What's the one single thing a government could do to make your life better?

[verdantverdure]

Mine?

Rejoin the EU.

It the single most powerful lever any government could employ.

It makes the country significantly better off at a stroke and improves all kinds of situations, growth, investment, labour shortages, farming, fishing...

What's yours?

Pay off the mortgages of all owner-occupiers and give renters the properties they currently live in. Then cap house prices relative to average wages in the area.

More realistically, tax relief on public transport fares.

Make the NHS functional again,

That feels like an unnecessarily rude response in an otherwise perfectly polite thread

Not force people who need to be helped with benefits etc for disability to fear survival - it's so stressful fighting to prove you are disabled, appealing, not even being able to afford electricity while your claim is processed for over a year with multiple stages and professionals having to write repeated letters

I only survived bc I had previously worked helping others and figured out how to get help with my claim. I'm aware of people in my neighbourhood who are going through life simply giving up and waiting to die because despite asking for help they don't have the energy to keep asking till they get it

Not provide housing (yes a roof is amazing and very grateful) that isn't adequate- it's no surprise that people struggle so much with their mental health and strain the mental health system too once they find themselves stuck looking at mouldy walls and concrete floors they can't afford to carpet for their kids to crawl on, or not fixing communal lifts and trapping the elderly and disabled for days or weeks. The amount of MH that could be improved by simply painting some walls and chucking cheap flooring down

Not keeping people trapped- disabled so you're allowed on the motability scheme but lo and behold your mh improves bc you are getting out after being trapped and you get slightly better physically bc you can now get to hospital appointments for treatment but nope not allowed it next time it's reviewed so the thing that was helping you recover some of your life is ripped away and back to being housebound and wanting to end it staring at mouldy walls again...

Stop stealth taxation and just be open and honest for a bloody change.oh and please sort the NHS

Stop listening to people like the guy below who would have us all starve rather than hear a foreign accent. They are not ‘left behind’ they are just stupid.

“Brexit? Best bloody thing that ever happened,” barks one older gentleman, making his way towards the shops in Market Square. “If only we could get rid of the eastern Europeans.” Does he favour closer ties? “More distant!”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/may/28/we-should-be-closer-to-europe-brexit-regrets-simmer-in-leave-voting-boston

Remove utility standing charges.

More NHS dentists.

Yes!

If potholes is the worst thing in you're life you're doing well.

I guess my answer is intervene in the housing market so that ordinary people could expect to pay no more than 1/4 of their take home pay to sustain good quality, suitable sized housing.

My apologies. The bleating about ‘tax the wealthy, close loopholes on the wealthy, charge corporations more’ is so frustrating. it just detracts from realistic tax proposals which would actually help fund our public services.

@Bringabrolly

So basically everybody except those with the most wealth need to pay for public services?

Cause the wealthiest pay enough or can tax dodge legally?

🤣

Yes.
We will never get our old, enhanced terms back. Next best is joining on equal terms, regaining the majority of our rights as EU citizens, and for that, I will gladly accept the euro. Retaining the pound can go in the same bucket as all the other small minded europhobe things (blue passports, imperial measures etc).

Free school meals for all children. I currently pay £50 a month for one of mine as she wants school dinners like her brother (who gets them free)
Also means as we both work a 40 hour week that we can do a light tea for them in the evening.

So our ageing population will eventually over time cause smaller population once we have few boomers left and my generation X become the OAPs, will this mean more housing becoming available longer term? Would we end up with an excess of propery if we build in the short term?

Pay carers looking after relatives an amount of money that isn't an actual joke.

Oh and undo Brexit.

Make people that work in the NHS actually do their job properly.

Also more benefits for families where both parents work full time.
We are not entitled to anything as we earn over the threshold, but after our ridiculous mortgage (just increased by hundreds per month) and energy bills/food etc we don't have much left to last til the end of the month.

Also the NHS is horrendous at the moment, so we've just taken out private cover at £100 a month that we could really do without.

Nationalise public transport & make it free for under 30s as well as over 66.4s

Families often can't or don't want to look after their own disabled or elderly and don't want to use up savings buying in help, the MC run political parties, they like low wages in your sector.

@Alphabeaters

I'm not sure the state sheave to subsidise choices like 'ridiculous' mortgages

I agree, I now have to work an extra 7 years 😡

Fund the nhs better. We aren’t having any more children due to complications pregnancies and I can’t rely on the nhs to provide the care I need.

I want the nhs to be properly funded to allow people to do their jobs better, and open specific HG units .

Cancel charitable status for private schools as a preliminary to banning private education. Won't benefit me at all but will go a short way to redress educational inequality in our society.

Why should under 30s got free transport? They are often single and earning good money and can afford holidays etc. Why should they not pay bus fare?