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?

In the context that Labour promised us 1.5 m new homes in 5 years, that would be an increase to 300,000 a year, I would certainly describe the number actually falling as being a pretty big failure.

The reason the NHS isn’t working is because of the patients. I work in the NHS.

We give people at least four reminders about surgery and the things they need to do - when we call to book, the letter we send, a text sent to them, and a phone call a few days before. The number of people who still don’t turn up, or turn up and don’t stop medications or have eaten is baffling. It’s probably only 5-10 a week, but over the course of a year that’s 520 people who are wasting theatre slots.

They don’t attend appointments. They turn up to a&e with incredibly minor ailments.

I'm on £55k and I'd quite happily pay more tax to help get the country to net zero.

Relying on fossil fuels will ruin the UK eventually - environmentally and financially.

Not completely and utterly stalling though. We can play this game for as long as you like.

I have no problem with moving towards cleaner energy.

However the way Government are doing it is like someone trying to lose weight by going on a starvation diet… Yes, in theory it works, but in practice all that happens if you don’t do it in a balanced and sustainable manner that recognises the wider impact on the economy, is that you trigger a counter-reaction (eg rejection of green agenda completely by much of the population and voting Reform)….

Much like the starvation dieter ends up gorging on cake when they can’t hack it any more, undoing all the good work and ending up even more unhealthy.

The NHS has had real terms funding increase of 3.5% on average every year for the past 10 years. It is consuming an ever larger amount of the national income but services are getting no better. Does anyone question where the money goes?

To treating an elderly and unhealthy population!

Start fining them for missed appointments. That’s what works. How many private physio patients don’t turn up in comparison to BHS physio appointments? You know where you pay full price for a missed appointment? I get it’s practically nil.

I would like to see an end to short-termism and loyalty to parties trumping good governance.
Given the state of the country what could any party hope to achieve in five years? And again given the state of the country what administration can expect a second term?
So instead the parties just turn up to win elections for the sake of it.

Jefferson suggested a revolution every twenty years to keep government honest. How about having ten year terms, where parties or groups are elected to enact a ten year plan and then the whole party and key senior civil service figures are dismantled/pensioned off and ineligible for reelection.

I think its unfair to solely blame patients. 111 send patients to a&e for anything and everything. A lot of misdiagnosing and mistakes happen for e.g. im sure everyone thought i was wasting nhs resources when I was discharged from a&e with anxiety, it was a pulmonary embolism. I've had occasions when appointment letters have arrived after appointment dates. Or what about telephone appointments when you're told they will call you at 10am but don't ring until 4pm, then who actually missed the appointment because I was by my phone at 10am. But I think the biggest cost is admin errors how many times do you hear we've lost your results so we have to do it again or I wanted the scan with contrast and they haven't done that so we need to do it again or the wrong information has been sent so we need to do it again

Can we also fine drs for missed appointments

I agree with most except reducing benefits and minimum wage. How will people get by? Move somewhere cheaper?? What if you have 4 autistic kids and can't make them all share in a terraced house and only one parent can work? And you've reduced wages?

I can tell you where a big chunk has gone and will go - saving my bloke’s life. It works for me.

Two and three are incompatible. Those who fall into two would also fall into three. Thankfully the euthanasia bill failed or you could offer that as an alternative.
Four, incorrect, viable businesses are still working. We should not subsidise poor employers any more.
Five, I actually agree, but should be done incrementally to avoid homelessness as much as possible.
Six, seven an eight absolutely not. They are backwards measures.
Nine, very expensive, how would this be funded?
Ten, eleven and twelve moves the tax burden from the richest to the poorest. Put with your other policies would have people starving in the streets. Absolutely not something I would like to see.
Thirteen is something we should never have left. A British red line should have been to stay in these. The tories/ now ex tory reformists have a lot to answer for.
Education is important not just in those areas in fourteen.
Fifteen is far too simplistic and doing something to appease fascists is ridiculous. They would only push for more.

Overall the op is a load of unworkable, ill informed rubbish in my view that would cause so much damage to the country we may never come back from it.

Because in the UK wholesale electricty prices (the main determinant of retail price) are set by Marginal Rate Pricing. So the price is set by the price of the most expensive unit of electricity produced that day. Gas is usually that price. That wholseale rate is paid to all producers regardless of cost to produce.

So we pay over the odds for renewable sources.

That’s very rare - appointment letters do sometimes arrive late but many hospitals now use a system where you can access everything via an app so that excuse is starting to fall by the wayside.

I’ve never heard of results being lost so they have to do it again.

People need to use some common sense. My brother was in a&e last night after a nasty sporting accident and someone turned up asking to be seen as his GP had sent him to the pharmacy but he thinks he needs to be seen by a doctor. For a sinus infection. People need to start using some common sense.

She doesn't care aslong as it doesn't personally effect her

Yes of course.

I don’t believe that’s what she’s saying. It’s the continuous increase in NLW rise well above inflation that’s the issue for employers.

If the NLW rises had simply been kept at inflation from when Labour came into power (after at least a decade of major inflation-busting increases) those in NLW would be no worse off, but the economy would likely be healthier as a result, with more jobs overall, and more above NLW jobs for people to move into. It’s about balance.

Is it not 25% of appointment letters arrive after the appointment? I read that stat somewhere. I’ll see if I can dig it out.

1-3 yes

1. Not sure about this, people can't live on minimum wage as it is. We need to move away from benefit top up dependency.
2. Possibly but landlords will be up in arms, good luck getting that through.
3. No.
4. Maybe not 95% but 80.
5. & 9. No.... this one is for the planet. All new builds to have solar panels. Massive publicity/financial incentives to use overnight wind power.

10-15 yes prob although trades people are already expensive. Adding vat to lower paid ones won't help.

And yes if we keep persuing net zero and sort out the grid and storage issues and build some nuclear power stations, we could move away from gas entirely for electricty production. Cancelling net zero is shooting yourself in the foot.

It's not a game Blossomtoes, it's a serious failure to do what they declared in their first days in office that they would do.

You haven't had a lot of dealings with the nhs if they've never lost anything. Our hospital has a triage system so you would either be sent to a&e or urgent treatment centre. Nobody is in a&e unless a clinician thinks appropriate. Apps don't cover all hospitals and not everyone has smart phones. There is currently a thread about the struggles elderly and disabled have on this exact thing

As someone who works in the NHS, I’m going to push back and say that’s utter horse shit. Realistically what happens is patients don’t want to take time off work, or the date doesn’t work for them for whatever reason, but instead of taking some initiative and re-organising it they just pretend they never got the letter.