This document has been prepared by a small group of members of the Third Rock Forum to reassert the UK’s extraordinary contribution to modern life; to identify the UK’s current problems; and to propose solutions.

It is a political manifesto in search of a political party to implement it. Although the manifesto is entirely pragmatic, there is no party with the potential to form a government that is prepared to undertake the task.

To many, this manifesto will seem to be right wing, possibly even very right wing. We would contend that it is not right wing at all. In recent decades, the left has successfully shifted the "centre ground" so far to the left that a manifesto which is essentially pragmatic, based firmly on an understanding of human nature and common sense, can be construed by the establishment as fanatically right wing. It is not right wing to say that with rights there must be responsibilities; that those who can work should work; that all should abide by the law; that the elected government should be able to implement its legislative programme; that the civil service, the judiciary and the police should be impartial; that those who abuse the system should be punished; that in deciding issues we should seek out the facts and apply reason; that while we must protect minority groups and minority opinions, society should respect and generally reflect the views of the majority; that integration of newcomers is preferable to ghettoisation; that the ability of pressure groups to seize the narrative and the initiative should be limited by government according to the extent to which such groups have the support of the population as a whole.

The UK has problems. It is widely alleged that "nothing is working". This isn't true. Nevertheless no one can deny that there is room for improvement. The authors of this manifesto believe that the diagnosis of the problems is obvious, as are, in most cases, the solutions. That said, we need a substantial improvement in the calibre of our leaders; an enhanced political awareness in the population; and a radical change in current social psychology, if we are to make the changes necessary to solve the UK's problems.

2. OVERVIEW

The United Kingdom is a great country with a great history. It is a privilege to be a British citizen. Here are just a few reasons why.

It initiated the Industrial Revolution. Amongst many other achievements, it discovered or invented:

the aircraft carrier the bicycle boolean algebra
the calculator carbon fibre the cat’s eye road marker the computer Cricket the cash machine
desalination disc brakes the DNA structure (with an American)
the electromagnet the electron the electric clock electric motor
the fax machine fingerprinting football
the glider Graphene the Higgs boson the hypodermic syringe
incandescent lighting/light bulb the Internet (World Wide Web) IVF
the jet engine the light switch the lithium-ion battery logarithms
Macadam road construction marine chronometer penicillin percussion ignition for firearms
Portland cement pneumatic tyre the postage stamp
radar railways reflecting telescope rugby
soda water SMS messaging the spinning jenny stainless steel
the steam engine the navigable submarine
Tarmac telegraph the telephone television tennis thermos flask the toothbrush
the tin can traffic lights the transistor vaccination
electric vacuum cleaner waterproof material wireless

The UK built the greatest empire the world has ever seen, spreading its administrative skills, its commercial acumen, and the benefits of its discoveries and inventions everywhere it went.

The United Kingdom took upon itself, at great cost in men, material and money, to abolish the slave trade which had been endemic across the world, in particular in Africa, the Middle East, the Far East and the Americas, from time immemorial.

The English language has spread around the world as 1.5 billion people’s first or second language. It has A vocabulary second to none in its rich variety and its literature includes some of the greatest writers of all time.

The UK is second only to the USA in number of Nobel Prizes won, and comfortably exceeds the USA in the number of Nobel Prizes per head of the population.

The UK has played an extraordinary role in popular music, from Thomas Tallis to Sir Karl Jenkins, from the Beatles to Adele.

No other country has made a greater contribution to the world in which we live than the United Kingdom.

In recent years, however, the United Kingdom has been damaged by a number of factors which have undermined its constitution, diluted the character of its culture and threatened the integrity of its governance. This Manifesto sets out to identify the causes of this damage and to put forward the obvious measures for its repair.

3. ACCOUNTABILITY

We seem to have entirely lost the principle of accountability. We have successfully dispersed responsibility in every area so widely that no one can be held to account.

The executives and managers who bring banks and major corporations to the verge of bankruptcy walk away with their massive salaries, pensions and even a golden handshake. One of the architects of the global financial crisis of 2008 left the Royal Bank of Scotland with a more than lavish final payment and an extraordinarily generous pension which the taxpayer is funding to this day. Very few involved in bringing the global financial system to the edge of disaster paid any price for their greed and stupidity.

The privatisation of public utilities has failed to benefit the people. Our water companies are a disgrace. While paying out dividends to their shareholders and scooping up entirely unjustifiable salaries for themselves, they fail to maintain the infrastructure, or supply sufficient water for the growing population. To add insult to injury, they pollute our rivers and seas by disposing of untreated waste water in our lakes and rivers.

Social workers who fail to protect children are excused because the multidisciplinary system that should protect the children ensures that no one individual can be held accountable.

We need to review our management systems to reintroduce personal accountability. Financial executives who recklessly endanger other people’s money should be financially penalized themselves.

Senior business executives who mismanage their company’s affairs should be dismissed, not rewarded with golden handshakes and generous pensions. This will require redrafting of employment contracts for such executives in order to introduce the concept of personal accountability.

In social care, which often requires a multi-disciplinary framework of support, the situation is more complex. Nevertheless, caseworkers should still be accountable for those within their care, albeit with the support of the multidisciplinary team. If the case load is too heavy for the caseworker to accept this responsibility, or the multi-disciplinary team is failing to provide the required support, caseworkers should report this state of affairs to their superior, passing accountability to their manager. If the manager cannot resolve the situation, he/she should inform his superior in writing, and so on. A named individual should be accountable at all times.

4. REGULATION

All regulatory authorities need to be tougher and, if necessary, be given increased statutory powers to enable them to be so.

Heads of companies who do not meet the required standard should not be allowed to receive bonuses, and a cap on share dividends should, if possible, be considered.

5. CIVIL SERVICE

5.1 Implementation of Government Policy

Make it clear to Civil Servants that their job is to implement Government Policy. They should have a "Yes, if..." not a "No because..." mindset. It is not their job to second guess their Minister.

Consider changing Senior Civil Servants in all key departments with the change of Government to ensure their acceptance of the manifesto for which the people voted. ‘Going slow’ or threatening to take a Government to court is totally unacceptable.

It is also unacceptable to insist on working from home. If you are not prepared to attend work, as and when required, your job should be forfeit.

5.2 Stop relying on Consultants and Advisers

The Civil Service should recruit people good enough to do the work. If they are not good enough, replace them with people who are. Consultants are too often an expensive crutch for a crippled (i.e. incompetent or otherwise defective) organisation.

5.3 Review the size of the Civil Service

We have a bloated Civil Service which is expensive and inefficient. For example, we have 60,000 white-collar workers in the Ministry of Defence. We need to review all civil service departments, focus on getting the core work done and eliminating unnecessary posts; e.g. DE&I (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion).

The Home Office should be split. As one department, it is far too big and for a long time has been seen as unmanageable and widely regarded as “not fit for purpose”. For such an important Department this must be unacceptable. Borders and Immigration should be made a separate Ministry headed by a Secretary of State.

5.4 Re-assess the criteria for employing civil servants

There seems to be a disconnect between the Civil Service, the Government and the people. We need a first class civil service. Senior civil servants need:

- a good level of intelligence - experience of the world outside government - managerial and organisational skills
- a strong work ethic

It is worth asking whether these criteria are being sought for and met by current recruits.

6. DEFENCE

It is the first duty of Government to ensure the safety of the country and its citizens. Defence should therefore be given the highest priority.

Our current 2% of GDP spending is inadequate in today’s circumstances. The promised rise to 2½% ‘when circumstances permit’ is insufficient. We all know that circumstances are not going to permit for the foreseeable future. The 2½% should be immediate and a further rise to 3% should be introduced by the end of this decade.

Personnel numbers in all services should be raised. Recruits should be selected based on quality alone, not on DEI promulgated diversity requirements.

The recruiting process needs to be speeded up. There doesn’t appear to be a lack of applicants but the long drawn-out application process causes many to drop out and seek employment elsewhere.

The MOD does not have a good reputation for the allocation of its budgets or for competence in managing its projects. The proposed increase in budgets must be spent wisely on the professional training of personnel and purchasing the best equipment and systems to meet the challenges of the 21^st century.

7. DEMONSTRATIONS

Demonstrations of all sorts should be treated equally and, for each issue, should be limited to twice a year.

For any additional demonstrations on a particular issue, the organisers should pay up-front for the full costs, including the costs of policing.

Any damage done during a protest or demonstration should be repaired or compensated for in full. Any member of the public who has suffered inadvertently because of a protest should also be compensated in full by the protesting organisation.

Respect for the Union nations’ flags and for the Union flag must be taught in schools and enforced by local authorities and the police. No other flag should take prominence on our streets and public buildings except as an act of courtesy and welcome to foreign dignitaries. Even then, the custom should be maintained that the visiting flag is flown in tandem with our own.

There should be a total ban on any projection onto public buildings which is not initiated by government.

8. DISABILITY

Disability has been redefined and new syndromes introduced in recent decades until today almost anyone can claim to be in some way disabled. Mental illness has superseded low-back pain as the default claim, largely a reflection of the increase in white collar workers for whom low back pain is a rather less credible excuse than it is for manual workers.

There should be two classifications of disability:
- those who are clearly disabled either physically or through permanent mental limitations
- those who are physically or mentally challenged but who are still capable of work

Benefits for the first category should ensure that all are comprehensively provided for.

Benefits for those in the second category should be dependent on the willingness of recipients to seek and accept work. Support for those who do not seek or accept work should be limited to six months.

The current situation has become disgracefully unfair. Those in the first category are often denied much of the help they need, so that there is enough in the system to subsidise those who could but don’t work. Because of the Government’s lax management of the Welfare System and its over generous provision for the work-shy, more and more people at the lower end of the income scale, and even some higher up, have concluded that disability benefit, supplemented by a bit of work on the side, offers the choice of a not unattractive life-style.

The Welfare System and, indeed, the entire economy, is unsustainable if large numbers of the working-age population decide not to work.

9. EDUCATION

9.1 Depoliticise education

It is not the job of teachers to promote particular political ideologies. Their first priority is to teach their subject.

Politics is not part of the UK’s National Curriculum but, if teachers engage in political discussions, they should limit their remarks to explaining the different political systems, and should strictly avoid imposing their own views on their students.

The current left wing bias of the educational establishment at all levels should be recognised and reined in. In 2016, while the country voted Conservative, the teaching profession voted for Labour against Conservative by 5 to 1. Many teachers have gone from school, through university and teacher training college, into teaching. They have no experience of anything other than the academic world. Ideally teachers should be recruited at a later stage in their lives when they are more mature and have at least some experience of the world of work.

There is a case for including Politics in the National Curriculum as part of a module providing Basic Information on the Structure and Operation of UK Society. This module would explain the structure and priorities of all democratic Governments and the operation of the UK tax system. See 9.2.4 below.

9.2 Preparation for life

The principle role of education is to prepare the young for adulthood, so they can lead productive and fulfilling lives. No other consideration should undermine this principle.

9.2.1 Two basic skills

To operate effectively in society, people need to be literate and numerate. Every child leaving primary school level education should be able to read and write efficiently and have basic numeracy skills at the very least. Anything less will make attempts at a meaningful secondary education difficult if not impossible. Without these basic skills, children may slip away from the education system altogether becoming permanent truants or if continuing to attend school, becoming a cause of class disruption. Our understanding of children with reading difficulties has improved in recent decades and work should continue in this vitally important area.

9.2.2 Critical Thinking

People also need to learn to think critically. Although critical thinking is included in the curriculum, the ability to think critically has declined drastically in recent times. Reason has been down-graded to accommodate emotion, stemming from obsession with self- identity. Scientific facts are disregarded if they conflict with the individual’s ideology, however narrow or spurious that ideology may be. The method of teaching critical thinking needs to be reviewed and revised to produce better results; and reason and science must be restored to their former pre-eminence.

9.2.3 Further education

Further education should be designed to enable people to fulfil themselves in the society in which they live.

The policy of sending 50% of the population to university is profoundly flawed. Most people have neither the ability nor the inclination to pursue rigorous academic study at university level. Many who go to university enjoy the experience but, at the end of their course, have accumulated massive debt and are not equipped to do the jobs that society needs.

At the same time, academic standards in university are lowered to accommodate a large intake of non-academic students, as well as lower qualified foreign students who are prized for the extra money they bring.

Worse still, those who do not go to university are demoralised in that half their peers have degrees. Indeed, employers are now demanding a degree for jobs which have no real requirement for one.

What society needs are skilled tradesmen and craftsmen, such as good electricians and plumbers, not mediocre or poor historians and philosophers. We need to accord good apprenticeships at least the same status as degrees. Some of the colleges which were turned into universities under the rush to “democratise” and popularise higher education should be reconverted to their former purpose, to provide graduates with technical skills which help to sustain and improve a modern society.

9.2.4 How society works

We should add to the curriculum a syllabus on how society works. Sections should deal with:

the role of Government
the tax system
how tax is allocated
the role of the public sector
the role of the private sector
the welfare system

Many children leaving school or university have little or no idea how society works Many will have been heavily influenced by left-wing teachers, churned out by extremely left-wing teacher training colleges. In the complex world of today, knowledge of how things work in the real world is important. Ideally teachers should have at least five years’ experience of working in the private sector before taking up a teaching position. This may not be practical, so it is even more important that teacher training colleges are stopped from promoting extreme left-wing ideologies. Democracy depends on an informed population capable of assessing the alternative political ideologies and economic models on offer. Closed, ill-informed minds are a poor outcome from any educational system.

9.2.5 The Voting Age

Despite the decline in critical thinking, left-wing indoctrination and children’s lack of knowledge of the world in which they live, there is talk of giving them the vote at sixteen. We now know that the brain is not fully matured until we are in our mid-twenties with the prefrontal cortex being one of the last parts to mature. This area is responsible for skills such as planning, prioritizing and decision making. There is no fixed age at which humans reach full mental competence but, if we take democracy seriously, it is possible to make a better case for raising the voting age to 21, rather than lowering it to 16. Given where we are, it is best left as it is - at 18.

9.2.6 Intellectual Property and Security

We have a serious problem with certain foreign students – Chinese in particular – who are stealing our intellectual property and presenting us with security risks. Concerns have already been raised by our security services. It is known that the Chinese Government keeps a very tight hold on their people who travel abroad for study or work and demands that they operate only in China’s interests. Our Government must introduce firm, if not statutory, controls with responsibility placed squarely at the door of the university authorities.

10. GOVERNMENT FUNDING OF OUTSIDE ORGANISATIONS

The Government should stop funding outside organisations - pressure groups, charities and the arts (except for national institutions).

All outside organisations should raise money through donations from the public.

Government funding of such pressure groups as Stonewall is absurd. Such groups are charities and should raise money, if they can, from the public.

The Trans issue has exposed the dangers of Government helping to finance pressure groups that promote minority interests or eccentric ideologies. In some cases these groups are promoting ideas which directly conflict with Government policy, are hostile to the interests of large sections of the population and ignore both science and reason. That is not what taxpayers’ taxes should be used to finance.

11. HEALTH

The NHS should be funded through a compulsory national insurance scheme.

There is an underlying problem with the NHS. There will never be enough money to provide everyone in the UK with a first class health service. Why? Because people will not pay as much for other people's healthcare as they will pay for their own and that of their loved ones. A healthcare system that taps into the concerns of the individual for their own health and for the healthcare of their loved ones will generate a great deal more money and less resentment than a system that aims to provide the same level of care for everyone, especially when you have to wait years to get it.

Of course the NHS represents a noble ambition (that we should treat others as we treat ourselves) but, if we want a really good health service that can provide the best treatment for the most people, we should work with the grain of human nature, and not against. We should have a compulsory insurance scheme, where each individual is paying into the scheme and is personally insured. The actual quality of health treatment must remain the same for all but there should be benefits, in terms of quality of accommodation and quality of food, for those who pay more

Of course, this ‘two-or-more tier’ system is similar to the current situation (with the NHS and private healthcare) but, if the country adopts the insurance-type approach, much more money will go into the system as those who can afford the optional extras will pay more.

Management of the NHS: The various levels of NHS management should be carefully assessed for their usefulness. Any jobs to do with DE&I should be discarded.

The NHS is one of the biggest organisations in the world yet it doesn’t make any use of its size to increase its bargaining power, preferring to purchase as individual hospitals or trusts. This is a totally pointless waste of money.

Enormous sums are spent on drugs. NICE is in charge of controlling what can be used by the NHS, based on the money available. This means the UK often lags behind other countries in introducing new drugs. An insurance-type system of financing the NHS should bring in more money which should alleviate this problem.

That said, more research should be done into treatments which offer alternatives to drugs – which are expensive and have side effects.

For years we have failed to train sufficient doctors, dentists and nurses. There is no shortage of well qualified applicants, merely a shortage of training places. To fill the ever-increasing gap, and as the perceived cheaper option, we have turned to immigrants; in many cases ‘stealing’ them from poorer nations who need them more than we do! This must stop. We must train our own doctors.

In 2018 it was announced that the government would no longer use PFI or PF2 contracts for new projects. Every effort should be made to reduce the cost of existing PFI and PF2 contracts.

Net zero should not be the first consideration of any purchase. The idea of replacing all ambulances with electric powered vehicles should be put aside until the technology and the infrastructure is well established. The existing problems with the ambulance service need no doctrinal exacerbation.

11.1 Terms and Conditions of Employment

Consideration should be given to adding health professionals to the list of public servants who are not allowed to withdraw their labour. It is expensive to train a medic. In order to retain our home trained doctors we should introduce a contract which ties the junior doctor to the NHS for a period of years – five or ten – in return for a refund of university and training fees.

Salaries should be increased at a reasonable rate, taking into account the earning power which a consultant can command as well as the generous pension provisions he enjoys through the NHS.

Conditions of work must be improved. For example, a hot meal should be routinely available throughout the 24 hours. This is a matter of good management.

11.2 Scope of the healthcare service

Health services under the scheme should be limited to the care and cure of a list of clearly defined medical conditions. Elective cosmetic surgery and any transsexual treatments should be excluded.

Transsexual requirements should be treated as a mental condition. No-one under the age of 18 should be allowed to receive any chemical or surgical treatment and any adult who wishes to undergo such transsexual treatment should pay for it themselves through private clinics.

Common mental conditions (e.g. depression and anxiety) should not automatically entitle people of working age to sickness benefit. In most cases, work will help rather than hinder recovery.

11.3 Nursing

Consideration should be given to introducing a two-tier system of nursing. A higher level of university tuition as exists today, which began with Project 2000, going alongside a more hands on, ward based training, which worked so successfully in the past. The introduction of low-paid orderlies, with little medical knowledge and no sense of vocation, to look after people at their most vulnerable was a mistake which has done incalculable damage to the NHS and to the formerly highly regarded nursing profession.

11.4 Dentistry

Dentistry has become a completely inadequate NHS service. This situation needs to be addressed with a sense of urgency.

11.5 Language

There should be a set period of time during which the population can be made aware that all communication will, in future, take place in the English language only. Any need for translation should be arranged and paid for by the patient. This system works perfectly well in other similar countries and will be a future saving for the NHS.

11.6 General Practice

Since Covid, access to a GP, the first medical contact in this country, has become increasingly difficult to achieve. The terms of GP employment need to be renegotiated with the aim of:
- increasing GP availability, including at weekends
- reinstating face to face consultations
- ideally providing access to the doctor to whom you have been allocated and who is familiar with your medical history and family circumstances.

The rush to use computer technology has disproportionately affected the poor and elderly who are often the ones in most need.

The decline in the GP service has placed an unfair and unsustainable burden on A&E. GPs need to resume more of the workload.

11.7 Social Care

Government promises to deal with social care continue to come to nothing. Hospital beds are blocked by those who no longer need them but cannot be moved on as there is nowhere to move them to. Consideration should be given to the reintroduction of convalescence facilities, either as separate units, or wings of existing hospitals.

12. HUMAN RIGHTS ACT

We should create a UK Act of Human Rights (a new Magna Carter) to run alongside and, in the event of conflict, override the ECHR. This happens frequently in other European countries without serious repercussions. Nor was there any detriment to us on the one occasion we defied the court, under David Cameron’s administration, over their demand that prisoners should be given the vote.

At the same time, we should engage in constructive discussions with the ECHR to revise its rulings to bring them into line with the modern world. When the ECHR was formed, no one foresaw mass immigration into the north from the south. The ‘rights to life’ have been so broadly defined by clever lawyers to allow, with the connivance of the naïve and the woke, large numbers unidentified young men from totally different cultures ‘to flee for their lives’ from a democratic, peaceful France "to seek safety" in the UK.

The Northern Hemisphere needs to face the problem of mass migration. Even if attempts to achieve Net Zero are successful, it is likely that hundreds of millions of people are going to seek to migrate north. ‘Open borders’ is not a solution. Europe needs to have a plan.

13. IMMIGRATION AND BORDER CONTROL

The nation can no longer cope with the ever-increasing levels of immigration, both legal and illegal.
The numbers must be reduced to the once promised tens of thousands a year. Ideally, there should be a moratorium for a period of time to give us an opportunity to adjust our infrastructure: homes, schools, medical facilities, roads and transport, which are all struggling under the increase in population. This island is a relatively small landmass, and we can no longer cope.

It must be obvious to everyone that the desire of the Third World to enjoy the benefits of the First World is unlikely to abate. In fact, with global warming, it will almost certainly increase. There are only two practical solutions; Either we do all we can to give those in the Third World the benefits we enjoy, or we make provision to send illegal and unwanted immigrants who attempt to enter our country to somewhere else. Eventually the whole of Europe will realise that one or both of these solutions are essential if Western civilization is to survive; indeed there are signs that this is already happening. The UK’s efforts to implement the second solution will almost certainly become a rudimentary model for the future.

In the meantime, The UK Government should:
- declare that anyone entering the UK illegally will never be given British citizenship
- stop ‘processing’ illegal immigrants other than to identify their country of origin
- immediately cease providing legal aid for illegal immigrants.

14. INTEGRATION

Mass immigration poses a real threat to British culture.

The UK is rightly proud of the way we step in to help when there is a crisis anywhere in the world, whenever there is need – welcoming refugees from Ukraine and Hong Kong are good examples - but we must have control over who comes to these shores, whence and in what numbers.

Every effort should be made to integrate ethnic minority groups into UK society. Our liberal attitude, which appears to be such a draw, permits foreign migrants to live here while making little or no attempt at assimilation. This will result in an unhealthy fragmentation of British society

For assimilation, ability to speak English is essential. All UK citizens, and people residing in the UK, should be expected to speak English.

For any who don't speak English, there should be English courses available on the internet and in schools, universities and libraries.

Printing of Government information should be in English only. This is becoming increasingly urgent as it becomes apparent that rather than assimilate, many migrants intend to press their culture on to us. This must be resisted at all costs. In the UK and other European countries we have already seen sexual attacks on young women and in Germany recently we witnessed protests demanding a Caliphate and Sharia law. For years in the UK, police and other authorities have turned a blind eye to attacks by criminal grooming gangs on our teenage girls for fear of the charge of ‘racism’. In some things we should be proud to be racist.

The culture of the home nation must be dominant. Public holidays should continue to be used to mark significant events in the UK calendar. Festivals of minority ethnic groups should be a matter purely for those who are members of the groups.

State schools must continue to resist, through the courts if necessary, pressures to allow prayer rooms for children of different ethnicities. The curriculum should not be influenced by any group of students or their parents. Threats to organize or hold protest meeting on school premises should be declared illegal.

Government, local authorities and the police must be made to understand the vital importance of maintaining the culture of these Isles. Much damage has been done, for example, by the fear of ‘causing offence’ or ‘seeming to be racist’ to the detriment of our own young girls who have been, and in certain areas still are, targeted by foreign grooming gangs.

It must be made abundantly clear that anyone who wishes to settle here must learn our language and accept our traditions and way of life. If that is not acceptable, then this country is not for them and they should move elsewhere.

15. LEGAL AFFAIRS

15.1 Abolish the Supreme Court

In our system of democracy, Parliament is, or should be, sovereign. The people have the power to choose their government. They do not have any power over the Judiciary (i.e. the Judiciary has no democratic legitimacy other than to implement the laws laid down by Parliament). The Supreme Court is an anomaly in that it can challenge and impede the will of Parliament.

15.2 Depoliticise the Judiciary

Our judiciary is abandoning the first principles of justice in that it has become politicised. It should go back to enforcing basic tenets such as "Everyone is innocent until proved guilty"; that crimes should be proportionately punished; that all are equal before the law; that property rights should be maintained and vigorously defended.

15.3 Amend the Appeals Procedure

Narrow the judicial procedure to one judgement and one appeal. The only exception should be the emergence of new evidence.

15.4 Legal Aid

Legal aid should be limited to a single judgement and only one appeal - and provided only for British citizens and for those who have been given indefinite leave to remain.

There should be no legal aid for illegal migrants since, by their presence, they have already indisputably already committed two criminal offences (conspiracy with criminal gangs to break the law and illegal entry into the UK).

15.5 Prisons

With the growth in the UK population there has inevitably been an increase in criminality on various levels. Our prison system is not coping with the situation. We need more prisons and more and better trained prison staff.

Separate prisons or wings should be introduced to protect the vulnerable from the influence of those who would like to convert them to their religion under duress.

A high percentage of prisoners are illiterate. This problem is already being addressed but it needs to go further and faster.

Wherever possible, prisoners should be given commercial work paid for at the going rate. The money earned should be split between the prison service, victim compensation and the prisoner who would have a savings account for use on their release.

Thought should be given to devising effective punishments, such as fines, which do not involve incarceration for those who are not a danger to society. Community service, as it stands, is often inadequate and is not always completed.

16. NET ZERO

Net Zero has been forced on the UK population without their full understanding of all the implications and, under the Theresa May administration, it was made statutory with barely a whisper of opposition in the midst of all the Brexit arguments at the time. It is generally agreed that lowering carbon use worldwide is a good thing but arbitrary deadlines have been set which it is virtually impossible for this or any country to meet without considerable cost both in financial and standard of living terms.

The UK’s carbon use in global terms is very small, as is our influence on global warming. While nations such as China and India continue to install carbon burning power stations at a rate of knots, whatever we do will have little or no effect.

There should be a concerted effort by Government to initiate an informed public debate. The public needs to understand the arguments for and against “Net Zero by 2050” and the true costs of achieving it.

17. PARLIAMENT

17.1 Calibre of Parliamentary Candidates

17.1.1 Quality Check

All Parliamentary Candidates should be subject to an agreed vetting process to ensure they meet a minimum standard of morality and citizenship.

17.1.2 Experience

All Parliamentary Candidates should have at least 10 years’ experience working in the private sector of the economy or in the armed forces.

17.2 Electoral system

The security of the electoral system would benefit from far tighter controls, including mandatory presentation of photo ID at polling stations.

Postal voting is open to voter fraud - increasingly so, as its use continues to rise. No Photo ID is required to access a postal vote. Postal votes should be issued only to those with a legitimate reason for not being able to attend their polling station on the day of a vote such as health or mobility issues, or being away from their registered voting area.

A postal vote should be issued for one election at a time and not, once issued, be allowed to run indefinitely.

18. READJUSTMENT OF EARLIER LEGISLATION

In recent decades, there have been several changes to our Constitution that were not thought through and which have, in some cases, had damaging outcomes. It is time to reassess these pieces of constitutional legislation to see whether we can improve outcomes.

18.1 Devolution

Under the previous Labour Government, Devolution was introduced with the intention of granting some autonomy to Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland. The expectation was that the four parts of the UK would work together for the benefit of all. Sadly that has not been the outcome. Scotland is one example where incompetence has necessitated bail-outs from Westminster. Adjustments should be considered.

18.2 Elected Mayors

When elected regional or City Mayors were introduced they were given quite extensive budgets and powers. Good Mayors have been an undoubted benefit. Less good incumbents have caused untold damage and Government cost. London is the prime example where the capital has suffered many damaging consequences from the actions of the current incumbent, who has control over the Metropolitan Police (with the Home Office) and Transport for London.

18.3 Bank of England

When Gordon Brown took control of interest rates away from Government in 1997, giving it to the Bank of England, the move was quite widely welcomed. But just as with mayors, it depends on who is in the hot seat. Last year, the Treasury transferred a record £14.3 billion to the Bank of England as rises in interest rates caused heavy losses from Quantitative Easing. Currently it is difficult to remove a Governor during his contractual period of office. Maybe adjustments should be made to this system.

Devolving powers is a good thing but it needs to be done only after careful consideration. To guard against excesses or incompetence, national government should strengthen its level of control over actions by devolved authorities. It should be able to veto actions which conflict with national interests or the legitimate interests of the people governed by those exercising devolved powers.

19. WELFARE

Over and over again, the State steps in to relieve individuals of the consequences of their own actions. Often the State increases taxes on responsible, productive citizens in order to support/reward those who are unproductive, sometime work-shy, and sometimes feckless. It is obvious the principles on which the UK’s Welfare system are based need to be rethought.

Let’s make it clear from the start that those who really cannot support themselves (the truly severely disabled) should of course be fully supported by the state.

We are here concerned with the 8.9 million UK adults (aged 16 to 64) who are not working, 2.5 million of whom are registered as “long term sick” and 6.4 million of whom are simply economically inactive. The cost to the economy of supporting a quarter of the potential workforce out of taxation is unsustainable.

The problem with a welfare system based on need is that it motivates people to see and present themselves as victims. The principle that the needier you are the more money you receive inevitably encourages benefit claimants to become needier, not, as would be good for the claimant and society, to strive to reduce their need by becoming more independent.

The elimination of any element of moral accountability in the Welfare System has disastrous consequences for the individual and society. We need to stop basing welfare on what people need and replace it with what people deserve. In other words, we should provide more help for those who really cannot work; more help for those who try to stand on their own feet; and far less help for those think it is acceptable to rely on others (the working tax-payer) to support them.

In particular, those on benefit who have children should be told to meet their obligations as parents or face sanctions in the form of compulsory training in child-care.

Welfare reform is an incredibly difficult area and there are no easy answers but a society which abandons the principles of individual responsibility will end up rotten to its core. Every effort should be made to reinstate a sense of personal responsibility wherever possible.

18.1 Social Workers

At present, many social workers see it as their job to elicit as much money as possible from the state for their "clients". This is not good for the individual or the state.

Instead, social workers should be trained to assess the capacity of their "clients" to make a contribution to society and should aim to help their "clients" to develop their potential and regain their self-respect.

We should revert to referring to those receiving benefits as claimants, not as clients, because they are claimants, not clients.

18.2 Open Gap between low paid work and benefits

If we are to discourage the low-paid from dropping out of work, it is essential that we open up a substantial gap between the average earnings of a low-paid worker and what that person would get in benefits if unemployed. The low-paid worker should get at least double what the unemployed individual can receive in benefits. This means that low paid workers should earn more and benefits for the able-bodied, work-shy unemployed should be lower.

THIS IS THE VOTERS' MANIFESTO

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