all and more on properly funded and organised apprenticeships, BTECs and C&G subjects - expecting adults to survive on £4.30 per hour is just ludicrous

Make television companies stick to a charter to EDUCATE and INFORM with unbiased information - Fuck Love Island, Married at First Sight, TOWIE and the rest of the lazy, cretinous output, give us more investigative journalism, fact based programming and documentaries

Force all property owners to sell up if they don't intend to occupy it themselves and can't find occupiers for their buildings after a year

Stop slumlords putting vulnerable, drug addicted, alcoholic, mentally ill and parolees into unsuitable, unsupervised bedsits/one bedroomed apartments

Fund comprehensive drug and alcohol rehab, renationalise social care, take it out of private hands and open up day centres for the elderly, disabled and vulnerable.

Rent control, toughen up laws for landlords and let councils build social housing without recourse to private firms having a say in how many homes are 'affordable'.

Do not allow any more building on green belt land - not for homes, caravan parks or leisure facilities.

Stop building on flood plains - either site new reservoirs there, or leave them as seasonal arable or grazing land.

Make the benefits system less unwieldy - make it easier for people to take on short term, contract work without jeopardising their homes

Force the owners of derelict, brownfield sites to develop them into homes or workplaces

NHS - we're at the ludicrous stage, where there aren't enough tutors, mentors and trainers for all the new staff we need.

I'm stumped.

Simply tax the rich more

They don’t know. They don’t understand who does what and how the industry works and it’s an easy thing to shout

If the multi million company get tax a lot arent they gonna move from the UK and built their company to somewhere cheaper?. Its gonna kill our economy.

if i were PM i think i’m gonna raise the tax a little bit for very high earner individuals not the company.

also sort out benefits. Lots of people ‘playing’ their benefits. Benefits should go to people who needs it. Not people who is lazy.

next i’m gonna raise salary for childcare worker, teachers and nhs. And reduce tube driver salary. Those tube driver just pressing button i dont think they should have more salary than teachers!.

i will make childcare cost affordable so parents can work rather than claiming benefits.

I'd go further, I'd change the tax system to tax family units rather than individuals*

*albeit todays systems effectively screws families over every which way as it seems to choose worse case:
-individuals for income
-families for stamp duty
-families for uni fees
-families for child care costs etc

TheSandwoman Please tell me what good would it do to rejoin the EU, how would that possibly help with the rising cost of stuff?

Another one.

Do what Spain does in that anyone that lives there for any length of time has to pay tax on their earnings. (see the Shakira case for more details)

🤣🤣🤣

So only we should only 'fix the mess' for for white , heterosexual males?

It wouldn't. Neoliberals just need to get their cheap foreign labour back, because it's so expensive to pay natives for childcare and wait for understaffed Starbucks to serve lattes.

The EU is fucked, and for some reason people think if we were in it we'd be doing gangbusters.

It isn't an ordinary recession. It is triggered by unaffordable fuel prices so that's what they need to concentrate on. And I don't mean "naming and shaming" fuel companies that don't pass on the paltry 5p fuel tax cut. I mean putting in place mandates and levies on profits. And what is the point of an energy cap if they change the rules so it can be raised four times a year instead of twice and go up and up and up? Not really a cap at all, is it.

Call a general election

If you cap prices, then sellers have no reason to sell to you at or below cost.

Ask Venezuela how well price caps on essentials like energy and food went for them. I hear their refugees are great fun for these stories.

@PoseyFlump

@TheSandwoman and @sst1234 I, as someone who has no knowledge of this situation, am genuinely asking you both this question. Is this excerpt from the article you thought was nonsense true?

"Broadly speaking, electricity can be generated from coal, nuclear, hydro, renewable sources and gas in the UK. What electricity we get through the wire into our house does, whatever our energy company tells us, come from a mix of all these sources.

^This is true

And what Ofgem does is set the price so that the most unprofitable of these production methods will always make a profit, come what may.

^This is not true. UK electricity prices are set based on gas as that is how the majority of our electricity is produced. In the current situation that does skew the calculation because it is gas that has rocketed in price internationally, and we have insufficient storage facilities. I believe Ofgem are working on changing the pricing methodology, which also makes sense as we gradually move to a higher proportion of renewables in the mix. But no, Ofgem do not look at the price for each type of generation and deliberately choose to set the cap based on whatever is most expensive to stitch up consumers. That's Murphy mumbo-jumbo.

What Ofgem then requires is that all the other producers of electricity charge the same price as the weakest producer needs to charge to be profitable.

Clearly not otherwise how could any of them have gone bust? That said, a member of Ofgem's board recently resigned because she believes the calculation method for the cap gave more weight to the needs of the supplier companies versus consumers than was appropriate. But again Murphy's comment is hyperbolic and misleading.

This, though, is absurd. If, for example, all of the producers made electricity for £1 a unit in 2020 but now, the price of gas has increased meaning it now costs £2 to make electricity from gas then, even though the costs of hydro, nuclear, coal and renewables have not changed the price to consumers from all producers will be doubled by Ofgem just so that those producing electricity from gas can still be profitable."

Again no nuance. Agree the pricing of all electricity based on gas is no longer functional. Agree that wind and hydro have gone up far less. However - while this issue should be fixed - it is not the main driver of the increases in bills.

Also interesting to note that despite being surrounded by coastline we generate almost no hydro power! The concerns with wind or solar about unreliability wouldn't apply to hydro. Given how much fossil fuels have increased it is increasingly a good option economically. Currently we are importing hydro power generated electricity from Norway!!

In summary, if you want a clear picture of what is going on and workable solutions that would actually be possible to implement and effective, don't ask Richard Murphy! He's a nutter.

It appears by reading this, that not many people have many good and workable ideas to help out in our situation, it’s all very complex and interwoven, As far as I can see the quickest answer would be to kiss ass to Putin, let him have Ukraine, open the gas pipelines again, but where will he stop, this is a result of low interest rates for to long, to much money printing, Covid shutting down countries production for months on end, then the war. Very tough times ahead, we should have let the economy fall after the financial crash in 2008, we’ve been treading water since then.

Resign and offer a general election

I'd go further, I'd change the tax system to tax family units rather than individuals

Absolutely this. The French and many other countries tax on a household basis. Single people and single parents especially are massively overtaxed in the UK, paying way more than a two adult household with the same income. This would be a very quick fix to relieving a huge amount of poverty. And as you say, the claims that it would be "too difficult" don't stand up to the slightest scrutiny when they manage it perfectly well when it benefits them to consider incomes on a household basis e.g. for benefits.

@PoseyFlump

The description of how Ofgem works is correct. My comment was that the article or essay completely fails to address any of the structural causes of the issues we have.

The UK produces over 40% of its electricity from gas, then the gas usage itself too. Gas is bought by electricity producers or gas suppliers at either a spot price or futures price. Half of our gas comes from the North Sea, the rest from Norway and beyond. Ofgem is toothless in situations like these. It cannot determine spot or futures pricing. We need more home grown energy. To use, store and to export. Because it benefits both domestic consumption pricing and export revenues.

@Liebig In a country where we're now being told we're being picky turning our noses up at recycled water from sewage plants, I certainly won't be blowing our trumpet any time soon. The pound is in freefall against the dollar. We have one of the worst inflation rates of any G20 countries. But yes, you're quite right. If you look hard enough, there's always a country whose government has fucked it up a little bit more than yours.