We need a political party that will…

[Skippp]

I work in finance and this country is on the brink of collapse. It’s spending too much, it’s not growing the economy and needs someone to come in and make good decisions quickly if we are to survive. It’s in a really serious state now and action must be taken. I’vote Labour, and did so hoping Keir would be brave enough to take the hard decisions needed but he’s been a pathetic wet blanket. We need a government who:

1. get rid of the triple lock. It’s laughably unaffordable.
2. reassess the whole benefits system and get rid of disability payments for anything but the most severe conditions, increasing the amounts to those who have these conditions.
3. restrict benefit payments to those born outwith the UK to those that have been in full time work for a large proportion of their adult lives here.
4. Reduce the minimum wage to help companies hire again.
5. Reduce housing benefit. People will have to move to somewhere cheaper or landlords will have to drop prices to what people can afford.
6. Go to an insurance backed healthcare system like they enjoy in Europe.
7. Ditch 95% of planning regulation and get Britain building again.
8. ditch net zero. No one is going to run a successful business in a country with the highest energy costs on the planet.
9. Reopen Scotland oil and gas production (inc refineries) and explore for more areas.
10. Simplify income taxes. Roll income tax into NICs. Give everyone child care hours, child benefit, personal allowance and increase tax rates to pay for this. Stop artificially restricting people from earning more.
11. Simplify VAT. Drop the threshold to £20k to ensure no one has a ceiling on earnings.
12. Simplify IHT. 5% on everything. No nil rates or exemptions.
13. rejoin the single market and customs union.
14. Explain policies better! Tell people how unaffordable the triple lock etc is. Tell them what the single market and customs union non is and why you’re rejoining. Tell people what the ‘bond markets’ are and why they’re important. Tell people why paying for rich people’s child care is much better for the economy than forcing high earners to drop their hours.
15. Probably ought to start deporting economic migrants with no right to stay quickler to throw some red meat to reform voters.

We need a party to take on ALL of these policies and move AT PACE on them. Who’s the party that will do this? I thought it was Labour but BOY was I wrong on that!

What are people adding to the list?

But do you believe businesses would hire more staff or just keep the profit. I don't know about your job but my job has significantly changed over the last 10 years and im now doing the job of 3 people

Have a look at how much council tax payers are forking out to keep foreign children in care placements. Then come back & tell us again that the answer to anything is residential care for all via social care.

Im never going to complain about the costs of children in care thats vile.

Well it’s a reason why businesses are saying that they’re cutting staff. But yes, I don’t know if they’d bring staff back now the damage has been done

That's how Chinese hospitals work. No food supplied. So there is a choice of relatives bring it in, or one has to hire an "auntie". Many of the walking patients head out to local eateries.

And I’ll say it. I’m sick to death of seeing an entire generation vilified on the basis of their date of birth. A generation that continues to pay tax which funds benefits for the million young people between 18 and 24 who aren’t in education or working. You’re picking a fight with the wrong people.

I am. Previously the council ran children’s homes. Council budgets were cut to the extent that they flogged off all of their assets to get by in the short term. They closed children’s homes and sold the buildings, outsourced the service that they had to supply to private equity companies who now charge a small fortune. Far more expensive than what went before.

see also care homes and special schools.

What does "redistribute the money to the poor" actually mean though? Just giving them money? Who classify as "the poor"? And will they want to work for a living if they just get given money?

(Clue: no they won't).

Her solution was half-baked and didn’t include the insurance that I’m proposing.

Does it work well? Its just something I'm curious about it may not work but I've spent a lot of time in hospital I honestly would never have had an issue to pay for my own food while im there i don't mean make it expensive just a few quid for each meal.

Ah well, I agree with you then. How’s your insurance going to work do you think? It’s much needed!

If that was the case it was economic madness because £70k lasts about a year in care home fees.

We spend less per capital from public funds than most of our peers in Europe on health. I’m not saying the NHS couldn’t be more efficient but moving to a different model of revenue will not save funds.

I’d vote for most of this! Where do I sign up?! Also deeply disappointed with the Labour government (having voted for them) and terrified of a swing to Reform or Green.

The discussions on NMW are interesting. I’ve just checked and for 18-21 year olds it’s £10.85 which seems high considering they’ll most likely be working PT along study or living with parents. Would that be a place to cut it, to generate more jobs and allow young people to get into work?

On NMW more broadly though, surely an advantage to reducing it would be that employers would have more scope for salary increases to reflect longer service/responsibilities and reduce salary bunching where someone who’s worked there for 1 week earns the same as someone who’s been there 5 years.

But what are the chances of needing it and how many years do people last in a care home? You pay up front before you know whether you’ll need care or not.

Yeah i agree that, that was a stupid decision. But its already happened but im certainly not going to agree with the poster I was replying to who is moaning about paying for foreign kids who are in the care system. Their children i don't give a shit what nationality they are. Every child with shitty parents deserves to be cared for.

It would if you funnel the money that employers pay to BUPA etc into the NHS instead. Loads of private sector companies offer private medical cover. It goes straight to private equity companies generally.

Any government that's going to concentrate on looking forward to get the country back on its feet instead of harping on about how previous governments have put us in this situation gets my vote.

@ObsessiveGoogler and they are much stricter on who uses their services in EU times DD had a nasty fall we were interviewed ,addresses etc gleaned well before they even looked at her in France and we got a 80 euro bill for basic checks that was in "reciprocal "EU times.

You might know about finance but you know nothing about social care. I work in MH.
The problem is, nearly everyone I work with is deserving of the benefits they receive. They have had either early lives so terrible you can’t imagine (watching their parents jump off buildings, not knowing that pasta should be cooked as they ate it raw, being forced into sexual acts, parents torturing their pets in front of them). Or they have psychotic disorders so chronic it is unlikely they will ever work. Or both.
If you get rid of PIP, you are expecting the person who is newly discharged from psychiatric hospital to suddenly go back to work, or starve. Making them more likely to relapse and end up in hospital again. There will be no cost saving.
Given what we know about the impact of trauma, poor nutrition and addiction, the biggest thing we could do to help reduce costs in the future would be to improve the lives of children. Reduce poverty. Extra funding for afterschool and weekend clubs for those with awful home lives. Improve access to education. Better support for mothers who want to leave D.A. As the current system is shit.
Studies show that therapy and community help prevent children being taken into care. It’s also much cheaper, not just for that child at the point of the intervention but life long. There is no positive outcome for children who are removed from their families. They survive.
None of your draconian policies actually help wellbeing.

But don't companies do this so that their staff can be seen and sorted quickly so they can get back to work. I don't think a company is going to be happy to pay the nhs for their staff member can sit on a 2 year waiting list getting iller

Exactly. I’d rather self fund as I would now if I need care than take that kind of gamble. How many people would there be that don’t have £70k in liquid assets and would have to take equity release to finance a gamble? Ill thought through nonsense.

Well said 👏👏👏👏

Not really. But China is officially a developing nation. So it would really have to be gauged against other developing nations.

China pushes the concept of the "extended family". There is no social safety net as such. If you can't work it is up to the family to look after you. And if you can't afford the hospital bills, you just sort of die.

And if you were in hospital and don't have a relative who can take time off, and you can't afford an "auntie", then that would mean you can't afford the hospital bill. So, you just sort of die.

But what i was more meaning was the hospital still supply the food as they do for everyone but you just pay for it.