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?

And I'm happy to get rid of the triple lock - as a 57 year old who takes an interest in govt finance I have known since my 30s that I'm likely to get a minimum pension as it's been clear for the last 20 years that governments just fritter money away with no long term strategy or thought for the future (and to be fair alot of the public are like that too).

And when people say get rid of the triple lock, they don't mean that pensions will never rise again. A double lock has been proposed as an alternative. We just can't have a situation where pensions keep rising in spite of what's going on in the economy.

Every benefit should be means tested with a taper.

my neighbours are multimillionaires with the obligatory Coutts bank account. Both get state pension.

Someone earning £150k doesn’t need PIP, even if they are ‘entitled’.

we need to get away from being ‘entitled’ and start taking responsibility for ourselves.

Renewable energy sector accounted for more than 90% of China's investment growth last year. Equally, solar power is set to overtake coal as largest source of installed capacity. We should want to replicate this in the UK, it is critical for economic growth and national security. Why are just going to see further stagnation if we believe the path forward is the status quo and high carbon energy sources to create wealth - those days are gone!

If someone is a multi millionaire the state pension they receive will all be returned in tax.

I also worked in finance OP but, unlike you, I can recognise what is, and is not, politically possible.

Most of your list falls into the latter category.

Why should these be mutually exclusive?
As a society we should be working towards both of these goals (along with others) so that we have a society that can thrive.

Dragging it back to victorian style living is only good for the very wealthy.

*I also worked in finance OP but, unlike you, I can recognise what is, and is not, politically possible.

Most of your list falls into the latter category*
Well summed up!

When was this, how old are you roughly? My Parents are late 70s and refer to their youth as they Golden years. They both went to Grammar schools but were from working class families and yes my Mum had to leave at 16 and worked in an office in the day A levels at evening school. They could walk into jobs when young, they followed a route to pretty .uch guaranteed prosperity. I.e. A levels, uni, full grants, graduate jobs, Dad was an Economist in London, nice house bought with their own money, no help as no help available from their parents. Had said house by the time they were 26! DH and I are old millennials, followed the same pattern, DH is a very good position at 44, less money for me but still good and we have a mini house , shit pension, need help to help out own DC go to uni. We are the lucky ones. My parents wouldn't agree with you at all and my Dad on particular argues that we are definitely less fortunate than their generation.

Exactly. Scotland enjoys benefits like free universal prescriptions and university fees at our cost. And yes I know they are taxed more.

I agree with almost all of those points OP. Basically make life more comfortable for people working and high earners as the more we have the more money there is floating around generally.

Force people into work. its been done before and the majority of people benefitted. ND is on the increase- it can no longer be considered a reason not to work unless severe.

Also, we've outsourced the majority of our manufacturing to China India etc

The pollution they cause is because they are main things for us. As we're the end users then we should be aware that some of that pollution is our fault

In our mid 40s we also made sacrifices, lived in shared houses, worked two jobs in our twenties, worked very hard on our degrees, worked very hard to pay back student loans, postgraduate loans. No doubt our DC's generation will have to work even harder and will have the environmental hardships to face with it, if people's disinterest on this thread is anything to go by, I think it is profoundly offensive to suggest, in essence, this is all down to a lack of self discipline from the generations that followed.

Yes, a highly significant point.

It does seem odd that social care is means tested (if you have more than £23k in savings, you are expected to pay for yourself), and yet some working age benefits, such as PIP, are not.

I don't disagree and China has been very savvy about becoming a renewables giant because that is clearly where the future is. But that's not what we're talking about here. China is still burning coal for goodness sake. They understand that to become a renewables giant they need to use fossil fuels to get there. We are sacrificing viable businesses in the UK who can no longer keep going because our energy costs are extortionate. Where's the balance?

Net zero being enshrined in law is part of the problem.

The problem is that when the likes of Donald Trump say that China is not building any solar farms or "windmills", and it's just a huge con they are playing on the west, and this is uncritically reported by the media, people believe them.

"A lie is halfway round the world before the truth has got its boots on."

Maybe we all have to accept that our lives are the problem. We create pollution no matter what we do. Electric batteries are awful for the environment and in 50 years we'll be looking for alternatives. But when you have billions of consumers always wanting more what do you do?

I live in Scotland. I loath the SNP and all of their copious waste.

If we look at the regions of the UK, SE, SW, London, EMids, WMids, Wales. Scotland, N Ireland, NE, NW the only regions taking more in income than they spend is London and the SE. And these regions earn LOADS more than they spend. The money going to Wales, N Ireland and Scotland is a redistribution of that wealth. Scotland gets a little more as it has more remote areas that are harder to provide services to.

Income tax is A LOT higher here than in rUK. It would cost £1.8bn a year to bring income tax back down into line with England. Thats like increasing rUKs tax take by £18bn. Stamp duty is double what it is in England (such a terrible, destructive policy). The extra council tax rates are due to start at £1m here when it’s £2m in England. Our household earns well but we pay £700-800 extra in tax every month for living in Scotland. If you earn below average I think you are maybe £40 a year better off tax wise. Free tuition fees cost about £1bn. Things that Scotland spends more on are mainly far higher benefits than England and they are easier to get.

Scotland is a pretty place to live which is why we stay here, despite the tax. The government wastes a lot of money but I don’t think the Barnett formula is that out of line considering SE and London wealth is redistributed throughout the other regions too.

There is certainly a problem and one that has arisen due to critical thinking skills being the victim of a worsening education system.

There is not a single one of these policies I agree with

On what grounds do you think the triple lock should continue?

You see this is the issue. Politicians are too scared of the electorate to make the hard decisions that need to be made to save ourselves from the current debt spiral. So we’ll end up in the debt spiral and we’ll get Farage in. And instead of policies like reforming NHS funding to reflect European healthcare we’ll get an American model? So we want that? No. But if we shy away from hard decisions that’s what we’ll get!

We need to grow up, stop whining, take hard decisions or we’ll definitely end up with Reform, and nobody wants that.

Can't really understand the drive for Scottish independence then....

It’s just bigoted voters that hate the English. Go onto Nationalist Twitter and everyone to a man thinks that Scottish tax receipts float the entire UK budget. Instead of correcting them Scottish politicians obfuscate. People genuinely think that Scotland would be far wealthier without being in the UK.

unfortunately these are the people who live on benefits or are in low wage jobs who would really suffer financially should Scotland try to go it alone. 20% black hole in your budget over night anyone? We’d be straight over the border to England as our jobs can be done anywhere. It’s others who’d be left o suffer.

The SNP have just secured a 5th consecutive term in office - are you really suggesting that SNP voters are all "just bigoted voters that hate the English"??