Preferred Policies?

[[Finrod]]

So - what would you like to see adopted as a policy by your party of choice (or even by any party)?

The return of Grammar Schools?
School Vouchers?
Major changes to the NHS?
ID cards?
The burning of those who suggest ID cards?
Adoption of the Euro?
Less integration with Europe?
Flat taxes?
More progressive taxes?
Citizen's Basic Income?
Reduction of regulation?
Lower taxes?
Higher taxes?
Compulsory yoghurt lessons?
Increased investment in cricket?
The banning of football?

I doubt we'll get any form of consensus - but it would be interesting to see the spread of opinion.  

[Invictus_88]

Return of Grammar Schools, absolutely.
A reinforcement and expansion of our armed forces to undo decades of harmful cutbacks and abuse.
Legalisation of licensed fox hunts.
Flat tax appeals to me in quite a big way, with no tax for say, the bottom 5% of earners. Lower taxes, too.
Rejection of the Euro, or ID cards, of cackhanded US imperialism, celebrity non-culture and antimonarchial republicanism.
Deregulation of business to promote growth, coupled with closer economic ties to other Commonwealth countries.
Also, the removal or amalgamation of many of New Labour's crime laws.

Sound fair?  

[[Finrod]]

Invictus_88

Return of Grammar Schools, absolutely.
A reinforcement and expansion of our armed forces to undo decades of harmful cutbacks and abuse.
Legalisation of licensed fox hunts.
Flat tax appeals to me in quite a big way, with no tax for say, the bottom 5% of earners. Lower taxes, too.
Rejection of the Euro, or ID cards, of cackhanded US imperialism, celebrity non-culture and antimonarchial republicanism.
Deregulation of business to promote growth, coupled with closer economic ties to other Commonwealth countries.
Also, the removal or amalgamation of many of New Labour's crime laws.

Sound fair?

Most of them sound pretty fair to me. However ...
Although I like Grammar Schools, I'd prefer to go the route of making all schools independent, with completely free choice.

With the armed forces, the financing system is the core of the issues, as well as the stupid initiatives that come vomiting out constantly. A readjustment of the procurement system (so that, for example, saving money does not lead to punishment by the Treasury) would help many things, as would a reversal of many initatives designed to save money that instead have made things worse and cost more (Defence Housing - I'm looking at you ...). The £33 billion should be more than ample but isn't - we could easily do far more with that amount of cash if we were allowed.

Uniquely, I seem to be the only person in the UK who genuinely has no view on the fox-hunting issue. It was obviously overblown by the "look at the cute ickle foxes" side, but there are genuine animal welfare issues - but interestingly, the Government report indicated that fox-hunting was comparatively humane (they didn't make a big issue about it because it was intended to have the opposite conclusion).

Flatter taxes - oh yes. Tied into a detailed review of the tax and benefits system. When people ask if it's fair that millionaires and minimum-paid workers should have the same tax rate, the answer is: fairer than it is now. If a millionaire earns an extra hundred quid a week, he keeps £59 of it (£40 tax at higher rate, 1% NI). If a minimum-wage worker earns an extra £100 a week, he keeps, at most, £30 of it (in many cases, as little as £8.50, if he is in receipt of any Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit) - £22 on tax, £11 on NI, £37 on Tax Credit withdrawal. So the marginal tax rate on a minimum-pay worker is 70% to 91.5%. Flattening the entire system would be far fairer ...

(Oh, and lower taxes boost the economy - so more money for everyone).

Rejection of the Euro - absolutely. If we'd gone in before and had our interest rates fixed to the EU Central Bank - well, you think house prices are absurd now? They'd be double that. And the debt-fuelled consumer boom that is just now bringing people blinking into the light of a hungover day would have been an order of magnitude worse. Our economy hasn't miraculously aligned with the EU since and shows no signs of doing so. I don't often praise Brown, but in this case he was spot on.

ID cards - my views on them are posted in detail about 2 threads down - so you know that I am in the fullest agreement with you on that.

US imperialism - yes, our relationship has seemed more to indicate us as poodle than equal in recent years.

Celebrity non-culture, anti-monarchical republicansim - while I dislike these as well, I don't feel that government legislation has any role here.

Deregulation - yep. Worked in the past, works in other countries, would work here.

Closer economic ties with Commonwealth countries - not allowed by EU rules. And that is an entirely different subject ...

And on New Labour's crime laws - oh yes. The result of "legislate for headlines" is farcical.