The new Pub rules scapegoat the Licensed Trade in an abuse of existing powers resembling the actions of a police state

As we begin to stare Monday and the reopening of pubs and licensed premises in the face, the imbalance and general lack of fairness that the Government has applied to managing the Lockdowns is beginning to look even more sinister than it ever did before.

The way that pubs and the licensed trade have been singled out and placed right at the top of the scale of unfairness is quickly becoming a scandal. One that only fails to shock as it should because the whole Government narrative of control through fear is beginning to look completely perverse.

Not satisfied with the social distancing measures that accompanied the reopening of Pubs last summer that made many great locals feel sterile, uncomfortable and out-of-touch, the Government is now intent on ratcheting down the Pub rules even further.

They are piling on the risk of closure for countless pubs and community hubs that had already been at risk well before Covid arrived, due to the way that legislation had pushed hundreds and thousands of pub properties once owned by breweries into the hands of property speculators or ‘pubco’s’. ‘Money men’ obsessed with draining every penny of profit from bub businesses, causing countless bankruptcies and closures along the way.

However, what is about to be imposed in the coming days as part of these supposed Lockdown-loosening measures is enough to make anyone wonder if there is some kind of agenda at work, aimed at destroying what remains of the industry once and for all.

It began with the dubious requirement that has meant every pub business with outside space available and therefore able to open next week must hire marquees for what may become many months ahead. Yet there is no practical, real-world explanation telling anyone why the environment inside a temporary indoor space is safer than one that is in fact permanent.

Then it progressed to all payments having to be taken outside, when a substantial number of the pubs that can open next week don’t have payment systems that can be used or can actually function outside of the premises they are in. Let’s not forget that this news emerged yesterday, some 5 days before reopening, when there simply isn’t time to install new equipment – if it would be possible for it to work. And that’s before consideration is given to the additional cost.

Last there is what some will see as the final nail in the coffin. The requirement for customers to download and use the NHS Track & Trace app to log in at pubs at the time their visit began.

Of all the new measures, the requirement for customers to use the NHS App is the most questionable. Not least of all because the same requirement will not apply in many other settings such as supermarkets and DIY stores where anyone visiting in recent days will tell you that they have become far more crowded and create close-contact of a kind that you are unlikely to see even at 11pm at the local pub.

It is clear that pubs and licensed premises are being singled out. Pubs and restaurants are now being used in a blatant attempt to coerce everyone into signing up to and using an information gathering and monitoring system that in this basic form constitutes abuse. One that when accepted or imposed in other sectors and in other forms could easily become permanent and used for much worse.

So why is the licensed trade being hit so hard when other sectors selling direct to the public seem to be having it so much easier?

Each and every local authority that we pay our Council Tax to has a Licensing Department. District Level Authorities (Borough & Unitary too) double up as your Local Licensing Authority. They all have a team of Licensing Officers and Legal Advisors already providing a localised regulatory service that monitors and enforces Licensing Law not only for pubs and the licensed trade, but for taxis, gambling, sex shops and scrap metal dealers too.

So the apparatus and infrastructure already exists to police pubs and the licensed trade in a way that no other commercial, publicly facing business can be monitored and policed.

The Government knows this. It is deliberately abusing the power that it has available to control people wherever and however it can. We should be grateful that the Government doesn’t currently have access to the same functionality within the public sector to police other businesses and sectors – or on experience to date, you can be sure that it would be doing so.

Good leadership isn’t using the power available to you because you can. Good leadership is using restraint and doing the right thing for everyone when it appears to be the more challenging pathway to take – even when it appears there is a much easier way.

One of the greatest problems that this Country now faces is the diminishing levels of humanity and understanding that exist between people. Historically, we have learned and become adept at understanding others through the interactions that happen face-to-face within our communities.

Greed on the part of the few had already meant that many local pubs where locality and localism could reign were at risk. Now the Government wants to pursue policies that will finish them off so that it can bluff its way to the end of the Covid pandemic and to the next General Election, and somehow convince everyone else that this Conservative Government has been good for us and that it truly deserves to win.

Whilst many will refuse or will find themselves unable to believe it, we are in the position that we are today – 12 months on since the first Lockdown began, facing the things that we are, simply because stupidity in Government has been allowed to rule the day. It has been fuelled by the fear of those leading us and an obsession with saving their own necks – no matter the cost to everyone else.

The Government cannot see the damage that it is doing and how far reaching it will become. Yet we cannot get rid of them before the next general election.

By then, for pubs, the licensed trade and whatever follows next in their dangerous and disproportionate abuse of power – the damage will have already been done.

The Makeshift Manifesto

We are hearing promise after promise and commitment after commitment based upon what our current crop of politicians and aspiring MPs will do for us if we give them our vote.

The problem is that if any of them do get elected with a majority this week – and therefore attain the ability to actually deliver on any of the things they have promised – the promises they have made will look and sound very different when they come to fruition for many reasons, not least of all because so little thought and consideration has gone into how those promises were actually formed and made.

The UK is desperate for change

If we were able to elect the right politicians, we would not need manifestos at all.

Good politicians would do the right things and would be committed to doing whatever is necessary to get the job done – all without any consideration for what the impact of their actions may or may not be for them themselves, the Political Party they represent or anyone else who has influence upon the way that they think.

Unfortunately, we don’t have the option to choose the right politicians in the 2019 General Election.

The system that we have has ensured that different names, different people and the different things they all say won’t deliver anything different to the outcome or result. Anything and everything they do will always end up being exactly the same.

That isn’t to say there isn’t any value to the things that politicians are currently talking about.

Any good salesman knows that no matter how small it might be, selling anything has to be anchored on the basis of at least one truth.

The politicians we have are savvy enough to be able to focus in on topics that people will identify with and talk about them or make offers to the Public that suggest the politicians will address them. Promises that will be calculated as being just enough to get them elected – which is the only real job or purpose that any and all of these politicians genuinely want to get done.

We don’t know what the outcome of the Election on Thursday 12^th December will actually be.

But whatever the outcome of the 2019 General Election is, the fact that we have such poor, self-serving politicians as the majority of Candidates to become MPs means it is pretty likely that even greater chaos than what we have seen in the past two years is well on its way. That chaos may really begin to hit us all very hard in our everyday lives if there really is no change in politics and politicians continue to believe that they can continue to behave just the same as they are.

So what could politicians be doing differently now if they were focused on the right things?

Actually there is an awful lot.

But successful outcomes for us all means having new politicians who are big enough and confident enough in their own abilities, knowledge and understanding to know that the biggest thing they have to think differently about is the desire to always in someway feel like they are in control.

No, not the kind of control we think of like driving a car or riding a bike.

This is the idea that politicians can control future events by the decisions they take now or at a certain time.

They can’t and never will.

It just looks like that – some of the time.

So when I say that good politicians wouldn’t need manifestos, what I mean is that they wouldn’t need to try and bribe us with whatever they can dream up to convince us.

We would just elect good politicians because we could trust them to get on and do what’s best for all of us whenever they make a decision.

We could trust good politicians to do the right thing.

Real Change

Because we don’t have good politicians, it’s worth having a think about the kinds of things they would actually be doing with the power that we have given them as part of that journey of doing the right things on our behalf.

Below is a list of the kinds of new policy ideas and changes that good politicians might be already acting upon, thinking about, questioning, discussing, researching and developing right now, if they were already in government.

It is not an exhaustive list by any means and I will apologise to any reader now who immediately finds the absence of a topic or suggestion in keeping with this document that I have for some reason or none left out.

There is, in reality today a never ending list of things that really need to be done and these are just a beginning or a start.

This is a Makeshift Manifesto

The points are deliberately short to bring focus and attention to the areas that need work in Public Policy if things in this Country were really to be changed and there was a genuine, wide-ranging commitment on the part of politicians to really get things done.

Some of the points will seem controversial, like withdrawing or rescinding the Legislation on Employment Rights that came from the EU.

I have raised them not with the intention of upsetting anyone or winding anyone up. They are there to serve as a gateway to the reality that there are much bigger and usually very negative consequences sitting beyond the mantras and sound bites that are deceptively used to draw voters in. The sweetest sounding lies and partial truths that often hurt the very people that they are supposed to help as they appear to positively impact the people they were designed for, but then negatively impact the world around them and then come back to haunt those same people too.

The way politics and the media operates today doesn’t foster genuine learning, discussion and debate. It focuses on fear and encouraging instant reactions and doesn’t allow anyone to take the time to sit down, go through ideas in the right way. It certainly doesn’t explain.

For example, when talking about subjects like hourly wages and rates of pay with young people and students, they will most often only be focused on what the value of pay to them is actually worth.

Yet when you take the time to discuss and explain how the businesses that employ them operate and what wage rises will actually mean as a result of the knock-on effects to the employer, the customers and the employees just like if not them, they are typically far more interested in what has been said. Indeed, they are genuinely receptive to the steps that would need to be taken to make the money they earn and already have in their pocket have better value. They want to see the changes come into being that would change not only theirs but everyone’s lives for the better – again, getting done what really needs to be done.

So no matter how the following points might immediately make the reader feel, they are offered up as no more than the equivalent of a light being shone on the areas of Public Policy that need to be changed; in some cases removed and in others completely transformed, simply to ensure that the battle to deliver something better for ALL People in the UK – that MPs are not yet fighting – is ultimately won.

‘You can’t do the right thing because it’s too complicated’

This isn’t costed. It can’t be done. Things don’t work like that. It’s not practical. It’s idealist.

These are all reactions that can be expected at the end of reading what follows below.

During conversations with many people about public policy generally and particularly with people who voted to Remain in the Referendum on Leaving the EU, I have become increasingly aware that the majority of us agree with all the kinds of suggestions I am making and with it the principle of ‘doing the right thing’. But they also believe this kind of change is impossible because it’s either too complicated or we will never have the right people in politics to do what it takes to get these things even considered, let alone started, completed or ‘done’.

Whilst this view is completely understandable when considering the mess that British politics is now in, it’s because politicians have not been prepared to look difficult policy decisions and challenges in the eye and deal with them properly as they should that the UK is now in the trouble that it is and so many people are suffering across our communities.

Brexit is a symptom of the very problem where the politicians who have been elected and given the responsibility to lead us and make decisions on our behalf always take the easy option. Do decision making in isolation without care for consequence. And give us government that is always thinking about the next election and is therefore on the run.

The reality is that if politics was done properly in the UK, manifestos and the false promises within them would be redundant.

Issues would be addressed and considered by Government as they need to be, rather than being wrapped up in shiny paper at election time and sold to us as part of some grand but nonetheless hollow strategic plan.

Cost, practicality, how the system works and all those things may be very relevant in considering what is only list of suggestions for consideration that follows here.

Any one of the suggestions made, when considered or even enacted in isolation might be appear impossible simply because of all the other existing policies that already interact with that area of policy, which in the immediacy of that apparently broader sense might make it seem impossible for that one thing to be done.

But none of this is impossible.

In fact, we all deserve an approach to public policy which is not fearful of even considering changes to public policy just like these.

This means that we need to change the way that we think as well as the people we elect to think on our behalf.

Only when we have political leaders who think differently will we all see and then understand how different and how better things in this Country can be if our politicians are prepared to break away from the idea that achievement only comes from compromise when repeated compromise itself means we continually end up with all the same things.

We must have real leaders in Government before we can actually be led.

A small caveat

Everything that follows is basically a starting point or a means to reaching or finding a way to an end. The overriding principle is that we should make better and more effective use of all that we have already got, rather than falling into the trap of thinking that the problems that we have can only be solved by throwing money around or by replacing whatever the problem is with something new.

This kind of thinking might be representative of ‘the way that things have always been done’. But in the long term, it helps no one.

PLEASE NOTE: There is no specific or intended order. As a result of an attempt to avoid duplication (which may have failed here and there…), some points or suggestions may appear to be located under headings which are different to where you might automatically assume they should be. It does however illustrate the point rather well that no public policy decisions should ever be made in isolation as all public policy is joined up!

Thanks for reading!

Best wishes to all,

Adam Tugwell

7 December 2019

The Makeshift Manifesto – December 2019

1 – Taxation

Reform of HMRC to make it ‘customer friendly’
Tax the ownership of land, property and wealth rather than personal income
Tax Internet transactions at the location of the customer or the device they were using, not at the location of the company base
Simplify the taxation system, providing transparency and remove confusion
Aim for flat tax or limited tier system which is not based on the level of earnings, but where all earners pay proportionally the same
Aim to reduce and then remove VAT once all other parts of the Tax system have been changed and are working appropriately
New ethical ‘in the spirit of’ legislation to prohibit Tax Evasion or Avoidance where no preventative Law is deemed to exist or cover the abusive act, but where Tax Evasion or Avoidance has taken place nonetheless

2 – Industrial Relations

Reform union legislation to prevent and make illegal any strike that will or has the potential to effect transport and public service provision
Remove right of unions to have paid shop stewards or other union representatives on organisational or company payroll
Legislate to prohibit unions making donations to political parties, third party organisations or outside causes

3 – Defence

Reinstate National Service to ensure that all eligible young people qualify academically, complete parallel apprenticeships or undertake military training as a key part of their professional development and steps towards the workplace
Aim to bring all military hardware and software development and manufacturing into the UK or UK hands, outsourcing only where no other options are available
International Military Policy to be non-interventionist and non-aggressive unless directly attacked or there is a requirement to maintain an appropriate military presence overseas either to support UK Foreign Aid activities or as part of Partnership commitments with other Countries (NATO, UN etc)
Outlaw civil prosecution against any alleged military ‘crime’ – whether current, recent or historic
Continue with the Renewal of Trident
New Naval Ship Building programme to include adequate ‘at sea’ Fisheries Protection for all UK Waters
Rearm and finance the Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and Army to ensure that combined forces are able to cover all domestic and possible/likely overseas requirements at all times

4 – Communication

Support the telecoms industry to provide 100% Broadband coverage across the UK within 5 years
Ensure that all critical infrastructure and software is provided by UK Companies, managed and manufactured in the UK

5 – Education

Apprenticeships at 14 for non-academic young people as part of a change to ‘heads’ vs. ‘hands’ parallel routes to age 21 where education is based on experience, academic attainment or both, rather than just exam results and educational level reached.
Prohibit bogus or ‘worthless’ degrees
Remove commercialism from all places of learning to ensure that the focus is on teaching, not running as a business
Cap the salaries of senior academic and management staff in all publicly funded educational establishments
Remove ‘private’ interest in any publicly funded educational establishment or vehicle
Legislate to support Teachers first and foremost in the parent-teacher relationship
Add critical thinking to become a required part of all curriculums
Means tested paid tuition fees for further and higher education students for first time applicants of all ages
Means tested maintenance grants for further and higher education students for first time applicants of all ages

6 – Foreign Policy

Reform overseas aid to provide direct and meaningful support, rather than just funds or contracts to private companies
Contracts awarded to private companies as part of Foreign Aid should be given to business indigenous to that specific Country, with the focus that profits and employment end up in the pockets of local people and businesses – not simply back in the UK
Create a non-military foreign aid logistics and development service

7 – Brexit

Immediate rejection of any of the existing ‘Withdrawal’ Agreements made with the EU
A completely Clean Exit from the European Union on WTO Terms – as directed by the UK Electorate in the European Referendum Vote on 23^rd June 2016
No negotiations on trade until the UK has formally Left the EU and is functioning with trade on WTO Terms
No further payments to be made to the EU after the UK Leaves the EU
No balloon payments made as part of the process of the UK Leaving the EU
Immediate start on the alternative Borders option for Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to include the establishment of the Open Border Service
Immediate protection orders to safeguard British Farming, Fisheries and all areas of production at risk from foreign imports
Immediate implementation of a temporary protectionist policy on all trade with the EU where the products, goods, foods and services are already available in the UK, to stay in place until those industries can self-sustain
Immediate ban on the import of all EU derived products, goods, foods and services that are subsidised and therefore underwritten by the EU, unless they are not already available in the UK

8 – Business & Finance

Readopt an unashamedly protectionist, UK first approach to all industries and services
Adopt a non-global approach to supply chains and production
Require all UK Business to adhere to new Covenant of UK Environmental Standards covering all production, operations and purchasing within 2 years
Focus new trade deals on Foods, Products, Goods and Services that the UK has not historically provided itself or for the period it remains unable to do so
Reform and limitation of financial services and banking to restrict or where necessary prohibit the use of speculative (betting), futures and non-transparent financial devices in any form
Restrict the power of privately owned credit scoring agencies
Regulate and restrict current system whereby banks and financial institutions can effectively create money through system of leverage
Confiscation of all material assets law for all Bankers and Financiers who are convicted of financial exploitation of others
Sell here, produce here requirement for products and services in mass Public or consumer use
Anti profiteering laws to be introduced
Restriction of intervention and right of agency in any supply chain where no value has been added via the transfer
services
Punitive fines to be introduced for unethical business practices
Fiscal prudence law outlawing policy decisions based only on cost and/or spending
Reverse changes made by Gordon Brown and the 1997 Labour Government to Pension Funds
Legislate to restrict or stop Planned Obsolescence consumerism
Legislate to prevent private companies issuing fines for parking offences
Create new Parking Court
Legislate to remove the grey area where gig economy companies can employ people on sub-contract or self-employed basis without being a full franchisee to be banned

9 – The Internet & Social Media

Legislate to ensure that identities of all social media account holders/users to be known to publisher and anonymity of public user identity (usernames) only given for legitimate reasons

10 – Public Services

Create Public Interest Companies (Trusts) to provide all municipal services and services across multiple Authorities covering traditional County areas or similar
Create new standard or charter for public servants
End the role of ‘created’ and unnecessary add-on management, back-room and administrative roles
End policies which facilitate and allow redundancy and rehire
Reform Local Government & Civil Service Pension Scheme
Rescind independence in decision making of all QUANGOs making them answerable Nationally to Parliament and locally to the most appropriate Local Authority or tier of Government
Remove EU Tender & Procurement Legislation
Prioritise new, small and local business over corporate business for any outsourcing requirement that remains
New non-financial or indirect corruption laws for all tiers of government and public services

11 – The Courts & Legal System

Reform and reinstatement of legal aid with appropriate fixed fee format, legal professional sector pay and enforcement body to administer and clear penalties for any abuse of the system
Reform of legal profession standards monitoring and regulation
Divorce Laws to be reformed with first point of call becoming mediation in all civil cases where no Criminal Laws have been broken
Mediation to become licensed
Create Legislation to impede influence of obstructive and unreasonable Divorce cases not settled by mediation
Volunteer Magistrates to be excluded from all Family Law cases
Reform Magistrates Service to remove innate prejudice and political correctness from recruitment processes
Legislation against ‘ambulance chasing’ or ‘where there’s blame, there’s a claim’ approach to litigation on basis of blame attribution
Dissolution of the Supreme Court and return to Law Lords or system that sits outside of political influence
Reform of litigation Laws to support David vs Goliath cases where small businesses could not afford to take on big business when in breech of contract

12. Law & Order

All convicted Terrorists to receive whole-life tariffs
Referendum on Capital Punishment
End to Police Community Support Officers
End requirement for Police Officers to be educated to degree level
End to direct entry for senior officers who have not come through the ranks
Resume system of Police Prosecutions
Aim for all minor offences to be prosecuted within 24 hours of arrest and before offender release
All young people from age 14 to 21 years convicted of criminal offences other than murder, manslaughter or terrorism to be immediately enrolled for National Service
Decentralisation of Police Stations and return to locality Policing
Remove all targets and statistical monitoring of Police work that incentivises behaviour or quality of work

13 – Freedom of Speech

Protection of the tolerant against spurious intolerance
Right to be forgotten to become automatic after 3 years
New law to support freedom of speech and right to speak with removal of right to inflict views on others verbally, in writing or through intimidation or threatening behaviour of any kind

14 – Animal Welfare

Rescind EU Laws on Abattoirs
Support construction of new local Abattoir network and mobile abattoir service for the most remote areas
No animal to travel more than 50 miles from farm to slaughter
Revise Hunting with Dogs Legislation to outlaw illegal or disruptive intervention by non-hunters, remove any right to prosecute for accidental Fox hunting, whilst tightening Law on prosecution against those seeking to flout Ban using birds of prey or other by-pass devices
RSPCA to lose charity status, be taken into public management and given evolved role to support work of DEFRA and all other Public Services and Agencies dealing with Animal Health & Welfare

15 – Nationalisation / Public ‘management’ of Everyday Essential Services & Utilities

Place all utilities and services essential for everyday public use into non-profit making status and/or create alternative public managed business providing alternative provider to all customers

16 – Transport

Scrap HS2
Remove Crossrail Company and replace with non-profit making commercial trust with reformed management structure
Build new terminus stations in London and expand number of platforms at existing terminus stations across UK
Reopen lines closed by Beaching Act
Public sponsorship or loans to new shipbuilding enterprises
Create new system of Bicycle & Rider Licensing
Focus technological development on Hydrogen and Battery Powered Vehicles
Rescind EU Legislation requiring Professional Drivers to do stepped tests for different vehicle sizes in same class (e.g HGV 3 and then HGV1 only afterwards following a qualification period)
Rescind Driver CPC Course requirement replacing current system with short online course and tests as part of first Licensing, then regular refresher courses and tests online thereafter to be provided and managed by DVLA for all UK ONLY commercial drivers
Professional Foreign Drivers required to undertake same short online courses and tests to drive in UK in ALL circumstances
Investment in new road surface technology research to extend lifetime
Fines for utility companies leaving temporary roadworks without work taking place at weekends and during daylight hours
Utility companies to be made liable for all road repairs where they have devalued the structural integrity of a road surface

17 – Welfare & Benefits

Institute a universally applicable basic standard of living rate for all persons
Create a people’s bank
All Benefits to be paid into a cashless bank account with restrictions on payments tailored to the recipient
Removal of assumed right to benefits for any foreign economic migrant
Return to common sense approach to disability payments
End the use of profit making back to work training contractors

18 – Poverty

Introduce a Basic Standard of Living level based upon what it costs to feed, cloth, house and transport a person or persons living in a household at a minimum realistic level
Base all benefits on the Basic Standard of Living Level
Base all future plans for minimum wage on the Basic Standard of Living Level
Explore validity of Universal Income set at Basic Standard of Living Level for the short term unemployed to restrict unnecessary exposure to benefits system and culture
Creation of blanket provision of hostels and services for the homeless with tailored approach to individuals and arms-length care and support for those who choose not to use any accommodation offered
All supermarkets and food retailers with 3000’ floor space of more to be required to provide and openly promote food bank donation bins

19 – Food & Farming

Unashamedly prioritise British Produce
Require that all publicly funded meal providers buy British
Incentivise local and ethical food supply chains to create a producer to retail industry able to compete directly with National Retailer supply chains with food travelling no more than 50 miles from farm to fork
Replace CAP with short term UK Farm Subsidies
Remove all EU-derived quotas and restrictions

20 – Politics and Government

Reform of electoral system
Reform of political Party system
Minimum age of Town & Parish Councillors set at 21 years
Minimum Age of District Level Councillors set at 25
Minimum Age of MPs set at 30
Removal of Allowances System for Councillors
Introduction of time-served, time-attended, effort-made ‘end of term handshake’ for Councillors
De-politicisation of lower tiers of Government
MPs barred from holding second jobs whilst in Office
MPs barred from holding non-executive directorships whilst in Office
MPs barred from holding consultant or sub-contract roles whilst in Office
MPs barred from holding any company ownership role with a shareholding of 51% or less whilst in Office
Politicians barred from holding more than 1 Elected Office at any time
End the Police & Crime Commissioner (PCC) system
Local Authorities to be barred from using fines from parking and road offences as revenue or as a source of income
Lords to either be dissolved or be reformed
Reform of the Honours List
Reform of Commissions system
‘Cronyism’ in Public Office to become a Criminal Offence

21 – Devolution & Localism

All powers that can be more effectively governed and implemented at local level to be devolved to the appropriate tier of Government from Westminster, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast
Create Parish or Town, District or Borough and County Level independent local authorities where none currently exist
Dissolve Unitary Authorities
Dissolve Mayor-led Authority Areas

22 – Climate Change

Create a Covenant of UK Environmental Standards for all foods, products, goods, services, manufacturing and other items to be published within 12 months and implemented within 24 months
Ban on all non-UK based Companies moving into UK Marketplace which do not meet UK Environmental Standards
Return public transport to ‘public’ ownership
Improve public transport to levels that improve passenger participation
Provide 50 free journeys on one form of public transport per commuter per year
Prioritise carbon capture technology both for industrial and domestic use
Stop pretending that House building is the only solution to the Housing Crisis
Invest in water capture, desalinisation and storage technologies, where possible ensuring a crossover with green energy production
Introduce Packaging Tax to be applied to all disposable or non-recyclable packaging on a per-unit basis
Rescind decision on 3rd Runway at Heathrow until expansion will be at least carbon neutral in current terms
Legislate to make better use of existing transport systems and infrastructure prioritising improvement over new construction
Tax commuter journeys taken by car
Incentivise reduction of car-to-school journeys for children of secondary school age and where adequate and appropriate educational transport or public transport provision exists
Legislate to restrict or stop Planned Obsolescence consumerism
Subsidise network of community car sharing pools
Tax ownership of fossil fuel resources on an annual basis
Ban imports of all products not manufactured to UK environmental standards

23 – Planning

Dissolve Local Planning Committee structure and remove politicisation
Legislate to create Local Planning Courts
Create new Government Planning Investigation Unit with remit to investigate historic consent, overturn decisions not made in the Public Interest and given the right to seize land and property where corruption of any kind has been found or to instruct the immediate return of land or infrastructure to the previous state it was in before the Application(s) was/were made at the cost of the Applicant.
Reform Planning Policy to remove anchors for interpretation and focus decision making on real-life effects and locality
Create National Framework of Planning Policies to be adopted and tailored locally and left as stand-alone except in times of National Emergency or need

24 – Environment

All flood plain building and restructuring to be immediately banned
Revision of Flooding policy to include equal weighting being given to Fluvial and Pluvial flooding
Return to regular dredging and clearance of all river systems

25 – Housing

Tax all multiple home ownership at increasing levels per unit and/or depending upon size and unused capacity
Introduce staggered and increasing stamp duty upon all multiple house purchases
Regulate profit margin per new house for house builders
Introduce Tax breaks and incentives for unused room letting
All local authorities to prioritise local applicants for social housing

26 – Employment Rights

Step away from all EU derived Employment Legislation and end Working Time Directive
Regulate to ensure minimum hourly wage in line with agreed contractual hours, overtime rates (minimum 1 x 1.25 minimum wage for all zero hours contract workers) and holiday pay on per hour basis
Legislate to ensure that all gig-economy-type roles pay ‘employee’ on basis of zero hours contract AFTER realistic costs have been deducted, whether technically employed or self-employed

27 – Licensing (Gambling & Sale of Alcohol)

Gambling industry to have new system of governance mirroring alcohol licensing where ‘point of transaction’ must be managed by a responsible, appropriately qualified and upstanding person who will be held accountable for the safety of all customers on the basis of legally backed right to refuse
Internet and/or app gambling to be regulated to reflect the above or banned if the industry cannot present workable solutions to support gambling supervision on remote basis
System of Alcohol Taxation to be introduced to encourage use of Pubs, Restaurants and Social Clubs for drinking

28 – Health & the NHS

Top to bottom reform
Removal of unnecessary or created backroom management functions
Ban on consultancy buy-in for management purposes
Devolution of management to ward level
Supply purchasing to be returned to strategic, cross-NHS level
Dissolution of all remaining PFI Contracts
Social Care to be managed by NHS
Regulation of damages payouts to cover legal costs
Creation of Damages Court to filter spurious complaints
Legalisation of ‘Right to Die’ under 3x ‘unknown’ doctor sign-off system
Sex Industry to be legalised, Regulated and managed as a Public Health concern

29 – Science & Technology

UK First Policy
Regulate ownership to restrict foreign influence and call upon new technologies
Subsidise development of real technology
New public managed pharmaceutical development company
Incentivise scientific development, automation and artificial intelligence only to improve production, output and quality – not purely for financial purposes
Revise policy on foreign investment to ensure that Companies and Technologies critical to the UK remain in UK hands

30 – The Monarchy

Immediate scaling down to preclude ‘shirt tail’ and no longer relevant Royals
Remove any obstacle to prosecution under all UK Laws for any Member of the Royal Family, whether perceived or otherwise.
Further Royal Palaces to be given over to Public use as museums and tourist attractions
Crown Properties to be returned fully to Public hands with no income paid to Members of the Royal Family from profits

31 – Voluntary Sector, Charities & Charitable Giving

Review of Charities and fundraising to remove unnecessary and unhelpful duplication of services
Create a centralised charity giving system or personal account, possibly managed by HMRC where money is deducted at source and then allocated according to the choice of the individual with gift aid automatically added

The list above is not exhaustive by any means. There is plenty more.

If you would like to download the pdf version of this Blog, please click here: Makeshift Manifesto PDF2

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Yes – Taxi Driver Qualification could be tighter, but further centralisation of the rules will discriminate against good driver applicants as well as bad

One of the most tragic ways that MPs and Politicians fail the Electorate, is by giving excessive weight to the advice and input from membership organisations that sell and portray themselves as representative of entire demographics or communities. For they are susceptible to the very same biases, tunnel vision and levels of self interest on the part of their representatives and leaders that the MP would be expected to consider if they were just talking to any one person alone.

All too often, Ministers who have little or no real-world experience of their brief or the wherewithal to understand at an intrinsic level, what someone is telling them who has, respond in knee-jerk fashion to what these organisations tell them. They are under the misapprehension that the words of such representatives genuinely reflect the will and desires of whole swathes of the Electorate, when reality is that they seldom do any such thing.

With four years experience as a Licensing Chair which ended in 2015, I was intrigued to hear the news that the Government is now to Consult on changing the qualification rules for Taxi, Hackney and Private Hire Drivers. The direction of travel suggested being to emphasise that the rules governing their Regulation should become more uniform, and therefore centralised so that an applicant or driver dealing with one Licensing Authority would now be effectively dealing with them all as one.

In principle this sounds good. There is definitely a disconnect between the reality that Drivers are often only Registered or ‘Licensed’ by one Local Authority, but in almost every case other than a large Licensing Area such as London, they will cross into the jurisdiction of at least one and possible many others perhaps as often as every day.

This does indeed leave grey areas over infringements in the regulatory sense. But more importantly where existing Taxi Drivers and their Operating Companies are concerned, there is a big issue over outsiders treading on toes. Vehicles from other areas are perceived to be stealing business from ‘local firms’ with the subsequent suggestion that the Authority Licensing that ‘outsider driver’, employs a policy where anything goes.

Because Taxi Licensing Policy is open to localised tweaks, additions and therefore non-adoption of policies which might have been adopted elsewhere too, it is easy to give fictitious credence to the arguments that roll away from myth that every Authority is run differently.

The reality is that the rules governing all forms of Licensing are already heavily centralised, have been set in London and in the main part with basic issues like qualification, are pretty much consistent wherever you might go.

Unfortunately, the Taxi Lobby has form when it comes to influencing Politicians to change rules for their own ends.

A decade ago, changes to the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 closed a loop-hole preventing private drivers from gaining a fee for transporting Special Educational Needs Students between their homes, schools and colleges. Sold as a way to raise safety standards, the outcome of this ring-fencing of local authority contracts to a the closed audience which lobbied for it landed Local Educational Authorities with an average additional annual bill of at least £1 Million, without any indication that the benefit to the end user at larger was in any way improved.

Yes, there is always a need to make sure that the rules are tight. But rules can also be twisted to benefit those with the most to gain whilst there is a significant cost to others.

We should all be very concerned about the potential for further regulation which is being sold as being in the best interests of the Public, that may actually only favour particular types of operators, has the potential to price others out of the marketplace and put up prices for all customers.

All this at a time when Taxis themselves are increasingly the only lifeline available for people disadvantaged by the remote nature of their communities, where commercialisation of public services has failed them more than perhaps most.

Like Planning Law, which is often perceived mistakenly as being set locally by District Level Authorities, Licensing is predominantly set centrally already. It is just interpreted in the main part by Local Licensing Authorities.

In what is a typically quasi-judicial setting that some would recognise as not being massively dissimilar to the Magistrates Court, applications and reviews that cannot be determined by Officers under delegated powers are heard by a panel or bench of three of the Council’s Licensing Committee Members.

Within such a setting, there is regrettably always a chance that because of the inconsistency in the quality, approach and motivation of local Politicians – as with Parliament – that you will get a different outcome from a hearing. It is very much dependent upon who is sitting, who is chairing and facilitating, how they interpret the evidence given, how they are advised by Licensing Officers and yes – just because it’s the way that it all went that day.

It is here that there is real inconsistency within the Licensing system.

But this inconsistency needs to be tackled with measures put in place to ensure that there is consistency in determinations, that impartiality is the guiding factor in all outcomes and that nobody sitting in ‘judgment’ is allowed to influence a decision because of personal bias, experience or because they are on a power trip and want to get their own way that day.

The risk in moving towards a national form of Licensing administration is that it will remove what little flexibility is left within the system. Flexibility that needs to be monitored and improved, but not overlooked, forgotten or ignored.

Not everyone wants to be a Taxi Driver. Many people take on the role as an in-between to keep themselves working whilst the move between other things. Some take on the work because they do not like being employed but do not want the responsibility of being self-employed in the generally accepted sense and are as such making the very best of things that they can.

Yes, there have been some very serious cases of Taxi Drivers abusing the responsibility and the trust that they have been given. But whilst what those individuals have done is wrong, the cases that are now being used as a reference point for changing the whole industry are statistically very few, and like in many areas where Government Policy is being used to pursue the passions of the few, there is an inherent danger to this of the tail being used to wag the whole dog.

The signifiant danger is that by appearing to tighten up rules which are already working well – when you consider that you will never create the perfect system, there are many would-be Taxi Drivers who could be assets to an industry which itself is facing challenging times, which will be denied entry to these roles at an incalculable cost.

People who could now, through the further synchronisation of rules be excluded because of the already overzealous nature of decision making in the public sphere, where risk of any kind – which includes giving people the benefit of the doubt when they are turning their lives around or are leaving mistakes made in their youth a long way behind – would be in much shorter supply.

Dehumanising the system might be reflective of the world at large, but the disadvantage and cost of such steps will be much more far-reaching than what will only ever be a perceived and tangible benefit to very few.

image thanks to unknown

Drink-related antisocial behaviour: Drunk Tanks, Minimum Pricing or new Laws won’t make any meaningful difference on their own and Government must accept that everyone involved has to play their part in tackling the fallout from this form of drug abuse…

Since I was first elected to the Chair of Tewkesbury Borough Council’s Licensing Committee, I have been grateful not only for my experience as someone who appreciates the concept of the Great British Pub, but also from that as a former CAMRA member and as a Personal License Holder in the work that has followed. It certainly helped in formulating a broad understanding of the current Licensing Laws and how they work in everyday practical terms.

Alcohol abuse and its knock on effects are and will continue to be a point of contention for anyone dealing with Licensing Law for so long as alcohol exists. The fact remains that were it to be discovered today, Alcohol in drink form would in all likelihood be classified as a Class A drug and under this guise would perhaps make many more people think differently towards its use than they currently do.

The reality is however that Alcohol hasn’t just been invented and with the genie having been well and truly out of the bottle for a considerable period of time, good regulation and management are the only effective ways that you will deal with this ‘legal high’ in a meaningful and long lasting way.

With this in mind, it is concerning to read that in response to the current discussion over privately-run ‘drunk tanks’, a Police Chief Constable has gone on the record to rubbish the 2003 Licensing Act and call for it to be scrapped when many of the principles within it do encourage a much improved level of professionalism and accountability within the Licensed Trade. The Law itself arguably only falls down because of the half hearted and ill-considered way that it has been rolled out.

To say that the issues surrounding Licensing are complex would be an understatement. The tail-end reforms of the 2003 Act within the Coalition’s Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 have ironed out a few of the rough edges left by the changes made to Licensing Law by the Blair Government. But it is still the overwhelming desire of Westminster Politicians to keep control of what those in Local Government do which creates the most harm when dealing with its application; all when the public are repetitively told that ‘Localism’ is supposed to be what the Coalition Government is all about.

One of those changes from 2011 which does give a small opportunity of genuine discretion to Licensing Authorities in what they do has been criticised by the Police because of its apparently slow roll out.

The ‘Late Night Levy’ or what is in practice a late hours surcharge for Licensed Premises opening into the early hours has in effect been left at the discretion of the Authorities themselves. Here we finally have an area of Local Government policy-making which might genuinely reflect the views of locally-elected Members and allow for consideration of the true impact that ballooning Regulatory Charges will have on existing pub businesses which in many cases simply couldn’t afford or justify them.

Understandably, this doesn’t sit well with Police Forces who not unlike just about every other public service throughout the Country are all looking for ways to increase income at a time when budgets are being repetitively slashed by Central Government.

This however isn’t good enough reason to rubbish the Licensing Laws as they stand, just as the problems with binge drinking and late night drink-related anti social behaviour should not be directly attributed to the Law itself.

It is the case that the problems should be attributed to the way the Policy has been applied and the failure of both this and the last Government to tie up the loose ends and then to proactively support the system that they have put in place between them.

Ironically, the 2003 Act provided Licensees – or Premises License Holders, with far more autonomy and responsibility for Licensed activities than they ever had before. Through the requirement of training and Licensing of Designated Premises Supervisors and the broad emphasis on promoting and embracing a culture of good practice, Licensed Premises should at least in theory be the safest places for Alcohol to be consumed and therefore the environment that Government really should be supporting.

The reality is however that the unhindered ease with which Retailers can obtain a Premises License both for ‘on’ or ‘off’ the premises consumption has made it horrifyingly simple for supermarkets to stack ‘em high and keep ‘em cheap when it comes to drink, without any real responsibility for what happens when the drink they have sold is consumed thereafter.

Local Licensing Authorities simply have no definitive power to dictate terms of Licenses which would reflect the true needs and requirements of any particular locality.

The one-size-fits-all approach of centrally-derived Licensing Regulation leaves Licensing Authorities being little more than administrators, unable to make truly ‘locality’ based decisions.

When they attempt to do so, applicants can simply appeal to the local Magistrates Court and will usually have little trouble getting anything overturned if their application technically meets Government guidelines – whatever the local issues and impact might actually be. I can clearly state that when the best that the Law allows a Licensing Committee to do is have their ‘concerns’ documented in the minutes of a hearing, you know that something simply isn’t working right.

Put a little more in context. ‘unregulated’, ‘unsupervised’ or drinking outside of a Licensed premises is a direct consequence of what some would consider to be a Licensing free-for-all and the frighteningly low prices at the tills that have made binge drinking as much – if not more of an issue than the ages old problem of alcoholism which itself is much more likely to be monitored and flagged with the watchful eyes of good publicans than it will do when simply kept behind closed doors.

Rather than support the resource and sometimes centralised social points for communities that pubs actually can be, successive Governments continue to oversee their demise and certainly fail to back up the application of their own Policies by stabilising and supporting these important hubs which could do so much more to assist in tackling what are very serious social issues if they were simply encouraged and aided to do so.

However, as things stand some 12 pubs close each and every week. In the majority of cases, these and their potential benefit will be lost to the communities around them forever.

Some will happily argue that pubs no longer have the appeal that they once did and this is why they are closing. There is some truth in this statement and not many can deny that the criminalisation of drink driving had a far reaching if unspoken affect on some venues as many people realised that the risks of having ‘a few’ were simply too high. Subsequently, social drinking for many lost the regularity that it may formally have had.

The Industry changed, especially so in isolated or rural locations where decision makers soon realised that pubs now had to have wider appeal and become a ‘destination’ – a route that for many has been found through serving food and the rise of the gastropub, where people now travel to eat, with drinking just being a consequence.

The ‘boozer’ as it was has since mutated to become what many now know as the ‘sports bar’ and it is perhaps these types of establishments which just revolve around drinking that are actually needed most of all but are more vulnerable to closure because taxation and the onset of the PubCo – the property portfolio owning organisations that charge ridiculous levels of rent for the pubs they own and then seek to take unrealistic margins off just about everything a pub sells via a ‘must buy through us’ caveat or ‘tie’ that makes many already struggling pubs simply impossible to run profitably.

Because of such ‘ties’, rented or leased pubs are left selling overpriced alcohol to customers who in today’s climate are driven greatly by price and rarely by the venue itself when alcohol consumption is the primary reason for going out.

Young people do much of their drinking before they even get to late night venues consuming cheap supermarket drink and yet there seems to be a view that it is these late night premises-based businesses that should pick up the tab, simply because they were the last place that the antisocial drunks had visited.

Few of us appreciate or actually condone antisocial behaviour, but the issues that lead people to behave in the way that they clearly do are reflective of a plethora of social issues which go way beyond the sale of Alcohol itself. As drug taking and drinking is considered by many to be an act of escapism for people who are unhappy at a deeper level, a good place for those in power to start this journey might very well be to ask the simple question ‘why’?

As a Licensing Chair, I do not believe the Government has anywhere near the full measure of the situation beyond that which it sees on paper. It is only through a process of change and of considering the full impact of all elements which are at play within the UK drinks industry and then by making policy changes which are real-solutions driven and take into account the role that all will play, that we will then have Laws in place that really will serve drinks producers, retailers, drinkers and the general public as best they can.

Without taking a comprehensive or ‘holistic’ approach like this, problems will continue and may well reach a point where options available right now, simply don’t exist even in the near future because the resources no longer exist to support them. My starting suggestions would be:

Level the playing field:

Stop what is in effect pub ‘franchising’ and prevent price escalation through profiteering by PubCo’s. A simple way to do this would be to make it illegal for the owner or premises leaseholder of pubs to let or sub-let a pub to a third party within a contract that also places an obligation upon that tenant to buy any product from their landlord, their landlords agents or any company nominated by them.
Forget minimum prices across the board, but stop off licenses and supermarkets from selling at or below the equivalent price of pubs in their Licensing Area. Making it illegal for retailers to undercut pubs would almost certainly make pubs more attractive for drinkers than they have been and take a lot of drinking off the streets. Retailers could be required to pay the additional margin or an appropriate tax into a scheme which could support local Policing and facilities such as drunk tanks, which with public services continuing to shrink, could still very much have a place.

Incentivise pub use:

Lower duty on barrel and bulk supplied alcohol. This would potentially make pub alcohol cheaper still and would have the added environmentally friendly bonus of removing the need for all that packaging with pub glasses being reusable!
Replace Business Rates on Pubs with a turnover related fee or supplementary tax. This would help new and struggling businesses to keep contributions relative to what they are earning and would have the benefit to the Local Authority of potentially contributing more when pubs are or have become more successful.

Give Licensing Authorities more scope:

Let Licenses be set locally and limit the right of appeal. The Government should simply set Licensing principles and give the autonomy back to Councils to decide upon what terms Licenses should be granted against these with the balance of power in their interpretation placed back with the Authorities themselves and not ultimately with Magistrates who will arguably see Licensing Appeals as an unnecessary drain on their time. Local representatives are best placed to deal with local issues and no business should be able to just do what they want simply because they have the money available to exhaust the process to a level where those deciding are too far away from the issues placed within their care.

Tighten the existing Regulations:

Make it a requirement that there is always a Personal License Holder either serving or within supervisory reach when a pub is serving. This would ensure that someone properly qualified and aware of the requirements of Licensing Legislation – but more importantly that the focus on responsible drinking are always maintained is on site and available to make decisions at all times.

There are likely to be many other tried, tested and also innovative ways that problems like drink related antisocial behaviour can be addressed, but this whole issue is a classic iceberg metaphor and very few of those with influence are looking very hard at what lies beneath the surface.

The wrong voices have too much power when it comes to Licensing related issues and more notice must be taken of UK wide interest groups like CAMRA and more localised community organisations, who have a definable cause promoting the interests of end users or the people who are actually affected at street-by-street level, rather than simple referral to the default-setting or usual suspect reference points such as Brewers, PubCo’s, Supermarkets and yes, the Police – all of whom do have particular and usually very specific motivations for pursuing a particular approach.

As with many areas of life where the Government is responsible for some form of legislation or service provision, the issues and key elements of the situation are often much more widespread than many realise.

The point here is that the general public simply will not experience genuine and long-term improvement until those in power actually consider all these factors and then delivers solutions which really are in the best interests of all the stakeholders involved, but primarily the people who put them there first.

Like Planning, Licensing must be put back in to local hands where an appropriate and real-life form of discretion can be applied to its use.

Rather than just tell us that they are all about Localism, the Government should actually be all about Localism and tackling the real-world realities of drink abuse, the behaviour of the industries behind it and the Licensing related issues which affect it would be one on a very long list of good places to start.

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