What new parties would you like?

[srb7677]

Any realignment of British politics and the breaking through of new parties is made extremely difficult by the straight jacket of FPTP. For effective new parties to emerge we first need electoral reform.

I think many people agree with electoral reform , but the question is how do we achieve it?

You labour party had thirteen years to bring about electoral reform. They have been talking about abolishing or drastically reforming the lords for over a century  , yet have done little to nothing except feather the FPTP bed in their interests.

Electoral reform will never ever happen in a million years while the english public continue to vote lab/tory.

I say english public as england makes up 82% of westminster seats , and obviously i hope my country is long gone before it happens.

For effective new parties to emerge we first need electoral reform.

This is nonsense ,and the snp have proved it nonsense.

England is more than capable of producing new parties before any electoral reform happens. UKIP were on the verge of breakthrough before the tories stole their wind.

I predict as england sinks further and further , eventually a new party offering something different will break through and smash lab/tory tennis at westminster.

The SNP took decades before they achieved critical mass, in spite of being aided and abetted in their rise by Thatcher, New Labour coming on all Tory, and the Lib Dems jumping into bed with the Tories. England cannot afford to wait that long. And UKIP were nowhere near achieving an electoral breakthrough, anv more than the Greens were. Even the established Lib Dems are struggling.

There are those of us within Labour who support electoral reform. And many others prepared to concede it in the interests of intra-party cooperation in a hung parliament. Winning that argument in Labour, then have Labour leading in a hung parliament, is our best chance of electoral reform, which in turn is our best chance of a remaking of British politics that does not take 5 or 6 decades.

[srb7677]

If I had to imagine up a party I'd stipulate 3 core policies that they should take much more seriously than any party currently is.

1) Universal Basic Income. - Under the unstoppable (and welcome) progression of technology future mass unemployment is guaranteed, before it's upon us we need to have a comprehensive system of support in place.

2) Proportional Representation. - No voting system is perfect, but I think FPTP falls well short of several alternatives, Single Transferable Vote would be a party priority.

3) Promotion of Critical Thinking - This would take the form of a unique school classes based around philosophy, and psychology, from the last year of Primary School until GCSE year (at which point the student could chose to continue or not.) the pre-GCSE classes in this subject are not marked/graded.

I like all of that. I think we will need a universal basic income at some point too. Technology and AI especially is going to cause mass unemployment, yet in an economy reliant upon consumer spending. Anyone see the problem here? The only solution is for us all to work less with incomes topped up by a UBI. This would likely necessitate higher taxes on earned income to pay for it, but millions in the bottom half of the pay scale should still be on balance better off. Such a measure would greatly reduce inequality too therefore.

[DeppityDawg]

A proper fascist party, naturally 

[T00ts]

If I had to imagine up a party I%u2019d stipulate 3 core policies that they should take much more seriously than any party currently is.

1) Universal Basic Income. - Under the unstoppable (and welcome) progression of technology future mass unemployment is guaranteed, before it%u2019s upon us we need to have a comprehensive system of support in place.

2) Proportional Representation. - No voting system is perfect, but I think FPTP falls well short of several alternatives, Single Transferable Vote would be a party priority.

3) Promotion of Critical Thinking - This would take the form of a unique school classes based around philosophy, and psychology, from the last year of Primary School until GCSE year (at which point the student could chose to continue or not.) the pre-GCSE classes in this subject are not marked/graded.

I am interested in the concept of your critical thinking idea. What advantages do you see in that?

Learning about establishing first principles of an argument, why you believe what you believe, logical fallacy%u2019s etc will lead to a citizenry that asks better questions and expects better answers (of both themselves and others.)

Would you expect teachers to be able to teach that in a non partisan way especially with older kids? I say that just because from a political point of view I have several friends who in various ways were silenced over Brexit/Conservative view points even outside the classroom in recent years.

I should just add that others with opposite views were not treated the same.

The teacher would not be teaching politics or particular views, they are teaching (for example) how to identify a sunken cost fallacy, these kinds of fallacy's can be made by people you support or reject, in policies you support or reject, and so on. The important bit is not what you believe about the person or policy, but about identifying when a bad argument is being used.

That could be a good idea. Students would be able to identify when they are being ripped off at uni for starters.   

[Nalaar]

If I had to imagine up a party I%u2019d stipulate 3 core policies that they should take much more seriously than any party currently is.

1) Universal Basic Income. - Under the unstoppable (and welcome) progression of technology future mass unemployment is guaranteed, before it%u2019s upon us we need to have a comprehensive system of support in place.

2) Proportional Representation. - No voting system is perfect, but I think FPTP falls well short of several alternatives, Single Transferable Vote would be a party priority.

3) Promotion of Critical Thinking - This would take the form of a unique school classes based around philosophy, and psychology, from the last year of Primary School until GCSE year (at which point the student could chose to continue or not.) the pre-GCSE classes in this subject are not marked/graded.

I am interested in the concept of your critical thinking idea. What advantages do you see in that?

Learning about establishing first principles of an argument, why you believe what you believe, logical fallacy%u2019s etc will lead to a citizenry that asks better questions and expects better answers (of both themselves and others.)

Would you expect teachers to be able to teach that in a non partisan way especially with older kids? I say that just because from a political point of view I have several friends who in various ways were silenced over Brexit/Conservative view points even outside the classroom in recent years.

I should just add that others with opposite views were not treated the same.

The teacher would not be teaching politics or particular views, they are teaching (for example) how to identify a sunken cost fallacy, these kinds of fallacy's can be made by people you support or reject, in policies you support or reject, and so on. The important bit is not what you believe about the person or policy, but about identifying when a bad argument is being used.

[T00ts]

If I had to imagine up a party I%u2019d stipulate 3 core policies that they should take much more seriously than any party currently is.

1) Universal Basic Income. - Under the unstoppable (and welcome) progression of technology future mass unemployment is guaranteed, before it%u2019s upon us we need to have a comprehensive system of support in place.

2) Proportional Representation. - No voting system is perfect, but I think FPTP falls well short of several alternatives, Single Transferable Vote would be a party priority.

3) Promotion of Critical Thinking - This would take the form of a unique school classes based around philosophy, and psychology, from the last year of Primary School until GCSE year (at which point the student could chose to continue or not.) the pre-GCSE classes in this subject are not marked/graded.

I am interested in the concept of your critical thinking idea. What advantages do you see in that?

Learning about establishing first principles of an argument, why you believe what you believe, logical fallacy%u2019s etc will lead to a citizenry that asks better questions and expects better answers (of both themselves and others.)

Would you expect teachers to be able to teach that in a non partisan way especially with older kids? I say that just because from a political point of view I have several friends who in various ways were silenced over Brexit/Conservative view points even outside the classroom in recent years.

I should just add that others with opposite views were not treated the same.

[Nalaar]

If I had to imagine up a party I'd stipulate 3 core policies that they should take much more seriously than any party currently is.

1) Universal Basic Income. - Under the unstoppable (and welcome) progression of technology future mass unemployment is guaranteed, before it's upon us we need to have a comprehensive system of support in place.

2) Proportional Representation. - No voting system is perfect, but I think FPTP falls well short of several alternatives, Single Transferable Vote would be a party priority.

3) Promotion of Critical Thinking - This would take the form of a unique school classes based around philosophy, and psychology, from the last year of Primary School until GCSE year (at which point the student could chose to continue or not.) the pre-GCSE classes in this subject are not marked/graded.

I am interested in the concept of your critical thinking idea. What advantages do you see in that?

Learning about establishing first principles of an argument, why you believe what you believe, logical fallacy's etc will lead to a citizenry that asks better questions and expects better answers (of both themselves and others.)

[Forum admin]

Thread closed whilst I delete off topic posts.
Thread reopened.

[T00ts]

If I had to imagine up a party I'd stipulate 3 core policies that they should take much more seriously than any party currently is.

1) Universal Basic Income. - Under the unstoppable (and welcome) progression of technology future mass unemployment is guaranteed, before it's upon us we need to have a comprehensive system of support in place.

2) Proportional Representation. - No voting system is perfect, but I think FPTP falls well short of several alternatives, Single Transferable Vote would be a party priority.

3) Promotion of Critical Thinking - This would take the form of a unique school classes based around philosophy, and psychology, from the last year of Primary School until GCSE year (at which point the student could chose to continue or not.) the pre-GCSE classes in this subject are not marked/graded.

I am interested in the concept of your critical thinking idea. What advantages do you see in that?

[T00ts]

Any realignment of British politics and the breaking through of new parties is made extremely difficult by the straight jacket of FPTP. For effective new parties to emerge we first need electoral reform.

I think many people agree with electoral reform , but the question is how do we achieve it?

You labour party had thirteen years to bring about electoral reform. They have been talking about abolishing or drastically reforming the lords for over a century  , yet have done little to nothing except feather the FPTP bed in their interests.

Electoral reform will never ever happen in a million years while the english public continue to vote lab/tory.

I say english public as england makes up 82% of westminster seats , and obviously i hope my country is long gone before it happens.

For effective new parties to emerge we first need electoral reform.

This is nonsense ,and the snp have proved it nonsense.

England is more than capable of producing new parties before any electoral reform happens. UKIP were on the verge of breakthrough before the tories stole their wind.

I predict as england sinks further and further , eventually a new party offering something different will break through and smash lab/tory tennis at westminster.

So which policies would you want in your dream party? Would it be something like the SNP or do you have different dreams?

[Nalaar]

If I had to imagine up a party I'd stipulate 3 core policies that they should take much more seriously than any party currently is.

1) Universal Basic Income. - Under the unstoppable (and welcome) progression of technology future mass unemployment is guaranteed, before it's upon us we need to have a comprehensive system of support in place.

2) Proportional Representation. - No voting system is perfect, but I think FPTP falls well short of several alternatives, Single Transferable Vote would be a party priority.

3) Promotion of Critical Thinking - This would take the form of a unique school classes based around philosophy, and psychology, from the last year of Primary School until GCSE year (at which point the student could chose to continue or not.) the pre-GCSE classes in this subject are not marked/graded.

[Thomas]

Any realignment of British politics and the breaking through of new parties is made extremely difficult by the straight jacket of FPTP. For effective new parties to emerge we first need electoral reform.

I think many people agree with electoral reform , but the question is how do we achieve it?

You labour party had thirteen years to bring about electoral reform. They have been talking about abolishing or drastically reforming the lords for over a century  , yet have done little to nothing except feather the FPTP bed in their interests.

Electoral reform will never ever happen in a million years while the english public continue to vote lab/tory.

I say english public as england makes up 82% of westminster seats , and obviously i hope my country is long gone before it happens.

For effective new parties to emerge we first need electoral reform.

This is nonsense ,and the snp have proved it nonsense.

England is more than capable of producing new parties before any electoral reform happens. UKIP were on the verge of breakthrough before the tories stole their wind.

I predict as england sinks further and further , eventually a new party offering something different will break through and smash lab/tory tennis at westminster.

[srb7677]

Any realignment of British politics and the breaking through of new parties is made extremely difficult by the straight jacket of FPTP. For effective new parties to emerge we first need electoral reform.

Were that to happen I think we would see a gradual realignment. Labour would split, with the left forming some kind of socialist and left wing social democratic party, which would probably cooperate closely with the Greens, both gaining parliamentary representation. Much of the rest of the Labour party would likely align with the Lib Dem left, but the furthest right Blairites would be more likely to end up in bed with the Orange Book Lib Dems and the more left leaning pro-European Tories. The bulk of the Tories would unite with all the Brexit mob types and the saner elements of UKIP, The rest of UKIP and the BNP types would form a far right racist, anti-liberal, fringe.

It is only for fun and I appreciate that radical reform would have to happen before the existing parties could or would change, but I was more interested in how you would see your particular preference. Would you take policies from various parties to create perfection? Are there new policies that you would include as important? What if we could clear out Westminster and start again. A chance to dream?

Well Toots, sorry to be predictably disappointing but in terms of policies I would start with my baseline of Labour's 2017 manifesto. Rent control and security of tenure in the private rental sector, more social housing construction, abolition of zero hours and faux self employment, full workers' rights from day 1, increasing the minimum wage to a level needed to live on, the right to request full time hours, lowering the voting age to 16, abolition of tuition fees, with modest tax increases for the highest earners and a big crackdown on tax evasion, plus investment in schools and the NHS and a green new deal and public ownership of the railways and essential utilities.

But I would also like to see a land value tax, with some of the proceeds used to cut town centre business rates to help rejuvenate the high street. I would like the removal of the exemption from NI for wealthier pensioners to help fund adult social care, and capping tax relief for pension contributions to the base rate. At the moment the lion's share of this latter, to the tune of over £7 billion, goes to higher rate taxpayers, ie the better off. The savings could be used to part fund income tax reform, raising the threshold for both it and NI to the equivalent of 40 hours a week at minimum wage. The rest could be financed through the land value tax, transferring the tax burden away from income taxes, especially for the low paid, onto land and property. I would ultimately like to see NI and income tax merged in the interests of transparency and simplicity.

Policies I would like to see adopted from the other parties? The big one is electoral reform. I would like a system of full PR drawn up and put to the people in a referendum. I would also like to see implemented the former Lib Dem policy of replacing the council tax with a local income tax. I would like to see capital gains reformed so that for short term gains tax is paid at the same rate as income tax, but with lower rates for longer term investments. Encouraging long term investment whilst penalising short term asset stripping would be the goal.

As a social libertarian, I would like to see the legalisation of cannabis for adults in private, and the decriminalisation of other drugs, treating it as a health issue rather than a criminal one, and taking the often brutal street gangs out of the equation. I would also like the legalisation of prostitution, bringing all sex workers under the full protection of the law. And I would like to see the abolition of sunday trading restrictions entirely, so that stores can open whenever they want to and people can shop whenever they want to.

[Streetwalker]

I think all parties steal policies from others .Many a great idea has already been put down only to be resurrected as a 'new'  one .
  Im pretty right wing in most areas of politics , believe we should have a strong defence policy and  a small government . Controlled immigration and zero policy law and order . I go all lefty though when it comes to nationalisation of transport and utilities .

So yes I would have a mix of policy from whoever and wherever and wouldn't be afraid to say ,'''a good policy I'm having that '' 

I dont like the party system . Too many in the HoC are there due to the colour of their rosette not their personality or personal policies . Its a bit of an old boys club  and #drain the swamp has some merit from where Im standing

[T00ts]

Any realignment of British politics and the breaking through of new parties is made extremely difficult by the straight jacket of FPTP. For effective new parties to emerge we first need electoral reform.

Were that to happen I think we would see a gradual realignment. Labour would split, with the left forming some kind of socialist and left wing social democratic party, which would probably cooperate closely with the Greens, both gaining parliamentary representation. Much of the rest of the Labour party would likely align with the Lib Dem left, but the furthest right Blairites would be more likely to end up in bed with the Orange Book Lib Dems and the more left leaning pro-European Tories. The bulk of the Tories would unite with all the Brexit mob types and the saner elements of UKIP, The rest of UKIP and the BNP types would form a far right racist, anti-liberal, fringe.

It is only for fun and I appreciate that radical reform would have to happen before the existing parties could or would change, but I was more interested in how you would see your particular preference. Would you take policies from various parties to create perfection? Are there new policies that you would include as important? What if we could clear out Westminster and start again. A chance to dream?