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The Government needs to take a leaf out of the Remainers book and deliver Brexit – no matter what it now takes
One of the oddest things about The UK – bearing in mind that we have what was previously known as the mother of parliaments – is that things have worked well for a very long time, based on little more than respect, a deference for fairness and a metaphorical handshake thrown into the mix somewhere too.
Regrettably, when you fill a Parliament with MPs who don’t understand the realities of genuinely doing what’s right and fair play, we should perhaps guess that it was inevitable that they would abuse this age-old system just as soon as they felt it was too important to do their own version of the right thing.
Put simply, the Remain-led Parliament that we have has broken with convention, simply to try and force through anything that will stop Brexit, despite everything that the People demand.
The government- that has a mandate from the people to deliver the Brexit that the Remainers are still trying to deny – should now respond by doing the same in kind.
When this is all over and we are finally out, there is no doubt that the question over a UK formal constitution must be answered.
We cannot step off into the future with the risk that fearful politicians filled with nothing but self interest can walk over our democracy and for reasons based on nothing but selfishness see a good future for many others, wilfully denied.
The biggest problem with today’s politicians is they don’t know the difference between doing what’s right and doing what’s right
The political culture from the top to the bottom of government is covered with a blanket of political parties and is a train crash that nothing will now stop.
Democracy is as good as dead and the people elected to lead us simply have no idea what it means to be publicly elected, to be responsible and to lead.
Politics has been taken over by people who have no vision, understanding or concept of life and what it takes to live in 21st century Britain – beyond their own.
So when it comes to making decisions on behalf of others, they genuinely believe they are doing the right thing. But it’s the right thing for the world they see themselves in, that they consider to be their own.
Until we have a Parliament populated with MPs who can step outside of their own shoes, and not be bought off by self interest, their career or any other form of personal gain, the decisions that politicians make will certainly be the right ones, but not the right ones where all of us are considered to be the same.
Changing Politics for the better Pt 7: Social Care
It’s very easy to forget that most of us will become old, and that 1 in 4 of us will require care in the later part of our lifetimes.
- Reversing the European Working Time Directive and replacing any other restrictive working practices that make workers rights more important than the ability of the organisation or business they work for to perform economically.
- Installing new legislation to protect employees that works sensibly and fairly for both the employee and the employer.
- Doing away with any rules, regulations and laws that mean it is more cost effective for a Local Authority or NHS Trust to outsource or contract out any role, supply or service to a profit-making private contractor, than keeping the provision or service ‘in-house’.
- Removing gold-plated and disproportionate pension schemes that are being subsidised by Taxpayers and the expense of service provision.
- Creating new profiteering laws to prevent third party agents or middle men from taking profit from supply chains at any stage, without adding real value to the services or products offered.
- Legislating to prevent Councils and Health Authorities seeing Temporary Staffing Agencies as an easy option to overcome staffing difficulties.
- Undertaking sweeping Public Sector Reform to ensure that Officers and those employed by any Public Service are ready, able, prepared and unhindered in doing their job, without the influence of blame culture, or fear of doing wrong.
Changing Politics for the better Pt 6: Governing the Internet, Social Media and the online world
For many young people, access to the Internet, Smartphone technology and publishing every aspect of our lives online is already experienced as being the way that things have always been.
- Removing the ability of all to be completely anonymous on Twitter, Facebook, WordPress, Blogger, Youtube or any other form of social media where commenting and the ability to openly attack anyone or anything is openly involved.
- Ensuring that a system does exist where legitimate anonymity such as whistle blowing or helpful comment and dialogue from those with a genuine desire to help others whilst needing to protect themselves professionally can also exist.
- Creating legislation to ensure that no decision that could affect the future and wellbeing of any individual in any way, such as credit checks & authorisation or CV matching can be fully automated or completed by algorithms alone without human interaction on the part of all parties involved of some kind.
- Creating legislation to ensure that everyone is automatically ‘forgot’ after a period of three years, so that everyone has the ability to legitimately move on with their lives, and only appropriate authorities hold longer term records on any individual or business and hold the right in certain circumstances to disclose.
- Legislating to ensure that any social media or publishing platform builds in detection software that will automatically trigger an on screen flag when formulations of words or topics that might be offensive to others might be involved.
Changing Politics for the better Pt 5: HS2 & Travel by Rail
HS2 is an unnecessary expansion of rail infrastructure using public money. A lot of money that could be spent more wisely and more effectively in other ways. A final bill that is only set to grow like the cost of Crossrail has.
- End the HS2 Project and take any so-called losses on the chin.
- Reopen closed line beds and stations across the network.
- Take franchises back into ‘public care’ and run them as commercial enterprises without shareholders.
- Increase capacity in the network by extending existing terminus stations, building new ones where services get ‘turned around’ and rebuilding those demolished as part of the enactment of the Beeching Act.
- Use Computer Technology to reduce gaps between services safely.
- Create partnerships with heritage railways to provide passenger services using their existing rolling stock and introduce green and efficient rail cars to increase capacity and services in rural and poorly served areas
Changing Politics for the better Pt 4: Housing
If a housing shortage forms the basis of the housing problem, why is it that every time a new estate is built, prices of those new-builds and the homes in the communities around them don’t simply go down?
- Stop the push for green-field building.
- Regulate builders and the financiers working in the property market .
- Make unnecessary profiteering on house building and community property illegal.
- Bring in a higher level stamp duty or purchase tax on second homes.
- Introduce higher tiers of council tax for second or multiple homes.
- Use a penality system to discourage houses in rural areas and by the seaside being left empty for days or even weeks at a time.
- Give local communities a real and meaningful veto over large scale development and not leave it up to appeals to the Secretary of State before a planning decision can be put on hold
Changing Politics for the better Pt 3: Money
The role of money is now seen and accepted as being a key to every part of life.
- Removing the ability of banks to ‘create’ money through any type of leverage process.
- Abolish the practice of spread-betting, hedging or any financial activity which involved speculation or making profits from activities which are at arms length from the businesses or bodies with which the shares they are handling are affiliated with, and so are not in any way actively involved .
- Create a Law to stop unreasonable Profiteering from any financial or business activity that removes agents and middle men who take value from supply chains simply by assuming temporary ownership and adding fees and margins without adding value to whatever it is that’s involved.
- Work with the City to create a new and hopefully temporary set of Regulations to restore ethics to all financial practices and above all refocus the way that publically owned businesses are run to prioritise service and value, rather than returning guaranteed levels of profit to shareholders.
- Incentivise banks to speculate on the creation an development of small businesses, placing the emphasis on there being risks involved for bankers too, rather than allowing them to walk away from opportunities that would benefit us all if realised.
- Create a new People’s Bank which will provide cash-free services to all People who are receiving benefits from the Government of any kind, and will fill the gap in supporting new businesses and projects for growth that the time it takes the banks to transform to responsible capitalism leave behind.
- Considering a reset of our currency in whatever form that might take, to ultimately bring values back in line with where they should be, so that those with much cannot continue to leave those with very little behind.
- Introduce a Flat Tax system.
- Tax all retail business at the geographical point of sale
- Remove the ability of commercial organisations or bodies that they have control of to oversee credit ratings and the influence they can have on businesses or individuals of any kind.
Changing Politics for the better Pt 2: Bringing Jobs & Manufacturing home
Globalisation and the Global Marketplace have been sold to us for decades as the place where a forward-looking economy should belong.
- Imposing additional taxes on goods imported that could be made or otherwise produced here.
- Taxing British Companies that have moved manufacturing to other Countries to encourage them to return.
- Create Laws and Legislation that underpins realistic levels of profitability, so that Companies cannot simply create a cost vs. benefit disparity on the basis of the money they earn for shareholders as an excuse to move abroad .
- Incentivize new startups and developing businesses that have the ability and desire to thrive in our Markets.
- Changing employment Laws to make employing British People more attractive, whilst ensuring that the choice for employees to work with contracts that benefit them and the businesses that they work innovatively are voluntary in every sense and not just imposed.
- Promote and further the concept of responsible capitalism and encourage a business culture where profit is not simply measured in financial return alone.
Changing Politics for the better Pt 1: Public Sector Reform
The key aim of my discussion on change in politics is to talk about Brexit and the possibilities that it opens up to us more openly, and how a good Government can go about putting the ideas underpinning A New Politics into practical and meaningful form.
- Create a new code of ethics and protocol that requires all public employees to fulfill both the obligations and live up to the responsibilities of their jobs.
- Ban the use of outside consultants, agencies or temporary staff to carry out work that a public sector employee could do.
- Ensure that Employees and the expectations placed upon them are realistic and where extra is required from them, that they are happy to undertake additional work voluntarily if that is the most sensible way to get things done.
- Stop councils and other public sector bodies contracting out services to profit making contractors and agencies.
- Reform and remove the guarantee of the gold-plated pension schemes and put them on a par with those in the commercial world.
- Reverse the reforms that Gordon Brown enacted to Pension Schemes in 1997.
- Remove the Working Time Directive and any Employment Rules that mean the employer has to prioritise the rights of the Employee above the execution of the job and the responsibilities that they were employed to do.
- Put a fixed, realistic and mandatory pay scale in place for each and every level, role or position, placing the emphasis back on jobs in the public sector including the benefit of putting something back, rather than being all about what the employee can gain from being in the job that they do.
- Take appropriate steps to stop ambulance chasers and everything that contributes to the culture of blame. Public employees need to know that they are trusted to do their jobs and to adapt to circumstances rather than having to do everything based on a risk assessment first in case they should be accused of intending to hurt others in some way, or do something that could otherwise be interpreted as being wrong
Restoring Democracy Pt 8: The Electoral System
As with most things political today, politicians and activists have the common habit of blaming everything they see as being wrong on something or some factor that is outside of them or outside of their control.