It’s going to be a very strange Queen’s Speech today, delivered by Prince Charles. The Queen was well over everyone else’s retirement age quarter of a century ago and it has been amazing that she was able to continue with this ceremony until last year.
There is no doubt that the words Prince Charles will deliver, written for him by the most illiberal Government of the Queen’s reign, will be utterly vomit inducing for most people reading this site. Protest rights and human rights under threat, absolutely nothing to address rising poverty and hunger in this country.
Alistair Carmichael had this to say on measures to limit the right to protest:
These dangerous and draconian plans aren’t about stopping guerilla protestors – the police already have the powers to stop them. Instead, this is yet another desperate attempt to distract from a failing Government that is running out of steam.
Last week, millions of people across the country sent a signal to the Conservatives that they were fed up with being taken for granted. Yet now we see they have nothing new to offer.
So rather than wasting time recycling discredited plans, which have already been rejected by Parliament, Ministers should be taking real action to tackle the cost of living crisis which is hurting families across the country.
So we thought it might be an idea to ask you what you would like to see? What one piece of legislation would you introduce to make life better for people and why?
It might be a complete overhaul of our immigration system to ensure that people are treated with dignity and compassion with a presumption that people who love each other should be able to live together, it could be securing the electoral reform that protects against a Government having disproportionate power without legitimacy, it could be measures to tackle violence against women and girls, it could be ensuring that everyone has the basics they need to thrive, not just survive. And then of course there is the not inconsequential matter of saving the planet.
Go ahead and light up the comments with a vision of how life could be if we had a decent, liberal government that gave a damn about people.
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14 Comments
The government talks about “levelling up”. There is also a need to “level down”. There are two groups of people who seem to have a right to print money:
1. Private company executives. There seems to be a cartel of major shareholders who vote through exorbitant pay packages at the annual shareholder meetings. A solution could be to increase the top rates of tax.
2. Private landlords. There is no control over their tendency to increase rents. It is now more expensive to rent than to service a mortgage. Possible solutions could be rent controls and reducing the deposits required for buying.
Hi James,
Shareholders in general do not want company executives – their managers – to be paid disgusting sums of money, for obvious reasons.
For some years now, small shareholders in the UK have been trying to curb executive greed. Some institutions – pension funds etc have joined this tendency.
The way boards are set up means remuneration committees and independent directors are not in fact independent at all. There are clear incentives for directors’ mutual back scratching.
In a minority of companies, directors are also the major shareholders. And are in an even better position to take advantage.
I strongly agree there need to be serious curbs on executive pay levels. The best way to do this would be with a series of measures empowering minority shareholders.
I hope this is of some help.
I’d like a change to the planning laws so that councils can acquire land at current use value, and keep the uplift from granting planning permission to build residential. That would enable social housing to be built far cheaper than now, when the value uplift is captured by the previous owner for doing nothing useful.
I’d like a bill that would immediately dismiss MPs and Ministers from Parliament if they lie to Parliament .
There are three “small Scale” Bills I would like to see. In no particular order:
In my area we have a planning issue where greenbelt is built on by firstly, applying for PP to build Stables (which are permitted developments in the greenbelt as they are deemed to be ‘recreational’), which two years later, are “converted” into houses / holiday lets. As there is already a building in situ, we find it very hard to legally refuse PP. Either remove stables as permitted development, or disallow their conversion to houses.
Make the UK Government the biggest and best micro-lender in the world! Allow the state to offer, via the benefits system, an advance of say, up to £200.00 against future benefit payments, at zero interest, to allow struggling families facing an unexpected bill to access immediate cheap cash. Virtually everyone will receive payment from the state, either as benefit or state pension, which can ultimatley be held back to cover any un-repaid loan should a person default, making it copper bottomed for the tax payers who will fund the scheme. Quick and easy and helps the poorest at minimal cost.
Tax Turds. Every time a Water Company dumps (he-he) sewage in our rivers, they pay a tax. Tax level to be higher than the cost of creating holding ponds for sewage, so encouraging proper investment in sewage treatment rather than paying excess dividends.
I would like to see a bill that repeals the Thatcher ‘reforms’ to the Official Secrets Act.
Aside: This should also be in the LibDem manifesto.
It has to be the introduction of PR. Without PR, we are forced to wait for FPTP to deliver us a fresh less-illiberal government. With PR in place, all the other things we might want to bring in start to become possible.
I would like to ban all children from any form of motorised vehicle (except amulances) This would ensure that all children walked to school alleviating some of the obesity problem. Rush hour traffic would all but disappear which would give cleaner air and allow business to operate more efficiently. Parents will take a greater interest in local schools, house prices (may) stabilize.
PR for English local government, without it depending on approval by a referendum. Here in London two of the Boroughs are one-party hegemonies while many of the others are close to it. We could quickly introduce PR by pairing wards to produce electoral areas returning around 5-6 councillors and change from FPTP to STV.
We should also authorise the Welsh Senedd to introduce PR for Welsh local government, but leave it up to them to decide on the system.
I would like to see the scrapping of SATS – and synthetic phonics. SATS are designed purely for the purpose of league tables (not required in the private sector where more time can be allocated for sports and arts) and are pedagogically unsound and detrimental. Much of the mental illness of school children can be attributed to the stress experienced by teachers as well as pupils because of this system of ‘measurement’ (largely the brainchild of Cummings and Gove). Teacher training should result in competent, confident teachers who understand how the brain learns and who have the professional autonomy to meet the needs of individual children and cater for their learning styles instead of constant ‘teaching-to-the-test and ticking boxes. A reduction in paperwork would give them more time to do the job they actually want to do. Scrap SATS!
An extension of FOI legislation to the private sector except where there is a security risk.
Mick Taylor 10th May ’22 – 8:58pm
“I’d like a bill that would immediately dismiss MPs and Ministers from Parliament if they lie to Parliament.”
Who would decide whether they had lied?
Laurence Cox 11th May ’22 – 11:25am
“We should also authorise the Welsh Senedd to introduce PR for Welsh local government”
Local government is a devolved matter already. The Senedd doesn’t need to wait for Westminster to “authorise” it to change the electoral system, it just needs to want to do it.
Jenny Barnes 10th May ’22 – 3:53pm
I’d like a change to the planning laws so that councils can acquire land at current use value
Add to that the introduction of VAT @ 20% on all construction. Given the average price of a new home in the UK is £274,000 and the government is committed to building 300,000 per annum, that’s currently a £16.4Bn pa taxpayers subsidy to the construction industry…