Election time

It coming up to election time. These are just some of my personal thoughts about what I want from a new government and the ("=") benefits:

1 - Transform the UK business platform, especially green business. Plough min £50B/yr into environmental investment, focus on solar/wind & home insulation.

= employment, cost saving, future energy security & independence. Better environment.

2 - Clamp down on banks, banks serve us, not we serve banks. Stop all this tom-foolery about "financial products". Stop "growth" focus, develop "profit" and "service" focus. Make them pay back every penny (Obama style) - and show everyone they have done it by public monthly accounts.

= value for savers, pensions. Stability of money, reduction in speculation (especially in house prices, after all we live in them, we should not speculate about them)

3 - Emphasise christian values and morality, be tolerant of others but be sure of our own values, e.g. marriage, worship, honesty, caring, politeness...

= sense of belonging and purpose to society. Much reduced state interferrence, social management, of people's lives. Reduced costs.

4 - Stop being "global", we are a small nation that needs to focus on making our own lives better, richer and fulfilling. Get strong at home and then be recognised as someone to follow abroad. Some how transform UK from a "would be" global influence - UN top table, peacemaker, warmonger... to a small but superbly successful small independent nation. Reward and bring much more innovation and consequent manufacturing to UK. Transform our economy and make it forward looking and creativity based.

= Strong motivation and nation-building, bringing out the best in people. Find and appoint leaders for our country and our economy, our money, our nation.

= Less threats from terrorism, withdraw from wars, seek peace through diplomacy

5 - Get into and close up to the EU. Bring EU legislation and its preparation into the Westminster main stream, mandatory Westminster house floor debates on all EU proposals to clarify our position, feed into government policy/position, before issues get to the EU parliament. Widespread integration of EU MPs with Westminster, a kind of pairing or twinning, increase 600->900 and share, common seats and elections.

= No surprises about EU directives. Stronger ability to debate and influence EU proposals. Proper use of MPs time. Insider, well thought-out, influence in EU. Everyone informed and no surprises about EU directives.

6 - As a practical matter have a "Law maker" web site that tracks proposals and commitments (£s), probably run by independent journalists, and showing long term political strategies for what they are, both UK and EU.

= Practical way forward for newspapers, and a super ones-stop-shop for everyone to follow up proposed and proposed/enacted laws and government promises/expenditure. Eventually leading to opinion gathering feedback and then on-line issue based voting. Covering both EU and UK law making. Enable public comment, contribution and debate. (Cameron has propose d something like this, good for him).

7 - Scrap many of the current IT projects. Especially those that have overrun or that are over budget, have not met targets or are possibly illegal (see Rowntree analysis). Guiding principle for new projects is people ownership and personal guardianship of their data, not central data bases (the equivalent of police state/spying).

= More self reliant society, more opportunity for private services, huge money saving. Better government image: don't be complacent, emphasise successes, kill failures. Personalised services.