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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

So what is your top 5 issues you want the government to work on?

119 replies

deancasetmoi · 09/05/2023 22:58

Climate change related top 5 for me

-Solar and wind power investment (bring in jobs)
-degrading soil and mono farming we need a new way.
-Building on green spaces needs to end. something needs to be done about the thousands of decrepit buildings, car parks etc build on them.
-bike lanes
-plant more trees, specifically fruit trees/ but trees/ bushes and give access to local people to pick their own like when you go to a strawberry farm but everywhere. (also to help with flooding, and air pollution)

OP posts:
Billblight · 10/05/2023 13:25

Scottishskifun · 10/05/2023 13:21

Yep it's now 42%.....all well and good saying tax the "rich" but reality is we struggle to fill highly skilled positions in the NHS and other sectors that's at the detriment of people.

If you can't attract and fill those positions then it's less tax overall.

I think the problem with Scotland having rates of tax massively out of step with rUK is that many people are British, not Scottish or English or Welsh etc, and couldn’t care less which ‘home nation’ they lived in hence ramping up Scottish tax rates does has more of a laffer curve effect than say if France and Germany had different tax rates.

Jellycatspyjamas · 10/05/2023 13:31

Yep it's now 42%.....all well and good saying tax the "rich" but reality is we struggle to fill highly skilled positions in the NHS and other sectors that's at the detriment of people.

And £43k is hardly rich, it’s a reasonable professional salary firmly hitting working class people

Scottishskifun · 10/05/2023 13:39

Billblight · 10/05/2023 13:25

I think the problem with Scotland having rates of tax massively out of step with rUK is that many people are British, not Scottish or English or Welsh etc, and couldn’t care less which ‘home nation’ they lived in hence ramping up Scottish tax rates does has more of a laffer curve effect than say if France and Germany had different tax rates.

Yes and it's often peddled that majority of Scots pay less tax....not true any job paying over 27k pays more tax in Scotland so this is nurses, teachers, police officers etc etc etc there is a higher proportion of adults in Scotland that do not get taxed (41%) combo of unemployment, not economically active (the biggest group) and very low incomes. But that doesn't make a good snippet for the Scottish supporters or that they piss the money up the wall with poor deals! Anyone interested Google Scottish govt ferries!!!

ConsuelaHammock · 10/05/2023 13:42

Taxes- we need to make sure everyone is paying their share of tax. Tax evasion needs tackled properly.
Housing- we need more social housing and it needs to be spread across all areas of the country instead of the already overcrowded low income areas. No holiday homes in areas where the locals can’t buy a house. Curb immigration as the knock on affect for housing is huge.
Education- education shouldn’t be compulsory until 18. More vocational options available to those from 14 ish up. Move manufacturing back to U.K. so that those with low IQ still have the opportunity to get a job. 5gcses to work in a cattery or be a security guard is nonsense. Make university more difficult to get into. There are a lot of educated fools around who would be better off in employment.
NHS - make it more like the European countries. It simply can’t continue to be free at source for much longer. We need to introduce some form of health insurance.
Climate - invest in wind, solar and wave technology. Ration airmiles. Everyone gets the equivalent of one holiday a year . They can be saved up for longer trips. They cannot be sold to rich people so that they can continue to pollute the earth while telling us peasants to stay at home.
Agriculture- we need to invest more in farming to make ourselves more self sufficient and less susceptible to supply issues when there are problems in other countries. Seasonality is important too.
Children- you need to pass a test to have children , I realise this is highly contentious and I’m only half serious but we have so many children being born into poverty with complete wasters for parents. Fathers to pay for their children or they go to prison, have their passport , driving license removed.

whumpthereitis · 10/05/2023 13:54

Scottishskifun · 10/05/2023 13:21

Yep it's now 42%.....all well and good saying tax the "rich" but reality is we struggle to fill highly skilled positions in the NHS and other sectors that's at the detriment of people.

If you can't attract and fill those positions then it's less tax overall.

Indeed. The reality is that ‘the rich’ will simply leave the country. It’s not an idle threat either, they’re already leaving, and they’re not being replaced. Hitting the rich also makes the country a significantly less attractive proposition for businesses and wealthy individuals to come to, yet the UK needs to attract them.

Blossomtoes · 10/05/2023 13:57

Scottishskifun · 10/05/2023 13:39

Yes and it's often peddled that majority of Scots pay less tax....not true any job paying over 27k pays more tax in Scotland so this is nurses, teachers, police officers etc etc etc there is a higher proportion of adults in Scotland that do not get taxed (41%) combo of unemployment, not economically active (the biggest group) and very low incomes. But that doesn't make a good snippet for the Scottish supporters or that they piss the money up the wall with poor deals! Anyone interested Google Scottish govt ferries!!!

Surely it’s true for Scottish graduates? Repaying £50k in student debt is just taxation under a different name.

ConsuelaHammock · 10/05/2023 14:03

My number one would be population control. We have too many people, if we don’t address that then more social housing etc etc is just kicking the can down the street.

Jellycatspyjamas · 10/05/2023 14:08

Repaying £50k in student debt is just taxation under a different name.

We don’t have university tuition fees in Scotland- which is a bit of a double edged sword, but no £50k student loan debt.

Bovrilla · 10/05/2023 14:12
  1. Cost of living. Close the damn tax loopholes and make sure the huge corporations pay their fair share. Ditto billionaires. Give council tax discounts to those who regularly volunteer in their local communities and areas.
  2. Education. Bring back sure start centres. Fund schools back to same % as early 2000s. Fund teacher payrises and make their workloads smaller.
  3. Environment. Moratorium on green belt development. Brownfield sites only, and compulsory purchase of derelict land to redevelop first. Prioritise nature with farmers given more incentives, ban the bee killing insecticides. Ensure all new builds have compulsory bat/bird bricks built in and are properly planted with trees and wild areas on any development. Higher taxes for those who fly the most. It's unnecessary these days. Government to help fund future transport technologies post-electric cars and renewable energy eg. More solar panels for houses etc.
Beesandhoney123 · 10/05/2023 14:13

socialmedia23 · 10/05/2023 09:48

I pay lots of tax (am a net contributor unlike half of the UK population) as someone on the cusp of higher rate tax. I have lived in the UK for ten years but my home country doesn't allow dual citizenship and my parents own a freehold house (as well as freehold office buildings) back in my home country (that I can only keep as a citizen). tbh i already go private for most things so in a way having to pay for NHS doesn't really make a difference!

also a lot of NHS staff are foreigners and its hard enough to recruit them as nhs pay is quite low relative to cost of living compared to other countries like the UK. Asking them to pay for their own healthcare would mean that no one would come and then the nhs waiting times would be far worse than it is. Like it or not, the country relies on immigrants in many essential roles. British people are not willing to put up with unfavourable working conditions and it isn't just pay.

Why would anyone with a right to work and working / living in the UK have to pay their own healthcare? They would have any care under the NHS.

That is not what was suggested. To me, it's fraudulent to take advantage of the NHS when you know you avoid paying tax in the UK yet enjoy free healthcare. It's a murky world.

Conditions and pay are appalling for NHS workers. There is money, only I belive it's being spent and frittered away on the wrong things for decades, no matter who was is power.

LostRahRah · 10/05/2023 14:22

Rejoin the customs union and single market

Tqx reform (huge simplification to remove loopholes, rationalising rates to remove bottlenecks at £50k and £100k earnings thresholds which is damaging productivity, automatic uprating of thresholds with inflation unless an act of Parliament changes this, raise capital gains tax to income tax levels but scrap inheritance tax, lower personal allowance but lower basic rate income tax also, remove penalisation of single people/ parents with household-based allowances/ thresholds, NI to be charged to pensioners, crackdown on self employed black market cash income, CMS to be processed as a tax and at far increased rates, big incentives for R&D in key UK stategic growth areas, no tax to pay for employer or employee during apprenticeships, lower corporation tax for small businesses but levy a minimum % on all UK revenue of large corporations if UK profits assigned are lower and crack down on transfer pricing).

Double or triple the state education budget and total reform of the national curriculum plus opportunities for retraining later in life. Proper provision in schools specialised in different subjects as elsewhere in Europe so children can have a rounded education but focus on their specific talents/ interests and have schools that meet their individual needs properly. Big focus on technical colleges as in Germany with links directly into employment. Total reform of the NHS to a European style system that can provide adequate care for a not hugely dissimilar percentage of GDP. All civil servants to be given a large pay catch up to make up the pay cuts of the last decade so that public services can be properly staffed (single market and CU will also help with this. Brexit tax loss to the treasury is already more per year than the entire state education budget).

A proper industrial strategy with long-term plans for food, energy and water security. We should be investing in hydro power, solar panels on every house, proper infrastructure in terms of internet and power network capacity and storage, battery technology for EVs and power storage and supply chains with the minerals required for that, advanced farming methods that can generate far more food sustainably from the same land capacity, building new reservoirs (water will become an extremely precious resource very soon), focusing on UK growth sectors like tech, pharmaceuticals, research, and also far more investment in AI. Investment in all of these can be achieved through Government/ private partnerships as long as point 1 is addressed (single market and CU). Far more support for small business start ups. Some proper thinking also about how the economy will be managed with the advance of AI which will cause turmoil on a scale thaf few people seem to be acknowledging, or how fast this will happen: millions of people in the UK will become unemployed. What is the plan for this? Our whole social structure will have to change. Plus there will be hundreds of millions of climate refugees over the next few decades. There appears to be no plan for any of this, at all.

Complete reform of the state pensions system so that the amount of contribution is reflected in pension income, a long-term plan to phase out the current ponzi scheme, also root and branch reform of other benefits so that far more are contributary (and therefore more generous like elsewhere in Europe but limited in time), however disability benefits to be at least doubled to give disabled people some dignity.

I think actually I'd add a sixth - introduce PR, reduce the number of MPs to 1/3 but triple their salaries so you can actually attract competent people who are not either a) wealthy already and using it as a stepping stone, or b) simply not capable or experienced enough to do the job. I'd also make a rule that no politician can be in Parliament for more than three terms, to avoid "career politicians".

The problem is that all 5 of these - while essential and extremely obvious - require long-term plans, actual detailed plans for implementation not just announcing "targets". And long-term vision, practical ability to get things done, the willingness to do what needs to be done not just make "popular" decisions and think about the next election. So I doubt any of it will happen, and the UK will continue to decline and have falling living standards. Other countries are doing such things and if we won't, we will get poorer and poorer, as certainly as night follows day. Ultimately living standards in the UK will not rise unless productivity increases. The above steps create the foundations for that to happen, cut wastage, put money in the right areas of investment and therefore will more than fund themselves over time. If you don't do any of that, then the economy stagnates, GBP will gradually lose more value and the large imports of essential goods like food and fuel that the UK will still be dependent on will become increasingly unaffordable. People should be very, very worried that the balance of payments deficit has quadrupled since Brexit. That is not sustainable. It's all basic economics really.

socialmedia23 · 10/05/2023 14:33

Beesandhoney123 · 10/05/2023 14:13

Why would anyone with a right to work and working / living in the UK have to pay their own healthcare? They would have any care under the NHS.

That is not what was suggested. To me, it's fraudulent to take advantage of the NHS when you know you avoid paying tax in the UK yet enjoy free healthcare. It's a murky world.

Conditions and pay are appalling for NHS workers. There is money, only I belive it's being spent and frittered away on the wrong things for decades, no matter who was is power.

People who don't have a right to live here already have to pay for nhs. That is in theory, it is of course very difficult to chase up on fraud.

Immigrants nowadays have to pay for NHS surcharge in addition to immigration fees. I believe it is about £8k in total over 5 years, in addition to any taxes they pay.

YouNeverSeeTheRealMe · 10/05/2023 14:34

Immigration
Crime
Education
Price of electricity and gas
NHS

LostRahRah · 10/05/2023 14:49

LostRahRah · 10/05/2023 14:22

Rejoin the customs union and single market

Tqx reform (huge simplification to remove loopholes, rationalising rates to remove bottlenecks at £50k and £100k earnings thresholds which is damaging productivity, automatic uprating of thresholds with inflation unless an act of Parliament changes this, raise capital gains tax to income tax levels but scrap inheritance tax, lower personal allowance but lower basic rate income tax also, remove penalisation of single people/ parents with household-based allowances/ thresholds, NI to be charged to pensioners, crackdown on self employed black market cash income, CMS to be processed as a tax and at far increased rates, big incentives for R&D in key UK stategic growth areas, no tax to pay for employer or employee during apprenticeships, lower corporation tax for small businesses but levy a minimum % on all UK revenue of large corporations if UK profits assigned are lower and crack down on transfer pricing).

Double or triple the state education budget and total reform of the national curriculum plus opportunities for retraining later in life. Proper provision in schools specialised in different subjects as elsewhere in Europe so children can have a rounded education but focus on their specific talents/ interests and have schools that meet their individual needs properly. Big focus on technical colleges as in Germany with links directly into employment. Total reform of the NHS to a European style system that can provide adequate care for a not hugely dissimilar percentage of GDP. All civil servants to be given a large pay catch up to make up the pay cuts of the last decade so that public services can be properly staffed (single market and CU will also help with this. Brexit tax loss to the treasury is already more per year than the entire state education budget).

A proper industrial strategy with long-term plans for food, energy and water security. We should be investing in hydro power, solar panels on every house, proper infrastructure in terms of internet and power network capacity and storage, battery technology for EVs and power storage and supply chains with the minerals required for that, advanced farming methods that can generate far more food sustainably from the same land capacity, building new reservoirs (water will become an extremely precious resource very soon), focusing on UK growth sectors like tech, pharmaceuticals, research, and also far more investment in AI. Investment in all of these can be achieved through Government/ private partnerships as long as point 1 is addressed (single market and CU). Far more support for small business start ups. Some proper thinking also about how the economy will be managed with the advance of AI which will cause turmoil on a scale thaf few people seem to be acknowledging, or how fast this will happen: millions of people in the UK will become unemployed. What is the plan for this? Our whole social structure will have to change. Plus there will be hundreds of millions of climate refugees over the next few decades. There appears to be no plan for any of this, at all.

Complete reform of the state pensions system so that the amount of contribution is reflected in pension income, a long-term plan to phase out the current ponzi scheme, also root and branch reform of other benefits so that far more are contributary (and therefore more generous like elsewhere in Europe but limited in time), however disability benefits to be at least doubled to give disabled people some dignity.

I think actually I'd add a sixth - introduce PR, reduce the number of MPs to 1/3 but triple their salaries so you can actually attract competent people who are not either a) wealthy already and using it as a stepping stone, or b) simply not capable or experienced enough to do the job. I'd also make a rule that no politician can be in Parliament for more than three terms, to avoid "career politicians".

The problem is that all 5 of these - while essential and extremely obvious - require long-term plans, actual detailed plans for implementation not just announcing "targets". And long-term vision, practical ability to get things done, the willingness to do what needs to be done not just make "popular" decisions and think about the next election. So I doubt any of it will happen, and the UK will continue to decline and have falling living standards. Other countries are doing such things and if we won't, we will get poorer and poorer, as certainly as night follows day. Ultimately living standards in the UK will not rise unless productivity increases. The above steps create the foundations for that to happen, cut wastage, put money in the right areas of investment and therefore will more than fund themselves over time. If you don't do any of that, then the economy stagnates, GBP will gradually lose more value and the large imports of essential goods like food and fuel that the UK will still be dependent on will become increasingly unaffordable. People should be very, very worried that the balance of payments deficit has quadrupled since Brexit. That is not sustainable. It's all basic economics really.

I guess the short version of this is: the exact opposite of what they have been doing.

Crikeyalmighty · 10/05/2023 14:52

Customs union/ single market
Housing
Care system for elderly
NHS/ dentistry
Policing including traffic policing

Bleepbloopbluurp · 10/05/2023 16:02

Ban greenfield development except for where strictly necessary for social housing. Tax heavily any homes left empty and overseas property ownership.
Reform tenancy law so good tenants don't need to fear eviction or major rent rises.

BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz · 10/05/2023 16:09
  1. Safety of the vulnerable- women and children, people with disabilities etc, firming up of protected characteristics and legal definitions of biological factors.
  1. Investment into a healthy nation - physical and mental health. Well nourished, well rested, well educated and well valued society members.
  1. Collective wealth. Whether that's a universal base income, tighter regulations on pay levels, multiple home ownerships, offshore funds, taxation.
  1. Global responsibility. Making good working relationships with other countries, seeking to learn from them (rather than imposing British rule), relishing trade and movement opportunities, aiding the neediest regions etc.
  1. Preservation of the planet. Moving to green industry, carbon neutrality etc.
MouseTime · 10/05/2023 16:29

-education, make it fairer. Abolish grammars, religious and other selective schools. Remove charitable status from Private schools. Make university applications fairer and move to a system where pupils apply AFTER they have exam results. Target low performing schools.

-NHS/ Dentistry etc, make fairer, cut waste, improve access

-get rid of the monarchy or at least tax them normally etc etc

  • police and crime, improve service, do something about online safety and crime. Search engines and SM should be more responsible for what's online

Political changes- Electoral reform needed to make elections fair. Much more accountability and transparency in government.

I know there is lots of other stuff too. Immigration, tax, environment etc etc.

happinessischocolate · 10/05/2023 17:53

Build millions of council houses

Abolish student loans

Sort out the NHS dentist, GPs and hospitals

Renationalise railways and water

Change FPTP

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