Governing for Success in a Downturn – Key Issue Series
We go behind UKpopdems published policy summaries to explain in some detail how UKpopdem goals and policies work together on one of today’s major issues.
4. Governing for Success in a Downturn
How to come out stronger than going in
The Problem
This downturn is going to be tough for everyone and ‘austerity’, a word we haven’t been used to in modern times, could be everyday life for ordinary people. The key test for government is this: is Britain going to come out weaker than we went in or stronger? What happens in this downturn will create the foundation for Britain’s place in the world for years or even decades to come. Will an incompetent Labour or Tory government destroy Britain’s economic wealth, social cohesion and international standing; or will new energies drive for novel and dramatic opportunities that give our country two, three or even five times the economic, social and international strength we have today? It’s depressing that neither of those two parties have anything to offer apart from tinkering around the edges of the status quo. They are burying their heads in the sands of political dogma and they’d better pull them out fast or hand the torch on.
Involving the People
Actually, implementing strategies to make sure Britain comes out much stronger is not that difficult. Just ask the millions of ordinary people, and in their own way they’ll tell you, that’s what UKpopdems has always believed. The reason Britain is in this state now is because big government has turned its back on the people and sees us as a series of problems needing to be managed. Government may blame external pressures for the downturn, but it’s the rot inside that allows those pressures to hurt. So the first solution is for government to get a grip and really understand what it’s there for; the one job it must not fail on: that is, to protect and benefit Britain and the British people. Everything else is just the intellectual pretentiousness of political dogma, which in a downturn is about as much use as a chocolate teapot and we can’t afford it.
Must do Things for Success
Jump over that hurdle and everything starts to become clear. There are seven key elements that, when addressed properly, will set firm foundations for future success during the lean years of the downturn: 1, preserving and building British jobs for British people; 2, encouraging the wealthy to come to Britain and spend in Britain; 3, supporting profitable companies and business sectors that can become dominant world players in the upturn; 4, empowering people to build resilience and encouraging them to participate in community decision making; 5, fixing the social problems of ‘Broken Britain’; 6, gaining control of our energy and food sources; 7, investing to present a strong, stable, confident and compassionate face to the outside world. Neither Brown nor Cameron is looking in the right place to even get a perception of these essentials because success demands that Britain and the British people must come first. All these things can be done with strong resolve, and once started will get easier. The vital strategy is to put forward simple but beneficial policies that everyone can understand and buy into.
Strengthening Business and Jobs
The first action is to support business and jobs by taking an action that should have been done a long time ago: that is eliminating corporation tax! This would reward profitable British companies, attract hundreds of new, highly profitable corporations into Britain and create tens of thousands of jobs. In return, UKpopdems would make employers take responsibility for funding employee health and implement proper pensions at 50% of final salary. This simple action is not only tax neutral but has multiple far reaching benefits. Eliminating corporation tax ends business tax complexity and the hundreds of millions spent on finding and closing tax loopholes. Declared profits and company values would rise because there is nothing to hide: highly paid and skilled staff would move their residence to Britain. Employers would not only be brought fully into the health system and help make the NHS more efficient, but also address the key social health issues and innovative preventative measures where government has failed. 50% defined benefit pensions are affordable, and making a return to final salary linked pensions is the perfect answer to the looming prospect of widespread pensioner poverty. Of course, the more profitable a company the more it gains by this measure, but all corporations should be driving for efficiency and increased shareholder value. Those that do it best will want to be in Britain, boosting this nations long term economic strength come the upturn.
Energy and Food
Making sure that Britain has the food and energy we need now and for the future is essential. For food guarantees this means making sure British farmers are rewarded fairly for growing affordable food of good quality in the most efficient manner; and opening up direct food channels from foreign sources, whatever the EU might say differently. Britons must eat and eat properly. This may mean investment in third world farming efficiency so that poor countries that feed us cheaply can also feed themselves cheaply, too. With energy, we can no longer accept very high profits being made by Britain’s utilities, especially when end prices to ordinary people are too costly, and the fact that most are foreign owned so that profits and dividends from British base assets go abroad. These privatised companies should be seen as public services and profits generated out of their British activities must be shared equally with their customers in order to reduce prices. In the medium term with threatening gas shortages and increasing prices, energy needs must be met by more coal fired stations where Britain still has a wealth of resource, with renewables and possibly nuclear (if the people agree in a referendum) taking up the demand as they come increasingly on stream. Once firm plans to guarantee low cost energy and food sources begin implementation and long-term stability is assured, we can move on to strengthening Britain’s social fabric.
Turning Government Waste into Social Solutions
To do this we must first ruthlessly find and eliminate as much government waste as we can and use the money released for the creation of true social wealth that will bring long term resilience and stability when the upswing comes. Over ten years, New Labour’s centralising state has created an obscene, bloated bureaucracy that can hardly carry its own weight. By some estimates its prodigious appetite for tax payers’ money produces £150billion of pure waste every year. For a fraction of that money we could eradicate violence by putting tens of thousands of extra police on community streets and building an adequate prison and rehabilitation infrastructure. We could support children and families with an education system that best suits individual learning needs; more special schools, more specialist teachers, more parental support, more early involvement and a curriculum that creates healthy, confident, well-educated adults. We could make sure those who need work get real jobs via UKpopdems ‘right to work’ initiative so giving self-worth to the many who feel left out of society. We could double the peacekeeping and reconstruction capability of our armed forces and thus react more quickly to the needs of innocent people suffering from natural disasters and evil in many guises. Addressing these and similar issues will give Britain the social stability and strength to be able to gain when the downturn ends.
Individual Empowerment
In a parallel activity, we’ll begin to increase individual family and community resilience by gradually taking power away from the political centre and the unelected elite, and giving more democratic power and responsibility to individuals and communities. The old socialist idea of a welfare state has turned into a nightmare where everyday decisions are increasingly made by local, regional and national authorities. The state has taken over the role of both mother and father, creating a nation of growing dependents. For the sake of Britain’s future survival this situation must be overturned. UKpopdems will implement an empowered, participative democracy focusing on individuals and small communities. This means that the combined democratic voice of ordinary people carries more weight than the power of government. It means individuals participating in local and national decision making on issues that concern them and at a time of their own choosing. The result of this reversal of the old order of democratic power implies strongly that politicians had better work hard to do the right things in the right way because, if they get it wrong, people can act together at their own discretion to override bad decision making. The social role of government is to implement solutions that maximise individual opportunity, and to make sure people get support readily when they really need it. Strong, confident, individual resilience is exactly what Britain needs to take advantage of the next upswing.
Investing to Win the Future
While that’s being done UKpopdems will begin to partner with key business sectors to capture dominant global positions in future markets through massive investments in development, quality, marketing and supply. Targets include high value-added areas such as finance, areas of defence like armour and aerospace, medicine, entertainment, engineering, sport technologies etc. Something like this requires not only single-mindedness but total commitment in identifying and nurturing talent. Britain has been a dominant world supplier before and we can do it again. Lastly we need to bring back the philanthropic spirit of old by ensuring that the very wealthy contribute more to Britain and the poorest in society and are happy doing it. People receiving more the ten times national average earnings will be asked to contribute directly towards alleviating child poverty. High earning employers and directors can limit their contribution by employing more people; especially the long-term unemployed, disadvantaged and disabled; or for making real investments in Britain, for example: British bonds and equities, approved charities, British goods (or that part which is British), and approved environmental measures. These measures encourage the wealthy to be seen as positive benefactors of Britain and society rather than in a negative light. This is so important because, in the next upswing, opportunities for national and individual wealth, growth and stability will be the engines of a resurgent, strong and proud Britain.
4. Governing for Success in a Downturn
How to come out stronger than going in
The Problem
This downturn is going to be tough for everyone and ‘austerity’, a word we haven’t been used to in modern times, could be everyday life for ordinary people. The key test for government is this: is Britain going to come out weaker than we went in or stronger? What happens in this downturn will create the foundation for Britain’s place in the world for years or even decades to come. Will an incompetent Labour or Tory government destroy Britain’s economic wealth, social cohesion and international standing; or will new energies drive for novel and dramatic opportunities that give our country two, three or even five times the economic, social and international strength we have today? It’s depressing that neither of those two parties have anything to offer apart from tinkering around the edges of the status quo. They are burying their heads in the sands of political dogma and they’d better pull them out fast or hand the torch on.
Involving the People
Actually, implementing strategies to make sure Britain comes out much stronger is not that difficult. Just ask the millions of ordinary people, and in their own way they’ll tell you, that’s what UKpopdems has always believed. The reason Britain is in this state now is because big government has turned its back on the people and sees us as a series of problems needing to be managed. Government may blame external pressures for the downturn, but it’s the rot inside that allows those pressures to hurt. So the first solution is for government to get a grip and really understand what it’s there for; the one job it must not fail on: that is, to protect and benefit Britain and the British people. Everything else is just the intellectual pretentiousness of political dogma, which in a downturn is about as much use as a chocolate teapot and we can’t afford it.
Must do Things for Success
Jump over that hurdle and everything starts to become clear. There are seven key elements that, when addressed properly, will set firm foundations for future success during the lean years of the downturn: 1, preserving and building British jobs for British people; 2, encouraging the wealthy to come to Britain and spend in Britain; 3, supporting profitable companies and business sectors that can become dominant world players in the upturn; 4, empowering people to build resilience and encouraging them to participate in community decision making; 5, fixing the social problems of ‘Broken Britain’; 6, gaining control of our energy and food sources; 7, investing to present a strong, stable, confident and compassionate face to the outside world. Neither Brown nor Cameron is looking in the right place to even get a perception of these essentials because success demands that Britain and the British people must come first. All these things can be done with strong resolve, and once started will get easier. The vital strategy is to put forward simple but beneficial policies that everyone can understand and buy into.
Strengthening Business and Jobs
The first action is to support business and jobs by taking an action that should have been done a long time ago: that is eliminating corporation tax! This would reward profitable British companies, attract hundreds of new, highly profitable corporations into Britain and create tens of thousands of jobs. In return, UKpopdems would make employers take responsibility for funding employee health and implement proper pensions at 50% of final salary. This simple action is not only tax neutral but has multiple far reaching benefits. Eliminating corporation tax ends business tax complexity and the hundreds of millions spent on finding and closing tax loopholes. Declared profits and company values would rise because there is nothing to hide: highly paid and skilled staff would move their residence to Britain. Employers would not only be brought fully into the health system and help make the NHS more efficient, but also address the key social health issues and innovative preventative measures where government has failed. 50% defined benefit pensions are affordable, and making a return to final salary linked pensions is the perfect answer to the looming prospect of widespread pensioner poverty. Of course, the more profitable a company the more it gains by this measure, but all corporations should be driving for efficiency and increased shareholder value. Those that do it best will want to be in Britain, boosting this nations long term economic strength come the upturn.
Energy and Food
Making sure that Britain has the food and energy we need now and for the future is essential. For food guarantees this means making sure British farmers are rewarded fairly for growing affordable food of good quality in the most efficient manner; and opening up direct food channels from foreign sources, whatever the EU might say differently. Britons must eat and eat properly. This may mean investment in third world farming efficiency so that poor countries that feed us cheaply can also feed themselves cheaply, too. With energy, we can no longer accept very high profits being made by Britain’s utilities, especially when end prices to ordinary people are too costly, and the fact that most are foreign owned so that profits and dividends from British base assets go abroad. These privatised companies should be seen as public services and profits generated out of their British activities must be shared equally with their customers in order to reduce prices. In the medium term with threatening gas shortages and increasing prices, energy needs must be met by more coal fired stations where Britain still has a wealth of resource, with renewables and possibly nuclear (if the people agree in a referendum) taking up the demand as they come increasingly on stream. Once firm plans to guarantee low cost energy and food sources begin implementation and long-term stability is assured, we can move on to strengthening Britain’s social fabric.
Turning Government Waste into Social Solutions
To do this we must first ruthlessly find and eliminate as much government waste as we can and use the money released for the creation of true social wealth that will bring long term resilience and stability when the upswing comes. Over ten years, New Labour’s centralising state has created an obscene, bloated bureaucracy that can hardly carry its own weight. By some estimates its prodigious appetite for tax payers’ money produces £150billion of pure waste every year. For a fraction of that money we could eradicate violence by putting tens of thousands of extra police on community streets and building an adequate prison and rehabilitation infrastructure. We could support children and families with an education system that best suits individual learning needs; more special schools, more specialist teachers, more parental support, more early involvement and a curriculum that creates healthy, confident, well-educated adults. We could make sure those who need work get real jobs via UKpopdems ‘right to work’ initiative so giving self-worth to the many who feel left out of society. We could double the peacekeeping and reconstruction capability of our armed forces and thus react more quickly to the needs of innocent people suffering from natural disasters and evil in many guises. Addressing these and similar issues will give Britain the social stability and strength to be able to gain when the downturn ends.
Individual Empowerment
In a parallel activity, we’ll begin to increase individual family and community resilience by gradually taking power away from the political centre and the unelected elite, and giving more democratic power and responsibility to individuals and communities. The old socialist idea of a welfare state has turned into a nightmare where everyday decisions are increasingly made by local, regional and national authorities. The state has taken over the role of both mother and father, creating a nation of growing dependents. For the sake of Britain’s future survival this situation must be overturned. UKpopdems will implement an empowered, participative democracy focusing on individuals and small communities. This means that the combined democratic voice of ordinary people carries more weight than the power of government. It means individuals participating in local and national decision making on issues that concern them and at a time of their own choosing. The result of this reversal of the old order of democratic power implies strongly that politicians had better work hard to do the right things in the right way because, if they get it wrong, people can act together at their own discretion to override bad decision making. The social role of government is to implement solutions that maximise individual opportunity, and to make sure people get support readily when they really need it. Strong, confident, individual resilience is exactly what Britain needs to take advantage of the next upswing.
Investing to Win the Future
While that’s being done UKpopdems will begin to partner with key business sectors to capture dominant global positions in future markets through massive investments in development, quality, marketing and supply. Targets include high value-added areas such as finance, areas of defence like armour and aerospace, medicine, entertainment, engineering, sport technologies etc. Something like this requires not only single-mindedness but total commitment in identifying and nurturing talent. Britain has been a dominant world supplier before and we can do it again. Lastly we need to bring back the philanthropic spirit of old by ensuring that the very wealthy contribute more to Britain and the poorest in society and are happy doing it. People receiving more the ten times national average earnings will be asked to contribute directly towards alleviating child poverty. High earning employers and directors can limit their contribution by employing more people; especially the long-term unemployed, disadvantaged and disabled; or for making real investments in Britain, for example: British bonds and equities, approved charities, British goods (or that part which is British), and approved environmental measures. These measures encourage the wealthy to be seen as positive benefactors of Britain and society rather than in a negative light. This is so important because, in the next upswing, opportunities for national and individual wealth, growth and stability will be the engines of a resurgent, strong and proud Britain.
posted by United Kingdom Popular Democratic Party at 4:10 pm
