"What are you hoping for from the new Tory government ?" thread in "General Mayhem"
Introduce compulsory energy efficiency measures in all new buildings. Invest in balanced energy production systems including nuclear, solar power, and even wind power as long ...

Introduce compulsory energy efficiency measures in all new buildings.

Invest in balanced energy production systems including nuclear, solar power, and even wind power as long as they can be shown to be efficient in terms of energy production and cost.

Increase spending on cycling facilities by a factor of ten, at least.

Decide exactly what the purpose(s) of our armed forces are to be, and spend accordingly to equip them.

Support home-production of food as matter of national importance. This government seems to be progressively washing its hands of agriculture.

Protect green sites, utilise brown sites. Protect all genuine sites of special scientific interest, historical sites etc.

Reduce wastage and dupli-/triplication in all layers of bureaucracy (okay, so a bit generic).

That'll do for starters. Now, where's that government chequebook...?

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standing on another rung of the slippery slope trying to get a grip...

An alternative to the current kick in the teeth each year Council Tax.
Lower taxes - particularly on fuel.
Fewer quangos.
Less waste.
More support for our armed forces.
Fewer money raising scams - camaras, thoughtless parking wardens, etc
Fairer treatment of Joe Public by the Establishment.

The good news about labour was that they trebled the yearly spend on health, more than doubled the spend on "education" (=schooling), and hugely hiked up the spend on just about every other public service.

The bad news was that the money was gruesomely wasted. Instead of a doubling or tripling of health service, over 6000 people a year die of hospital acquired infections, and goodness know how many more die of negligence. Instead of turning out intelligent, well-read children, we produce grumpy stupid chavs. Instead of a transport infrastructure second to none, we have to travel on overcrowded mobile vomitoria.

The civil service culture has been all but destroyed. The police have become enemies of the people rather than their friends and allies. You think Margaret Thatcher produced greed and corruption? Look at any hospital, school, or government office.

So I don't much mind if my taxes are sky-high. But I'd like the money to be spent wisely and productively. And that's what I'm trusting the Conservatives to do.

It looks like Lynw has a much better nuts and bolts insight, but I think her overall view is similar to mine and I do hope that any changes that come will delegate responsibility and authority together so that those at the front end will be able to act more effectively. Blair seemed to delegate responsibility and not give those with the responsiblity the power to act with any effect. As for Brown, who?

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The Cardiomyopathy Association a heart muscle research leader
http://www.cardiomyopathy.org


Accelerated ageing made easy

You don't half like flinging mud these accusations around Nippy.
First it's Ken Livingstone's bribes, now there's greed and corruption in every school.

Care to back that up?

Without replacing the housing stock leading to much of the current crisis and hyper-inflation of property values (in the long term view of things).

Fucked up the great railway sell-offs (or inception there-of).

Strangled the NHS to within an inch of its life (and despite contrary news stories it is rather better now, just the problems are more widely reported).

Did the whole 'smash the union' thing without viable alternatives, effectively bankrupting half the country along the way, some areas are only just recovering with massive investment from the EU (which she would now have us pull out of in her latest guise).

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im in ur monitrz, lickin ur screenz.

I think it's pretty likely. Of the last 3 times it ran to 5 years, two were lost ... because PMs only go to 5 years if they think they might well lose.

Cameron ( and Johnson ) only have to avoid making mistakes for a year or two. Brown has to ( be seen to ) make many many spectacularly right decisions, and that's much more difficult.

But strictly speaking you are of course right, nothing's certain.

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A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone's feelings unintentionally. Oscar Wilde.

Interesting how everyone wants less waste (although not surprising)

The tricky bit is, how? I'm struggling to remember any govt that actually managed it. I suspect you have to have a bit of slash & burn and accept that some good stuff is going to get cut as well, if we have the stomach for that

I'm just hoping for simplification in so many areas - tax for starters

I can't see how any Tory government would improve transport, but then I don't think people really know what they want. A bit of honesty about the sort of thing public transport is good at, and what it will never deliver, might be a start.

Fundamentally I'd like a change in the way people perceive risk, so that they don't shriek that "something must be done" by govt, which inevitably tries to do so and usually fails. But that goes a lot wider than gov. policy

Interesting

These two are already either on the statute book or have very strong govt policy in favour:

So it's odd you should see them as priority areas for action....

true. but we can't vote to ban the Daily Mail

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ZEN#234, TWO#

I worked for one of the nationalised industries that were privatised and they've all (IME - I've worked for 2 utility companies and have had dealings with the others) gone through the slash and burn thing.

One of the big long-term problems is the lack of recruitment of new staff that happens when you're shedding jobs elsewhere. There's now a huge gap in qualified and experienced people - plenty of 45+ year olds (though an ever decreasing number) and a few good kids coming through in the last few years, but no-one aged between 25 and 45.

They'll struggle in another 10 years when most of the older age group will be dead or retired.

Of course I knew that already but "we" do seem to concentrate on looking for ways to generate ever more energy and preferably cheaper energy, instead of ensuring that there is maximum efficiency in energy conservation first.

Likewise, although brown-field sites might have been prioritised, somehow I never trust any government to fully protect our natural heritage.

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standing on another rung of the slippery slope trying to get a grip...

One of the problems is that brownfield sites tend to be much more valuable ecologically, than greenfield ones....

....don't disagree with your views on energy conservation, but building regs are now very tight on new builds. I'd rather there was effort/incentives put into helping people save energy on their old houses

There are already some incentives for saving energy on old houses - I had cavity wall insulation done for a nominal amount (£50 I think), and it would have been free if I was an OAP, or on various benefits. Not sure exactly where the subsidy comes from, but it must be at least indirectly from the government.

Thank fucking gods for the occasional voice of reason. I despair. I really do.

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