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?

Socialism sadly doesn’t work.

I would absolutely vote for you op, your transformation of the benefits system being top of the agenda.

@Goldenbear, it sounds like your parents came from a life of a certain level of privilege. They don't represent the average pensioner or pensioner to be. Your father would have earn significantly above the average salary.

In what way does the triple lock make pensions rise above economic growth? It is designed specifically to preserve the purchasing value of the state pension, no more.

If politicians want to renege on the state pension that's fine, so long as they return the NI payments with interest. I've had a long and relatively successful career and if even 50% of my NI had been invested I'd have many times more than the meagre state pension is worth. Bring it on.

is anyone proposing to renege on the state pension? I can’t see that anyone has suggested that.

I think mild socialism works fine in a country with high growth and an attitude that we should all work. See the Nordic countries. You need the growth there to start with though and you need to change the m mindset here to that we should all strive to work.

There is no other discernible reason why to vote for the SNP. They have taken income of over £2k a head more than that of England and somehow managed to produce WORSE public services.

The triple lock means that the pension rises each year in line with the highest of either 1) inflation or 2) wage growth or 3) 2.5%.

So if inflation and wage growth are at 1%, the pension goes up by 2.5% regardless. This is what I mean by rising in spite of what the economy is doing.

The double locks proposes to remove the 2.5% minimum floor.

As the OP rightly points out, we are not Scandinavian. We are fatter, unhealthier, more individualistic, less mentally well, more money driven, far more populated and multicultural. You cannot just copy another country’s policies and hope for the same results.

They didn't though, they both came from working class families, as did their friends, all of which have had the same outcomes. They benefited from being children of people who had fought in the war and a society that refused to return to pre-war levels of wealth inequality.

'less mentally well'? You do know that the suicide rate in all of the Scandinavian countries is higher than the UK don't you? I have Scandinavian family and know of at least two families impacted by that with the men involved having no signs at all, all leading very successful lives.

But how do you change the mindset of those who don’t want to work but are able to? I wish it was that simple.

In which case, you have to consider an element of compulsion, perhaps by withdrawing benefits after some notified period of time.

Indeed. It’s an attitude that doesn’t exist here. It’s about working hard to pay into the government to get better lifestyle for all. There was a thread on here recently about a single mother who didn’t want to work more than 16 hours as she had young kids. She wanted to just get UC to support her instead. She just didn’t get WHY she should have to work when she didn’t want to. This attitude in one person is shocking, but other posters were saying ‘don’t make people bully you into thinking you’re doing something wrong’. ‘You’re entitled not to work’, etc. it was really staggering, and perfectly illustrated all that is wrong in the attitude here.

Just like pensioners demanding WFA even if they’re loaded. It’s a very damaging attitude and is becoming more prevalent I think.

You can only do that if you can guarantee work - how would that be achieved? How do you force employers to give people work when their time’s up?

Sort out the costs of energy and start supporting small business over multinational disaster capitalists.

I’ve just been reading about the demise of glass blowing as an industry in Bristol, hot on the heels of the final demise of the last remnants of pottery in the midlands. We can’t afford this.

Both sectors quoting the cost of energy as the highest in the world - why??

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdrpx0xl7v8o

One approach might be to impose some public service "volunteering" requirements. To retain the benefits, you sweep the streets? It has not been done in our rural parish area since old Alfie (who was paid - 20 years ago) wasn't replaced (I'm not sure whether he died or retired). Now it is not being done at all.

The problem is most people on benefits now are either disabled, carers or work minimum wage jobs so they wouldn't be able to or have time to sweep the streets

From Gemini.
8.4 million UC claimants.
5.2 million UC claimants are not working.
Of the 5.2 million, just over 2 million are classed as ‘Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity’.

Leaving 3 million capable of working, less some circumstances like single parents etc.

I don’t think you can change mindsets, I think you can only change what’s on offer.

You’re not going to help anything by forcing more people to work for free. The trouble we have is caused by the mismatch in wages and cost of living while the wealth of the billionaires balloons. Force people to work for free and what you will get is open rebellion.

There were many who warned about creating a class of people who had no buy-in to the system on here, 10-20 years ago. This is the result.

If you did that you’d have to pay minimum wage, which would cost a lot more than £100 a week universal credit.

There aren’t the jobs, thats the problem

Convert many already given planning permissions into 100% Social Housing to rent and build them now, including erecting prefabs as a first measure.