UK: Fixing The System

I am creating this thread in the hope that ATS members can hammer out some creative strategies to help fix the UK system. I intend to post the suggestions to my local MP, without mentioning ATS of course (sadly mentioning this website wouldn't help the cause) in the hope that these views may someday be considered.

The UK political system is a great one and while i would prefer a republic, it would be very hard to convince anyone to use this system. We are sadly stuck with this monarchy rubbish. So instead of swapping to a different system i hope to improve the current one. The suggestions could be numerous about local government and spending but i will try and keep this applicable to the entire country.

1. All MPs should be unable to hold any job other than being an MP for their entire term. This means no directorships or anything else. Further if they fail to be reelected they should suffer a tax equal to 70% of their earnings. Hopefully enforcing this rule would encourage MP's to do the best for their constituency as their reelection would depend upon it more than ever as they would have no safety net.

2. No person holding any political office should be able to receive any money from private sources, all political campaigns should be funded by the tax payer within set limits. This drastically reduces the buying of political votes.

3. The finances of family members of politicians should be carefully vetted both during and after the politicians term to ensure no private party has manipulated the system and these finances should be open to journalists and the public.

4. All public spending decisions must be provided to the public, from the local hospital to the general government, every penny must be broken down, biscuits, taxis and bandages. The only exceptions to this must be the military and intelligence services for obvious reasons. Although a gross view of their expenses should be expected, as it is already.

This is only a small section of what i would consider to be good change and i am very interested in what others think should be added to this list.

I think this list could be applied to the USA as well.

Cheers.

Parliamentarians should be paid reasonable expenses to get there, get home and to run their office. Apart from that they should be paid nothing whatever.

Being a Parliamentarian isn't a job. It's an enormous privilege and not something anyone should financially prosper from. They should be allowed to keep their existing jobs, directorships etc ... but to declare everything so that we can see that votes aren't being bought.

As to punitive taxation on exit from Parliament, I don't see why. They revert to become ordinary subjects again and should pay the same class of tax as someone in a similar financial position.

The taxpayer shouldn't fund political parties. The ugly people who play politics for wont of a better hobby should pay it themselves.

Breaking the public finances down to the last penny is an administrative nightmare.

I suggest instead :

Withdrawing from the European Union. Amalgamating the 53 social security benefits into one, universal benefit & taxation system. Sacking countless thousands of civil servants. I'd perform a similar exercise in local government, reducing the council system to 15 councillors for each area who come together once a year to award contracts for services to the private sector. I'd vastly reduce the legislative responsibilities of local councils too, reduce it to dustmen, teachers, roads etc, the very basics.

I'd cut corporation tax, cut Income Tax and abolish VAT. Vehicle excise duty I'd abolish too, simply transferring the income from that onto fuel duty, pay off another few thousand civil servants in the process.

I'd introduce a "taxpayer card" which entitles the bearer to priority status in the provision of each and every public service. That means those with a record of contributing can see their doctor same day, dole scum will have to wait.

The devolved Parliaments are a waste of time and money. They'll be scrapped and if the Scots, Welsh & Northern Irish want independence they can take a vote and leave.

Finally I'd invite tenders for the construction of a new Royal Yacht ; the Queen deserves it.

Right. That's the UK sorted. Where next ?

Originally posted by Ulala
Parliamentarians should be paid reasonable expenses to get there, get home and to run their office. Apart from that they should be paid nothing whatever.

Agreed although i am happy for there to be government spending on homes nearby parliament. These homes would simply be passed to politicians who knock others out of their seats. This means after the original purchase the homes cost no more money (apart from upkeep) and the politicians cannot profit from them.

Originally posted by Ulala
Being a Parliamentarian isn't a job. It's an enormous privilege and not something anyone should financially prosper from. They should be allowed to keep their existing jobs, directorships etc ... but to declare everything so that we can see that votes aren't being bought.

The problem with them having alternate jobs is that it diverts their focus, further as soon as they become MP's they are often offered directorships out of hand. This again diverts their focus but more importantly leads to the abuse of their position for the interests of the companies they are on the boards of.

Originally posted by Ulala
As to punitive taxation on exit from Parliament, I don't see why. They revert to become ordinary subjects again and should pay the same class of tax as someone in a similar financial position.

The increased tax helps prevent the abuse of the system. Someone could get in to serve 4 years on the promise of a lucrative job after they leave. This could lead to a succestion of politicians who hop in for 4 years and leave. By increasing the tax of any politician that leaves or gets voted out after 4 years you encourage those who want to actually serve the people into the job.

Originally posted by Ulala
The taxpayer shouldn't fund political parties. The ugly people who play politics for wont of a better hobby should pay it themselves.

The public could fund politics at a far less rate than the private system. Imagine a simple system, cut way the hell down without all of the marketing schemes. They simply open their policies to the public and then debate them on tv, along with the other parties. Each party gets and absolutely equal amount of funding and we limit this funding to the top 20 parties to represent the majority of people.

When it comes to evening the field this would be the most even way of doing things.

Originally posted by Ulala
Breaking the public finances down to the last penny is an administrative nightmare.

Actually it isn't, it is already done and a lot of it is hidden. Local councils already break things down and often don't publish it.

Originally posted by Ulala
Withdrawing from the European Union.

While i am not a fan of the EU i understand fully that some things are beneficial. We need to be more like France and simply refuse the things we are unhappy with and accept the things we like. This leads to greater trade while keeping our sovereignty.

Originally posted by Ulala
Amalgamating the 53 social security benefits into one, universal benefit & taxation system.

I am all for "streamlining" (dear god i used management speak, kill me now)
the benefit system but it is really not as simple as you make out and the fact you suggest it could be shows you are utterly ignorant in regards of the situations of the disabled as only one example.

Originally posted by Ulala
Sacking countless thousands of civil servants. [/quoet]

I'm all for this, along with reducing the pay grades of many of the, Again this would encourage people to the fields who would do the best they can, we should include more performance reviews as well and tie them to pay.

Originally posted by Ulala
I'd perform a similar exercise in local government, reducing the council system to 15 councillors for each area who come together once a year to award contracts for services to the private sector. I'd vastly reduce the legislative responsibilities of local councils too, reduce it to dustmen, teachers, roads etc, the very basics.

This won't work for a multitude of reasons i cannot cover here. The simple possibility of corruption is an obvious problem here. I can tell you a story of a council spending 100 thousand pounds instead of 40 because of this sort of thing if you wish.

Originally posted by Ulala
I'd cut corporation tax, cut Income Tax and abolish VAT. Vehicle excise duty I'd abolish too, simply transferring the income from that onto fuel duty, pay off another few thousand civil servants in the process.

Abolishing VAT would be a nightmare, as would the cut in income tax and the other ones you mention.

Originally posted by Ulala
I'd introduce a "taxpayer card" which entitles the bearer to priority status in the provision of each and every public service. That means those with a record of contributing can see their doctor same day, dole scum will have to wait.

Dole scum? You understand people lose their jobs for all sorts of reasons including companies going out of business and you would dare to say they don't deserve immediate healthcare? What about people such as myself who contributed only to be struck down by illness? Someone like myself that utterly hates being given money by government, provided by tax payers and wants nothing more than to work for it?

Your judgements here are pathetic, ignorant and i hope one day you don't have to be put in a similat situation and have to realise your ignorance.

Originally posted by Ulala
The devolved Parliaments are a waste of time and money. They'll be scrapped and if the Scots, Welsh & Northern Irish want independence they can take a vote and leave.

They already did, they are happy with self governance and yet take the tax from England, but lets not get into that, it'll turn into a rather unhappy debate.

Originally posted by Ulala
Finally I'd invite tenders for the construction of a new Royal Yacht ; the Queen deserves it.

You talk of dole scroungers being scum and yet support the unelected, scrounging monarchy, wow.

I think the fixes that are suggested at at too low a level. If we want to fix the system, we have to change the way we get to choose and influence what our MPs do.

The first change would be to remove the party system. The vast majority of MPs are more interested in what they can get from moving up the party machine than representing those who have elected them.