A FAIR

ECONOMY

THE DEMEANING INEQUALITY OF LAISSEZ-FAIRE CAPITALISM OR THE DEHUMANISING EQUALITY OF SOCIALISM ARE NOT THE ONLY OPTIONS.

PEOPLE DO NOT EXIST TO SERVE THE ECONOMY — THE ECONOMY SHOULD SERVE THE BROADER ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL INTERESTS OF THE WHOLE OF SOCIETY, NOT JUST THE NARROW FINANCIAL SELF-INTEREST OF BUSINESS. AND THE DISPROPORTIONATE INFLUENCE OF 'THE CITY' AND THE MONEY-FOR-NOTHING CULTURE OF THE FINANCIAL SERVICES SECTOR NEED CONSIGNING TO THE RUBBISH DUMP OF HISTORY.

HOWEVER, THE GLOBALISTS' THIRD WAY SOLUTION OF 'STAKEHOLDER CAPITALISM' — WITH CORPORATIONS (EFFECTIVELY) REQUIRED TO CONFORM TO LONG LISTS OF UN AGENDA 2030-DRIVEN RULES ON "ENVIRONMENT, SOCIAL AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE" (ESG) :
  • STIFLES TRUE ECONOMIC FREEDOM AND THEREFORE INNOVATION IN EVERY SECTOR OF THE ECONOMY — NOT JUST THE ESSENTIAL SERVICES TRADITIONALLY OWNED OR MANAGED BY THE STATE
  • ILLEGITIMATELY HIJACKS THE DETAIL OF CORPORATE BOARDROOM DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES, AND
  • ENMESHES COMPANIES, EMPLOYEES, SUPPLIERS AND EVEN CUSTOMERS IN A CULTIC BUREAUCRATIC FOG OF ENDLESS SELF-SCRUTINY TO ENSURE COMPLIANCE WITH QUASI-RELIGIOUS RULES SET BY OTHERS.
WHILST THE GOOD INTENTIONS OF ESG — SEEKING A FAIRER GLOBAL ECONOMY AND MORE 'SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE' CORPORATIONS — ARE ACKNOWLEDGED, 'POLITICAL CORRECTNESS FOR CORPORATIONS' IS NO MORE VOLITIONALLY-, AND THEREFORE NO MORE MORALLY-, LEGITIMATE THAN 'POLITICAL CORRECTNESS' FOR INDIVIDUALS.
SUCH INTRUSIVE, COMMUNISTIC CONTROL-FREAKERY IS ALSO UNNECESSARY.

OUR POLICIES — AT A GLANCE

THE REAL 'THIRD WAY' — 'SOCIAL MARKET CAPITALISM'

Preserving Freedom and Enterprise, Without 'The Winner Take All'!

  • A Publicly-Owned National Infrastructure The following infrastructure elements will therefore remain or be progressively returned to state ownership : The Road Network, The Rail network, All Beaches, Piers, Harbours and Ports, All Significant Airports, Energy Production and Supply Networks — for electricity and gas, Utility Networks — for water, sewerage, and telecomms, Hospitals, Schools, Prisons, All Policing and Defence Assets, All Government, Council and Civil Service Properties, The Postal Services Network — including sorting offices and post offices.
  • Most Public Services Privately-Provided But Free At The Point Of Delivery. All Private Companies Providing Public Services To Be On Short 2-Year Contracts.
  • Sectors Providing Services Crucial To The Well-Being Of Citizens, To Be Privately-Provided But Operated Within A Strict 'Framework of Fairness' Set By Government. This policy would apply to the following sectors that provide services fundamental to the well-being and everyday lives of citizens : land and property, health and social care, education, law, stock exchange, banking, insurance, pensions, public transport, postal services, utilities and telecomms, supermarkets, medicinal products and key leisure activities.
  • All Other Sectors To Remain Free, Competitive, Private Sector Markets — with full-on capitalist competitiveness enhanced by genuinely tough anti-monopoly and anti-oligopoly legislation. Selective-supply agreements banned, and businesses required to offer the same price to all of their customers — allowing new competitors to enter established markets.

'WORKSHARE' : ROUTE TO FULL EMPLOYMENT

  • Full Employment Made The Norm Through Implementing A Simple Adjustable Cap Placed On Maximum Working Time Hours.
  • The cap would simply require businesses (over a certain size) to employ more people (of their choice) — each working slightly fewer hours — during economic downturns.
  • Particularly Popular, Low-Skilled Jobs Designated As 'Workshare Jobs' —enabling a significantly larger number of people to work at their dream job.

A 4-DAY WORKING WEEK AND TOTAL FLEXITIME WORKING : 'Working To Live' Not ‘Living To Work’

  • A 4-Day Working Week Made The Norm For Both Adults and Schoolchildren — With Wednesday Made An Additional Day Off.
  • Total Flexitime Working Introduced For The Vast Majority Of Jobs — allowing everyone to fit work around their lives rather than constantly struggle to fit their lives around (non-critical) work.

OTHER PUBLIC SECTOR REFORMS

  • All Quangos and Agencies Abolished.
  • Public Procurement Reformed To Advantage Small and Medium-Sized Businesses.
  • Local Authority 'Refusenik' Culture, Incompetence and 'Gratuitous Meddling' Confronted.
  • A Dedicated Volunteer Manager At Every Council — to encourage the maximum possible use of volunteers in local council functions (e.g. litter-picking, pruning overgrown trees, property repairs, painting, etc).
  • Civil Service — All Top Civil Servants Appointed By The Incoming Government.
  • Crown Copyright Restrictions Abolished.
  • All Public Sector Pay Scales Set By A Single Public Sector Pay Commission.

SPECIFIC SECTOR REFORMS

  • The Stock Exchange, Banking Sector and The Insurance Sector Nationalised.
  • The Professions — the excessive influence of an overly-powerful professional middle-class curtailed.
  • Professional Qualifications — full qualification for most careers made possible after no more than 2 years of post-university study and training.
  • UK Manufacturing Sector Re-Established — through domestic incentives and import quotas to enable an expansion of manufacturing and heavy industry and the establishment of a UK car manufacturing base.
  • Community-Build Projects Widely Available — constructing City Amphitheatres and Leisure Megacentres, and offering volunteering opportunities and cost-effective, low-pressure trade-skill apprenticeships.
  • Farming — the aim is self-sufficiency in foodstuffs as far as possible.
  • Fishing — we will take back full control over our traditional 12 mile limits and closely monitor stock levels to ensure the long-term survival of all species. The annual catch limits agreed with the EU as part of the Brexit Trade Deal will be respected.

GENERAL ECONOMIC REFORMS

  • Job Options Widened — so that workers are not denied the fundamental right of being able to engage in work that suits both their aptitudes and personalities best.
  • More Balanced Economic Growth — Pro-active measures taken to reduce the north-south divide and correct the lop-sided growth of Britain's finance and services-dominated south-centric economy. Firms financially incentivised to locate in de-industrialised areas through the tax system.

A BALANCE OF EMPLOYEE / EMPLOYER RIGHTS

  • The Minimum Wage Raised To An Independent Living Wage.
  • All Trade Union Workplace Rights Abolished.
  • All Employees To Become Self-Employed — leaving employers free to flex their staff arrangements to suit the needs of their business.
  • Employers Free To Employ Whoever They Like Without Facing Accusations Of Discrimination.
  • Employers Free To Set Workplace Dress Codes.
  • Unpleasant Working Conditions Rooted-Out and Banned
  • Unnecessary Job Requirements Abolished — for e.g. occupations that routinely unnecessarily exclude applicants with mild colour blindness.
  • Employee Choice Over Weekly or Monthly Pay.
  • A Proper Break At Christmas, New Year and Easter — with most firms required to operate a complete shut-down for 2 weeks over Christmas/New Year and 1 week over Easter.
  • 'Whistle-Blowing' In The Public Interest Encouraged Through A Ban On Employment Contract 'Gag Clauses'

CONSUMER RIGHTS

  • All Consumer Contracts Governed By Simple, Standard-Form Contracts.
  • Slave-like multi-year minimum terms abolished.

THE LEISURE SECTOR — A SOCIAL LIFE AFFORDABILITY GUARANTEE

  • Major Leisure Venues, Activities and Events Made Subject To Price Controls, including : all local leisure megacentres, cinemas, theatres, live concerts sporting events (e.g. football, cricket, rugby), hotel accommodation, boat mooring and launching fees and flying lessons.

OTHER

  • Cheap Platform Hire For DIYers — for safety and for fun.
  • ROYAL MAIL — The Price Structure Returned To A Much Simpler Consumer-Friendly Tariff.
  • Domestic Heating Oil / Propane Gas — Minimum order quantities abolished and the entire sector reviewed for any unfair, anti-consumer practices.

GENERAL BUSINESS LAWS

  • Company Formation and Structures — Simple transparent company structures and complete transparency in accounting procedure required of all companies either registered or merely trading in the UK.
  • Accountancy — All auditors randomly appointed by HMRC. No accountancy firm to audit any company more than once.
  • A Single Publicly-Funded Credit Referencing Authority Established.
  • Patents Reformed — Patent protection to only endure for 2 years before automatically becoming an open public licence, enabling others to then exploit the patented idea upon payment of a small profit percentage.
  • Copyright Law Reformed — After an initial 2-year window, non-copyright holders will be able to reproduce any content upon payment of a small percentage (i.e. less than 10%) of the resale price to the copyright owner.
  • Industrial Espionage Made A Criminal Offence.
  • Businesses Required To Respect Their Customers Privacy.
  • A Special 'Business Court' Established — where routine business disputes over late payment, non-performance of contracts, etc can be quickly resolved.
  • All Restrictions Lifted On Shop Opening Hours.
  • Working From Home Made Easier — through the removal of distinctions between the residential and business use of a residential property for tenancy, insurance and taxation purposes.

INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY :

A FAIR-SHARE OF WEALTH FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

  • Internationally, in pursuit of a global economic fairness agenda, we commit to — and believe all governments should commit to — 'economic national independence-clipped' — i.e. nations to be essentially economically independent, but with each sector of the economy required to accept a certain amount of detriment to national self-interest to enable those same industries to flourish in other less developed (or equally developed) countries.
  • The exact amounts of trade to be determined in a global economic forum, but in such a way that no artificial and damaging forced-dependencies are created and no country's entire industry in any area is undermined. The adage "85% home-grown, 15% imported" serving as an approximate rule of thumb.

OUR POLICIES

THE REAL 'THIRD WAY' — 'SOCIAL MARKET CAPITALISM'

Preserving Freedom and Enterprise, Without The 'Winner Take All' !

Capitalism is a wonderful thing. On every continent on the planet it has proven itself to be far and away the best economic system known to humankind, being both the best engine driving living standards upwards and a mighty economic guardian of social liberty for all. The reasons for its success are not hard to fathom — it allows people to simply do what comes naturally — namely, use such gifts, talents, interests and desires as they have to pursue financial benefit for themselves and their loved ones. Part of the 'magic', the wonder and the power-for-good of capitalism is also the fact that individuals wanting to get rich MUST provide goods and services that many others want to buy — so that those wanting to get rich, the capable and the powerful are made to SERVE the interests of ordinary people, rather than just themselves or their own ideas of what others should want. Responsible, democratic government must therefore always hold entrepreneurial, get-ahead motivations sacrosanct and make every effort to ensure that public policy does not fall into the grievous error of hindering the expression of such essential human freedoms.


However, unregulated or even under-regulated capitalism is a pretty miserable beast. In spite of endless ridiculous (and frankly dishonest) economic theories asserting that free-market competition means efficiency and 'trickle-down' prosperity for all, on every continent on the planet unfettered capitalism has brought massive inequality and encouraged greed and corrupt business practise. The reasons for this are not hard to fathom — when people are economically completely free to do what they like, many will use that freedom to just take everything they can get. This too is a most basic human motivation that afflicts us all. The simple stark reality is that under-regulated, the overwhelming majority of markets simply either become dominated by a single company which then charges what it likes, or are controlled by a very small group of companies operating cosy non-compete and selective-supply agreements amongst themselves — enabling large corporations to carve-up most markets for permanent mutual advantage, to the permanent detriment of consumers.


Under-regulated capitalism also means the disgusting spectacle of some with billions, a tiny percentage possessing a considerable slice of the nation's wealth and doing very nicely thank you, and the overwhelming majority consigned to spending their entire lives ever-worried about their next bill and working for an entire lifetime just to pay for a cramped no-privacy house, with barely enough money left over to run a car, go out at the weekend, or have a proper holiday each year. And when their working lives are over, a very significant minority, must spend much of frail old age worrying about whether they can afford to put the heating on.

THIS DEGREE OF INEQUALITY IS A FUNDAMENTAL INDICTMENT OF UNDER-REGULATED CAPITALISM.

THIS DEGREE OF INEQUALITY IS NO LONGER ACCEPTABLE.

ALL PARTIES CALLING THEMSELVES 'MAINSTREAM' SHOULD HAVE IMMEDIATE AND RADICAL PLANS TO TACKLE THIS UNACCEPTABLE LEVEL OF LONG-TERM INEQUALITY.

FINE WORDS AND TINKERING AROUND THE EDGES ARE NO LONGER GOOD ENOUGH.

FAIRNESS AND FREEDOM

However, whatever the injustices of the present situation the solution must be a reasonable one — one that doesn't seek a spiteful recompense against those benefiting from present arrangements, and one that, unlike far-left abominations of the past, allows people to still be people, still motivated by reasonable financial self-interest both for themselves and their loved-ones, and one that, socially, holds sacrosanct the preservation of the freedom of ordinary citizens to seek their version of happiness in life in their own way, and one that resolutely refuses all tendencies to meddle in every nook and cranny of people's lives. The true responsibility of democratic, compassionate government is to protect people from malign persons and powers and do all it can to provide the opportunities that will set them free to be all that they can be — not demand a contrived, dehumanising 'loyalty' to top-down government and its own self-referencing, self-righteous, and (ultimately and inevitably) tyrannical demands.

The solution should also not attempt to construct some artificial, highly regulated, neither-one-thing-nor-the-other , worst-of-both-worlds '3rd way' approach to economic life. Instead, the approach should be a simple one, one that has traditionally been described as 'Social Market Capitalism'.


Capitalism is a wonderful thing, it is only the inequality that needs correcting, so it is only in the area of inequality that the state should intervene. The solution MUST PRESERVE healthy 'get ahead' capitalist motivations and individual personal liberty, yet ENSURE a much fairer distribution of wealth by drawing a clear, simple line for business and individuals, saying 'this much but no more'.



THE REAL 'THIRD WAY' — 'SOCIAL MARKET CAPITALISM'

Not only is there more to life than work, work is not even the most important aspect of life. It therefore makes no human sense to put the demands and narrow-focus of business at the very heart of the economy and the centre of all our lives.

We will therefore transition the UK economy from a 'Winner Take All' laissez-faire capitalist economy to a 'Third Way' social market capitalist economy — that ensures structural fairness FOR LIFE'S ESSENTIALS, but that preserves freedom, enterprise and reward in markets FOR NON-ESSENTIAL goods and services.



THE PUBLIC SECTOR FOR LIFE’S ESSENTIALS

— BUILDING A BETTER BRITAIN THROUGH STRUCTURAL FAIRNESS

A PUBLICLY-OWNED NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE AND PUBLIC SERVICES PRIVATELY-PROVIDED BUT FREE AT THE POINT OF DELIVERY

Without direct state control of all major public infrastructure, the will of the people at the ballot box is undermined through unaccountable quangos and inflexible service provision by private corporations on 30-year contracts. Rather than the state forever attempting to illegitimately command the actions of private corporations concerning the management of their own assets, public control of national infrastructure is best achieved by public ownership of national infrastructure.

The following infrastructure elements will therefore remain or be progressively returned to state ownership :

  • The Road Network
  • The Rail network
  • All Beaches, Piers, Harbours and Ports
  • All Significant Airports
  • Energy Production and Supply Networks — for electricity and gas
  • Utility Networks — for water, sewerage, and telecomms
  • Hospitals
  • Schools
  • Prisons
  • All Policing and Defence Assets
  • All Government, Council and Civil Service Properties
  • The Postal Services Network — including sorting offices and post offices.

However, all individual elements and services within the infrastructure elements WILL BE PRIVATELY PROVIDED — as the best way to drive competition and reap efficiency gains and savings for the public purse. For e.g. although major general hospitals would be state-owned, the medical services, cleaning services, porterage, etc and even individual wards and clinics would be run by a multiplicity of small individual private businesses. This same model will be applied to all state-owned assets wherever possible.

SHORT-TERM/MEDIUM-TERM POLICY : NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE PFI CONTRACTS RENEGOTIATED


The long-term policy is for all key national infrastructure to be owned by the state. In the short to medium-term the expense of this is prohibitive, so the private ownership of national infrastructure will be honoured for the lifetime of existing infrastructure assets, but with all existing PFI contracts renegotiated, such that each company is limited to only a moderate profit over the lifetime of their investment. Also, although the private company will retain ownership of their physical infrastructure asset, all peripheral services will be removed from their control and put out to tender by other private companies on short 2-year contracts.


ALL SECTORS PROVIDING SERVICES CRUCIAL TO THE WELL-BEING OF CITIZENS, TO BE PRIVATELY-PROVIDED BUT OPERATED WITHIN A STRICT 'FRAMEWORK OF FAIRNESS' SET BY GOVERNMENT.

This policy would apply to the following sectors that provide services fundamental to the well-being and everyday lives of citizens :

  • land and property
  • health and social care
  • education
  • law
  • stock exchange
  • banking
  • insurance
  • pensions
  • public transport
  • postal services
  • utilities and telecomms
  • supermarkets
  • medicinal products
  • key leisure activities.


Although state-managed, these essential services will be provided by the private sector on short 2-years (max.) contracts — encouraging enterprise not stifling it, and allowing companies failing to fulfil their contracts to be quickly replaced.


The move to state-managed private provision will be implemented in a steady, progressive manner so that lessons can be learnt before scaling up the reform process.


No government will have the right to agree contracts that extend beyond their own term of office, so that post-election, all contracts will automatically become rolling monthly contracts — allowing new incoming administrations to quickly make major changes to state services in fulfilment of their manifesto promises.


All other sectors to remain free, competitive, private sector markets.



ALL PUBLIC SERVICES TO BE PROVIDED BY PRIVATE COMPANIES ON SHORT 2-YEAR CONTRACTS

With the state owning the large infrastructure assets, companies providing public services will no longer need access to massive financial backing, allowing small and medium-sized firms to bid for and win public procurement contracts, increasing competition.

The norm for public sector service provision will therefore be to commission private enterprise to provide the services on short 2-year contracts, allowing companies failing to meet minimum standards to be quickly replaced. Most contracts will also be timed to coincide with general elections, allowing a newly-elected government to make the changes necessary in order to honour their manifesto commitments.


The award process for the majority of public procurement contracts will be as follows :

  • the state sets the price it is willing to pay for the service
  • qualified businesses are invited to register their desire to provide the service at that price
  • the winning contractor is determined by transparent random draw (for e.g. based on the National Lottery nos. for the week in question).



THE PRIVATE SECTOR FOR LIFE’S LUXURIES AND 'MAKING WIDGETS'

The traditional unfettered capitalist approach will not only continue for luxury items and in all non-essential ‘widget-making’ sectors, but will be enhanced by genuinely tough anti-monopoly and anti-oligopoly legislation — ensuring that markets remain genuinely competitive, giving new companies a fair opportunity and consumers a fair deal.

To help ensure proper competition prevails :

  • selective-supply agreements will be banned — allowing new competition to enter established markets
  • all companies will be required to offer the same price to all of their customers,

‘WORKSHARE’ : ROUTE TO PERMANENT FULL EMPLOYMENT

Long spells of unemployment wreak havoc on the continued willingness and ability to work and are socially divisive — whilst many people in work feel overworked and under stress. We therefore propose a move to an economy where full employment is the norm through implementing a simple adjustable cap placed on maximum working time hours.

The cap would simply require businesses (over a certain size) to employ more people (of their choice) — each working slightly fewer hours — during economic downturns. Employers will retain the right to pay less to existing employees to compensate for their reduced hours, so that employers' total wage bill will NOT increase — those currently in work will simply be taking home slightly less pay in order to enable others to work too.

PARTICULARLY POPULAR, LOW-SKILLED JOBS DESIGNATED AS 'WORKSHARE JOBS' — To enable as many people as possible to fulfil their dream of doing a very popular over-subscribed job — for e.g. becoming a train driver, tall crane operator, dock container loader, etc. — we will designate such jobs as 'Workshare Jobs'. People lucky enough to work in these posts will then only be able to do so on a part-time basis or for a limited period — making way for a significant number of other lucky folk.

A 4-DAY WORKING WEEK AND TOTAL FLEXITIME WORKING : 'WORKING TO LIVE’ NOT ‘LIVING TO WORK’

The overall aim of our policies below, together with our Workshare and Workfare proposals, are to permanently move the economy and the world of work away from providing an endless series of miserable, life-blighting, pointless 'pressure, pressure, pressure' moments, to offering a genuinely more relaxed, more fulfilling — and frankly, more sensible — working existence.

A 4-DAY WORKING WEEK

In spite of decades of promising ordinary people more leisure time, most people today find themselves with less leisure time than ever and most spend nearly their entire lives either actually at work working or at home doing jobs around the house or running errands. In real terms, people probably only have 1 proper rest day each week, and a mere 4 or 5 weeks holiday per year. Considering that millions of people don't particularly like their job, and that given our climate most office workers only enjoy a handful of days off with sunshine each year then the present way of doing things consigns the majority of hard-working people to a pretty miserable existence.

WE THEREFORE AIM TO CREATE A MORE ACCEPTABLE WORK-LIFE BALANCE, THROUGH A STANDARD 4-DAY WORKING WEEK, WITH WEDNESDAY MADE AN ADDITIONAL DAY-OFF FOR ADULT AND SCHOOLCHILD ALIKE.

No one need ever be more than 2 days away from a day off, banishing the the lifelong misery of the Monday morning blues to the rubbish dump of history.

Through a slightly longer working day, productivity gains and reduced health costs and an expectation that being at work truly means being 'at work', the reduction in GDP should be relatively small and any drop in GDP that did result would be a small price to pay for the truly revolutionised lives that everyone would then be able to enjoy. Permanently.

The pathologically over-achieving middle classes perhaps need to come to the realisation that there is more to life than work. It may make sense for them to work all hours, but its no business of theirs to impose their extreme work/life preferences onto their employees — particularly as those same employees will never earn more than 'barely enough to get by on' no matter how hard they work.

TOTAL FLEXITIME WORKING

THE OVERWHELMING MAJORITY OF JOBS TO NOT CONCERN LIFE OR DEATH ISSUES, SO WE WILL ALSO INTRODUCE TOTAL FLEXITIME WORKING FOR THE VAST MAJORITY OF JOBS — allowing everyone to fit work around their lives rather than constantly struggle to fit their lives around (non-critical) work.

A BALANCE OF EMPLOYEE / EMPLOYER RIGHTS

THE MINIMUM WAGE RAISED TO AN INDEPENDENT LIVING WAGE — so that full-time work means no need to claim benefits of any kind, restoring dignity and a healthy self-reliance to workers.

ALL TRADE UNION WORKPLACE RIGHTS ABOLISHED

In the early stages of industrialisation, trade unions served an invaluable function protecting employees from blatant exploitation by ruthless employers.


However, once our policies of guaranteed full employment, flexitime working and a 4-day week are in place, continued trade union involvement in the workplace will be unnecessary and unhelpful, serving only to encourage inflexible working practices, damage employer-employee relations and undermine business competitiveness.


UK consumers have been made to endure decades of inconvenience and hardship resulting from strikes calculated to cause maximum disruption at the worst possible time — such as baggage-handler and train-driver disputes at Christmas. Worse yet, strike activity has often been orchestrated by far-left die-hards ever-seeking to engineer unnecessary confrontation for supposed political advantage. The class-obsessed, depersonalising concept of 'community' that animates much trade union activity also actually builds conflict permanently into the economic system and across society at large, and struggles with such fundamental concepts as 'freedom', 'democracy' and 'the individual'. Such a miserable doctrine of disaster has nothing constructive to contribute to building the free, democratic, united Britain of the future.


All statutory workplace trade union rights will therefore be abolished — with the role of unions restricted to that explicitly permitted by each individual employer.



ALL EMPLOYEES TO BECOME SELF-EMPLOYED — leaving employers free to flex their staff arrangements to suit the needs of their business.

With the following reforms in place :

  • a guarantee of full-time work at an independent living wage everyone's basic economic right
  • a 4-day working week, with all vulnerable workers entitled to do anything useful as qualifying work for Universal Credit
  • complete housing security through a non-profit housing sector with total flexibility in the purchase, part-purchase or rental of housing
  • and the removal of all employer involvement with employees' pension and tax affairs


the need for contracts of employment to restrict employers' ability to hire and fire and make provision for employee holiday pay is removed. All employers will therefore be entitled to move all their employees to self-employed status, allowing employers the freedom to hire and fire staff in accordance with the needs and demands of the business climate in which they are operating. With a 4-day week the norm, long weekends and long 2-week summer holidays will still be possible by 'saving up' days-off by simply working some 5-day weeks throughout the year.


Whilst this change will mean that workers will no longer have any security of employment at a specific employer, the guarantee of full-time work at the living wage will still mean that workers will continue to enjoy TOTAL security of employment across the employers in their local area.


A universally self-employed workforce will also abolish the current absurdity of many contractors and employees needing to seek detailed advice from HMRC, accountants and employment professionals simply to determine whether they are employed or self-employed !! Unbelievable. Similarly, we will also abolish the odd indeterminate employed status of 'office holders', who will also become part of the self-employed workforce.


Beyond simplicity and efficiency gains (for both employee and employer), a universally self-employed workforce will encourage an enterprise culture across the entire economy and help grow strong, self-reliant, proactive citizens — for the mutual benefit of individuals, neighbourhoods and the whole of society.

EMPLOYERS FREE TO EMPLOY WHOEVER THEY LIKE

As the law stands, employers can face accusations of discrimination for deciding to not employ a particular applicant. Whilst the abolition of such laws admittedly runs the risk of allowing prejudicial decisions to surface, for the vast majority of employers it would almost certainly make no difference. The natural benefit to cohesion and perhaps minority self-esteem too that could flow from no longer needing to be treated as 'special cases' would also be considerable. However, employers will still be prohibited from actively advertising the fact that they are unwilling to accept certain types of minority applicant — for this would be to promulgate their attitudes within wider society not merely make decisions as an employer.


It is acknowledged that there are risks here, but as a society it is surely time to try and move on from demonising those with a bit of low-level prejudicial belief and time too for government itself to move on from trying to impose the personal beliefs and preferences of ministers onto the rest of society.

The impact of these policies on employment practices and the job opportunities for traditionally disadvantaged groups will be closely monitored however, and if a problem begins to surface this policy will be reviewed.



EMPLOYERS FREE TO SET WORKPLACE DRESS CODES

Recent court cases have allowed employees to overturn workplace dress codes set by their employers. The government should restore an employer's right to require a certain dress-code for its employees — since it is the employer's money that is at risk should the business fail and in many sectors natty little matching costumes or a particular appearance are an important aspect of the image that a firm wishes to project in the marketplace as it seeks to win and retain new customers. The onus will be on potential employees to adopt an appearance that is likely to prove acceptable to prospective employers.

Unpleasant Working Conditions Rooted-Out and Banned — for e.g. constant Tannoy noise-nuisance on station platforms, in supermarkets and DIY stores.

Unnecessary Job Requirements Abolished — for e.g. occupations that routinely unnecessarily exclude applicants with mild colour blindness.

Employee Choice Over Weekly or Monthly Pay — Many people, particularly those on low incomes, find it much easier to budget from week to week, rather than monthly. Government should therefore mandate employers to offer their employees this basic choice.

A Proper Break At Christmas, New Year and Easter — with most firms required to operate a complete shut-down for 2 weeks over Christmas/New Year and 1 week over Easter.

'Whistle-Blowing' In The Public Interest Encouraged Through A Ban On Employment Contract 'Gag Clauses' — The right and duty to reveal bad or illegal practise to the relevant authorities will be safeguarded by any restrictions imposed by 'gag clauses' in employment contracts being declared null and void.

CONSUMER RIGHTS


ALL CONSUMER CONTRACTS GOVERNED BY SIMPLE, STANDARD-FORM CONTRACTS

From tenancies to simple home insurance, consumers are now routinely confronted with unreadably long and absurdly complicated contracts written in legalese. Confronted too, with a miserable choice between paying over the odds for essential services — such as broadband or TV — or committing to a slave-like multi-year term.


Also, too often consumers pay for a service in good faith and only later discover that the small-print of weasel-worded contracts says that they are not legally entitled to the service promised — for e.g. :

  • motor insurance that leaves you totally uninsured if you leave the keys in the ignition, or
  • when hiring a van, you forget the height of the vehicle you are driving and hit a low bridge,
  • or life insurance and critical illness insurance that only wants all your medical records after you make a claim, so they can accuse of non-disclosure of a prior illness.


Through reformed advertising standards and compulsory simple standard-form contracts (with no minimum period lock-ins and no small print) for all the major consumer-oriented services, we aim to make this widespread unfair and dishonest form of trading a thing of the past.


THE LEISURE SECTOR — A SOCIAL LIFE AFFORDABILITY GUARANTEE

People working hard all week, should be able to afford to go out more than once a week and not have to save for months just to go and see a live concert. And loyal football-supporting families up and down the country should not be fleeced every week for their love of the national game.


Major leisure venues, activities and events will therefore be made subject to price controls to ensure that essential life-enhancing leisure time activities remain genuinely affordable to ordinary people and can be enjoyed on a regular basis rather than as occasional treats.


In particular, the prices of the following activities will be controlled to prohibit rip-off pricing or the selective servicing of a niche better-off clientele :

  • admission and use of all local leisure megacentres
  • cinemas
  • theatres
  • live concerts
  • sporting events (e.g. football, cricket, rugby)
  • hotel accommodation
  • boat mooring and launching fees
  • flying lessons.



CHEAP PLATFORM HIRE FOR DIYers — The use of ladders still account for many accidents at home and the need to work at height deters many homeowners from attempting their own repairs. Yet, superb, safe and fun electric elevating platforms have been available for hire for many years. However, these are invariably priced at ludicrous sky-high prices making them unaffordable for the vast majority, impoverishing countless lives. This market failure will be overcome.

ROYAL MAIL — Simply posting a letter or parcel has now become a bothersome circus, with everyone expected to fuss endlessly with different charges for different sizes and weights. We will return the price structure for the nation's postal services to a much simpler, consumer-friendly tariff.


The boundaries of 'postal towns' (and the resulting post codes) will also be made identical to the political boundaries for city councils.


DOMESTIC HEATING OIL / PROPANE GAS — Customers with oil-fired boilers are currently forced to buy huge 500 litre minimum-order deliveries that they may not want or need, and forced to do so at inconvenient times of the year to avoid large price hikes during the winter months. This sector is currently outside the remit of OFGEM and it does appear to be skewed heavily in the favour of producers to the permanent detriment of consumers.


We will therefore conduct a review of practise in both the heating oil and propane gas sectors and ensure a more powerful OFGEM implements a significantly more consumer-friendly code.



OTHER PUBLIC SECTOR REFORMS

ALL QUANGOS AND AGENCIES ABOLISHED — returning all significant decision-making powers concerning the spending of tax-payers' and voters' money back to publicly-accountable government departments.


PUBLIC PROCUREMENT REFORMED TO ADVANTAGE SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED BUSINESSES

We will reform procurement practices so that small and medium-sized businesses are able to win significantly more contracts and most small jobs awarded by random selection from amongst suitably qualified local tradesmen.


Whilst more experienced and skilled contractors will be engaged for higher-value difficult projects, newly qualified tradesmen will be able to tender for small basic jobs. This will save the taxpayer money due to the reduced level of pay necessary. It will also mean that whatever an individual's skill level and experience, if they have the aptitude to get qualified and certified in a trade, the public sector of the future will empower them to start earning straight away — without requiring them to be skilled at salesmanship and adept at playing verbal pattercake with the local council procurement team!


Where a single large main contractor is engaged to project-manage major works, it will be made a requirement that 50% of the contract value be subcontracted to smaller firms.


Public sector construction projects over-running initial budget estimates by 300 - 400% must be made a thing of the past. Contracts with private companies must be drawn up so as to shift more of the financial risks to the private sector. A nationwide blacklist should be established of companies and individuals engaging in contract trickery with the public purse, with a view to excluding them from bidding for any future public procurement deals.


Local councils must no longer be a 'soft touch', always paying over the odds for practically everything. With a sensible legal system applying sensible laws, government will no longer need to 'go the extra mile' (three times over) to avoid litigation and will be expected to 'up their procurement game' to achieve best value for the taxpayer — employing private sector business 'sharps' on profit-related pay to head up procurement departments if needs be.

LOCAL AUTHORITY 'REFUSENIK' CULTURE, INCOMPETENCE AND 'GRATUITOUS MEDDLING' CONFRONTED — The 'do as little as possible' culture prevalent in many public sector and council manual workforces must likewise also be confronted and broken.

Similarly, lower-level management jobs control the interface with the general public for housing, care and social services — these fundamentally important, life-shaping services can not, must not be run by people who are either incompetent, lazy or simply incapable or unwilling to truly empathize with the people they are paid to serve. Public sector organisations, councils and their employees exist to serve the general taxpaying public, not provide minimum-effort employment for council employees just for the sake of it.

We are prepared to 'ruffle feathers' to bring about much-needed change in these key services upon which millions have no choice but to rely — for e.g. bin collectors could have deductions made from their pay for every bin left unemptied, and incompetent managers made to attend additional training and be re-assigned if still not up to the job.

A DEDICATED VOLUNTEER MANAGER AT EVERY COUNCIL — to encourage the maximum possible use of volunteers in local council functions (e.g. litter-picking, pruning overgrown trees, property repairs, painting, etc). The post to be physically remote from and legally completely outside the internal council structure and hierarchy — so that any 'refusenik' and 'do as little as possible' attitudes prevailing within council workers will not be able to inhibit the significant, positive and permanent contribution that large-scale volunteering will make to the lives of local communities across the country.

CIVIL SERVICE — All top civil servants should be appointed by the incoming government. And all activities and expenditures relating to the work of taxpayer-funded councils and bodies to no longer be kept secret through commercial confidentiality agreements, but kept democratically accountable through being made subject to the glare of full public scrutiny.

CROWN COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS ABOLISHED — all copyright restrictions abolished on all information and publications produced by all government or publicly-funded bodies, such as the land registry, ordnance survey, companies house, parliament, etc These institutions exist to serve the public and are there at taxpayers expense, so their services and publications belong to the public too.



ALL PUBLIC SECTOR PAY SCALES SET BY A SINGLE PUBLIC SECTOR PAY COMMISSION

The Commission's remit will be to 1) set the relative pay differentials between different forms of employment within the public sector, 2) set the range and rate of progression through the pay scale for each post.


It is envisaged that Drs, Lawyers and the most senior civil servants will attract a level of remuneration set to the maximum permitted by the pay scale, and that the Prime Minister will be entitled to a rate of pay equal to twice that maximum — in recognition of the preeminence of their office and their importance to the nation.


SPECIFIC SECTOR REFORMS

STOCK EXCHANGE NATIONALISED

The City, the investment banks, the private equity mega-corporations, the fund managers, the stockbrokers and the traders have too much power. They exacerbate the lop-sided, finance-sector domination of the economy. Governments MUST be able to implement their policy agenda without fear of it being fatally undermined by the reaction of 'the markets' (for e.g., derailing the Premiership of Liz Truss before it even got started). Stuff the markets. The markets and those who operate and benefit from their often artificial fluctuations serve only themselves and their investing paymasters. With their 'market hat' on, they care not a jot for democracy and the right of the voting general public to have their agenda implemented by their duly elected government.

Further, it is grossly unfair that for decades vast fortunes have been amassed by individuals and corporations without producing anything of real tangible benefit to either economy or wider society — simply making 'money from money' through 'skim and scam'. To make matters worse, the money-for-nothing casino culture of short-term market trading destabilises the real economy and encourages an unproductive short-termism in corporate boardrooms. We will therefore bring all functions and markets within the City of London under direct state control to ensure major and permanent reform — in the process abolishing every trace and symbol of 'The City' as its own little separate realm operating outside the law of the land (abolishing the City of London district, the City's privileged access to parliament and Treasury dominance in determining the policies of government).


The intention is to transition the City to a respectable, responsible set of institutions and markets that continue to provide a variety of financial instruments providing credit to individuals, firms and state, but with all publicly-traded investments held for a minimum period and for only modest profit. The present deliberately incomprehensible derivatives racket will be abolished.

A commission will be established to determine the best way to transition to the new arrangements so as to cause minimum disruption and damage to the real economy or financial services sector.

BANKING SECTOR NATIONALISED

For decades, most banks have implemented inflexible overly-cautious tick-box lending practices that have often failed home owners and small businesses, preferring instead to play the stock market with depositors' money for maximum profit.

To cap it all, there is now a savings crisis too, with our much-heralded, world-beating financial services sector now only able to offer negative returns in real terms on bank and building society accounts! Once maxed-out on PEPs, ISAs and SIPs anyone looking for somewhere sensible to put their savings to provide for retirement are currently out of luck. Hopeless.


The recent bank crisis and subsequent state ownership of major high street banks has shown that this can be achieved without ongoing cost to the taxpayer. The banking sector is too important to be allowed to fail again, so should be taken into public ownership.


However, in keeping with our approach that public control and even public ownership does not mean state-provided, the branch networks of banks will continue to be provided by the private sector.



INSURANCE SECTOR NATIONALISED

Although a large competitive market sector, consumers are still getting a poor deal :

  • A tendency in recent years to reduce the pooling of risk — with insurance companies offering different policies to different types of customer. This trend has become so marked that anyone with a non-standard situation or an indifferent claims history is either made to pay ridiculously high premiums (for e.g. young car drivers) or simply unable to obtain cover at all (for e.g. mobile home occupants seeking contents insurance).
  • major gaps in cover are hidden in small-print — such as uninsured losses from leaving keys in the ignition or undercarriage or overhead damage when hiring a van
  • medical insurance that only scrutinises policyholders health records after a claim has been made — in an attempt to use supposed non-disclosure of a pre-existing health condition as a reason to declare the policy void
  • the artificial hiking of post-incident car insurance premiums — with the most minor of incidents, even if not resulting in a claim, used as excuse to disproportionately increase policyholder premiums for years afterwards. Things have got so bad that after a minor collision, drivers regularly secretly agree to settle the matter privately between themselves rather than invoke their draconian and unreasonable insurance policies, and everyone is given powerful incentive to perjure themselves when applying for car insurance.
  • the artificial hiking of contents insurance premiums — with insurance companies demanding details of all incidents of loss, even those that are unrelated to the cover being purchased and have resulted in no claim and even where the applicant was the victim of crime (such as theft from a bicycle). This information is then used to significantly increase premiums, creating a powerful incentive for everyone applying for contents insurance to perjure themselves.
  • the current ubiquitous provision of cover on a new-for-old basis also providing another powerful incentive for policyholders to perjure themselves — for a successful claim will not merely allow policyholders to replace old dilapidated items, but (somewhat incredibly) 'trade up' to newer, better versions of their possessions.

This is not what insurance is supposed to be about.

As a sector crucial to the well-being and everyday lives of ordinary people, we will therefore nationalise the insurance sector — making it possible to pool risk to the maximum extent possible. This will ensure a fair deal for ALL consumers, and not just the low-risk customers of interest to insurance companies. Permanently.

THE PROFESSIONS

The excessive influence of an overly-powerful professional middle-class needs to be curtailed. In the fair economy of the future, key sectors of the economy, for e.g., the civil service, legal profession, medicine, dentistry and teaching, must be run in the interests of society as a whole rather than for the benefit of the professions themselves.

With the state assuming a greater degree of control over most professions (since it is the professions who provide many of the essential services upon which ordinary citizens must rely), it is earnestly to be hoped that the weasel-worded culture of lawyers, the 'creative' accounting practices of the accountants and (apologies, but) the essentially lie-based culture of estate agents will be much improved.

Professional Qualifications — We will work with professional bodies to enable most young professionals to be able to be fully qualified for most careers after no more than 2 years of post-university study and training. With our other proposals for a reduction in university and college courses to 2 years, qualification for most professions will then be possible by age 22 — allowing more time to devote to the equally important tasks of having a proper social life, finding a soul-mate and setting-up a first home.

UK MANUFACTURING SECTOR RE-ESTABLISHED — through domestic incentives and import quotas enable an expansion of manufacturing and heavy industry and the establishment of a UK car manufacturing base. Heavy industry to be located in those parts of the country traditionally associated with shipbuilding, steelworks, mining etc and hit hardest by the transition to a services economy in recent decades.

COMMUNITY-BUILD PROJECTS WIDELY AVAILABLE — the nationwide rolling programmes of community-build City Amphitheatres and Motor Sport, Action-Adventure, 'Water-World' and 'Youth World' Megacentres, will provide significant opportunities for rewarding volunteer work and for offering cost-effective low-pressure trade-skills apprenticeships.


FARMING — The aim should be for self-sufficiency in foodstuffs as far as possible — it is absurd that Britain is importing vast quantities of produce we can grow perfectly well at home whilst thousands of farmers are driven out of business. Average farm sizes will be reduced to allow more people to fulfill their dream of becoming a farmer and foreign imports will be restricted.


FISHING — The UK's fish stocks have been badly mismanaged in recent years so much so that stocks of many fish species are now at very low levels. Britain should take back full control over its traditional 12 mile limits and closely monitor stock levels to ensure the long-term survival of all species. In the interests of good relations with our near neighbours, we will respect the annual catch limits agreed with the EU as part of the Brexit Trade Deal.

GENERAL ECONOMIC REFORMS

JOB OPTIONS WIDENED — Time spent 'on the job' makes up a major part of the majority of people's lives. This great slice of life is much too significant to personal wellbeing and life-fulfilment to be filled with tasks that are felt to be soulless, miserable, boring or pointless.

Whilst their will inevitably be a limit to what can be achieved in this area to alleviate this 'problem of human existence', the choice jobs currently available to most people does currently seem to be very restricted and it is surely a fundamental obligation of government to ensure that the millions who get their job satisfaction from heavy work on large physical projects, from skilled manual tasks or even from working alone or working from home are not denied the fundamental right of being able to engage in work that suits both their aptitudes and personalities best. We will therefore do what we can to broaden job choice.


MORE BALANCED ECONOMIC GROWTH — Pro-active measures will be taken to reduce the north-south divide and correct the lop-sided growth of Britain's finance and services-dominated south-centric economy. Firms will be financially incentivised to locate in de-industrialised areas through the tax system.



GENERAL BUSINESS LAWS

COMPANY FORMATION AND STRUCTURES — the clock needs to be turned back on corporate structures, which now routinely include intricate networks of shell and parent companies in order to avoid paying a fair share of tax. Simple transparent company structures and complete transparency in accounting procedure will be required of all companies either registered or merely trading in the UK.


ACCOUNTANCY — companies choosing and paying for their own auditors each year encourages 'creative accounting' and a minimalist approach to checking company records. All auditors will therefore be appointed by HMRC (by randomised selection from a local pool of suitably qualified registered auditors) and incentivised to find and disclose all errors found by the payment of higher fees (paid by the company being audited). No accountancy firm will audit any company more than once to avoid the cultivation of 'cosy' working relationships.


A SINGLE PUBLICLY-FUNDED CREDIT REFERENCING AUTHORITY (CRA) ESTABLISHED — the current system of credit referencing is rather chaotic and unreliable – with several different private companies offering credit referencing services, and essentially operating as mere financial services companies seeking to sell financial product to business and individuals!! For something as important to people's lives as the ability to obtain mortgages, loans and overdrafts and rent property, this is entirely the wrong approach.


As a single publicly-accountable, non-profit provider of credit referencing services, the CRA will be freed of perverse financial incentives regarding the massaging of customers' credit ratings and it will be easier for unjustified bad ratings to be challenged. The authority will be able to operate as mere impartial, accountable, point-of-contact dispenser of accurate, reliable fact-based assessments of creditworthiness.


PATENTS REFORMED — so that new good ideas are exploited quickly and fully in order to provide the maximum benefit for the whole of society. Patent protection to only endure for 2 years before automatically becoming an open public licence, enabling others to then exploit the patented idea upon payment of a small profit percentage to the patent holder.


COPYRIGHT LAW REFORMED — so that culture-shaping, life-enhancing works of art can NEVER be denied to the general public — even by the individuals or corporations that have created them. Once people are exposed to deeply personally-meaningful music, books or films, they then integrate that content into their own personal 'inner emotional world' at a deep level. It is no legitimate business of individual, corporation or government to then seek to unfairly deny or restrict access to that same content by draconian restrictions on the reproduction of that content by others or by extortionate pricing. Similar to our reforms of the law relating to patents, after an initial 2-year window, non-copyright holders will be able to reproduce any content upon payment of a small percentage (i.e. less than 10%) of the resale price to the copyright owner.

INDUSTRIAL ESPIONAGE MADE A CRIMINAL OFFENCE — To strengthen genuine industrial competition and increase the investment incentive, we will work to define legally actionable offences in this area to help safeguard the hard-won intellectual capital of companies and the significant sums invested in product research and development.

BUSINESSES REQUIRED TO RESPECT THEIR CUSTOMERS PRIVACY — it will be made illegal for businesses to demand a customer's name, addresses or contact information in order to access their services (even for free services or products) unless GENUINELY AND UNAVOIDABLY absolutely necessary — such as when a product needs to be delivered or financial creditworthiness needs to be checked. It will be time for the business 'manipulados' to finally put away their sleazy, elaborate intrude-to-control techniques and just get on with the business of developing products and services that people genuinely want.


A SPECIAL 'BUSINESS COURT' ESTABLISHED — where routine business disputes over late payment, non-performance of contracts, etc can be quickly resolved.

ALL RESTRICTIONS LIFTED ON SHOP OPENING HOURS — Although the days of people having to dash around on Saturdays just because the shops are all shut on Sunday have gone, large stores are still subject to restrictions on Sundays and Bank Holidays, which often means people can't pop-in and buy something when on the way out or returning from an afternoon drive, for example. DIYers too, often like to power-up on a Sunday and over Bank Holidays, and yet should they discover they need a couple of pieces of extra wood or the drill bit breaks, etc. they are unable to just nip down the road and buy additional materials or buy replacements, and are consequently unable to complete the job when they would like. All restrictions on shopping hours for anything from anywhere at any time of the year will therefore be abolished.

WORKING FROM HOME MADE EASIER — through removing the distinctions between the residential and business use of a residential property currently required for tenancy, insurance and taxation purposes.


INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY : A FAIR-SHARE OF WEALTH FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES


Internationally too, the government should reject the massive inequality and destruction of vital national industries of unregulated laissez-faire global capitalism so favoured by multinational corporations. Reject too, the artificially-created restructuring of national economies to build-in massive permanent dependence on other nations so favoured by politicians pursuing a one-world future for us all. This international '3rd-way' coalition of far-right and far-left is a vision that makes for weak nations, artificial markets, jobs going abroad, reduced career choice at home and the undermining of meaningful debate and democracy in every country on the planet.


So whilst the lessons of history teach that nations functioning entirely in their own interests is a recipe for conflict, moderate government should support a less drastic solution — one that insists on some international dependency, both economically and militarily, and that requires a fair economic share for developing countries, but that also allows free, sovereign states to remain fundamentally free, sovereign states, so that their free, sovereign citizens are able to remain free, sovereign citizens. Permanently.

Internationally, in pursuit of a global economic fairness agenda, we therefore commit to — and believe all governments should commit to — 'economic national independence-clipped' — i.e. nations to be essentially economically independent, but with each sector of the economy required to accept a certain amount of detriment to national self-interest to enable those same industries to flourish in other less developed (or equally developed) countries. The exact amounts of trade to be determined in a global economic forum, but in such a way that no artificial and damaging forced-dependencies are created and no country's entire industry in any area is undermined. The adage "85% home-grown, 15% imported" serving as an approximate rule of thumb.

OUR AIM THROUGHOUT IS TO PRESERVE HEALTHY 'GET AHEAD' CAPITALIST MOTIVATIONS AND INDIVIDUAL PERSONAL LIBERTY, YET ENSURE A MUCH FAIRER DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH, BY DRAWING A CLEAR, SIMPLE LINE FOR BUSINESS AND FOR INDIVIDUALS, AND SAYING 'THIS MUCH AND NO MORE'.

FINE WORDS AND 'TINKERING AROUND THE EDGES' ARE NO LONGER GOOD ENOUGH.