10 ideas to help us back on the road to recovery

I’ve seen a few posts have been put up on this theme – but I’ve not read any of them. I wanted to put my own up and then read them, to see the much better ideas I expect everyone else will have had.

So. How to get back on track. Here are 10 thoughts.

Maybe this should be 9 ideas or 11 ideas but still. People like round numbers. For example I prefer ‘10’ to ‘8’. Although I liked the number 57 more than both of them.

Anyway…

1.Stand for things. Not general platitudes – ‘cradle to grave educational reforms’ isn’t really a thing. It’s an aspiration that every politician in every party can say. Stand for proper things that people can grasp and hold you to account over. A policy of being kind to kittens isn’t going to help anybody.

2.Accept that if they are any good they will be nicked. Good. At least they have more chance of happening then and the world will be a little more liberal. The Tories nicked raising the income tax threshold. It’s REALLY annoying. But at least the world is better for it. Or will be so long as they raise it to £12500.

3.Keep thinking of new radical things ready for when the good one’s have been nicked. Then we’ll still have something to talk about.

4.Make one of those radical things : PR . Not pretend PR (like AV). Don’t call it ‘constitutional reform’. Go for it. There’s never been a better time

5.Lords reform. Til we’re blue in the face.

6.Raising the National Insurance threshold. It’s more progressive than raising the tax threshold. I know it doesn’t win Middle Class Middle England alarm clock Britain voters. I don’t care.

7.Votes for 16 and 17 year olds.

8.Tories will almost certainly go backwards at GE2020. They broke the mould this time for many reasons – but not least because they were part of a coalition, not majority government. Its v. unlikely they can go forward next time.  Let’s target winning those seats back now. They'll be easier to win than Labour facing seats I'll wager.

9.Yes, I know point 6 is a progressive point that contradicts point 8. Again I don’t care. I’m not going to be constrained by left or right. I’m only going to be constrained by the filter of ‘is it liberal’

10.The Snoopers Charter. Oh dear me no. Man the barricades

There’s of course a lot more to say. But this would be a start.