4 ms·

Britain Is Broken

20 points by nextos 4y ago

nextos 4y ago
"It will take radical ideas to reverse decline: cut university places, ban foreign home-owners and drop HS2 for a start."
- medo-bear 4y ago
  i think whats needed to balance these radically rich-boy/girl pieces is a well funded radically poor-boy/girl media cut university places vs free edication for all ban foreign home-owners vs radical investment in high quality social housing drop H2 vs super tax on luxury cars wage cuts vs national net profit cap of 10M and that's just for starters ;)
deafpolygon 4y ago
How about rejoining the EU?
- register 4y ago
  As an European I don't want UK to join back the EU. The damage is already done and cannot be fixed.
  - deafpolygon 4y ago
    As also a non-UK European, I don't care. Stay in or stay out. Stop bitching about what needs to be fixed. I'm not wholly heartless, so I would be OK with the UK rejoining if they wanted to.
    - nickd2001 4y ago
      As a Brit, or should I say English since it seems at least Scotland doesn't wanna be part of UK anymore if given a choice, it seems to me that talking about rejoining the EU, as though the EU countries will just say "welcome back" after the UK has basically "acted like a d*ck" for most of the time inside the EU, shows precisely the kind of arrogance and feeling of superiority that caused the Brexit mess in the first place. Maybe in 25 yrs time perhaps our country / collection of countries/ whatever the UK looks like by then, might be humbled enough to be seen as a helpful partner within the EU....
- N19PEDL2 4y ago
  Rejoining the EU would mean giving up the pound and adopting the euro. The British are not ready for such a big step.
  - deafpolygon 4y ago
    They weren't willing to give it up before, so that probably tracks.
pzone 4y ago
How about funding vocational training, building more housing, rejoining the EU and courting the tech industry by any means necessary?
amoss 4y ago
https://archive.is/N7xvO https://archive.is/N7xvO for what it is worth. But, tl;dr Tories are gonna Tory.
zimpenfish 4y ago
https://archive.ph/N7xvO#selection-941.0-941.69 https://archive.ph/N7xvO#selection-941.0-941.69 I was pleasantly surprised at the sanity of the suggestions, especially in a Murdoch rag, until I came to ... > My last proposal: raise MPs’ pay by 50 per cent at the next election. Yeah, you're going to have a hard job convincing people having to budget how many eggs they can afford that MPs should get an extra £43k a year. > The calibre of too many politicians is shockingly poor. Many of those previously celebrated and pushed by Murdoch papers...
- jerz 4y ago
  You’re right around public opinion but I think the approach is correct. I remember reading a study showing clear correlation between politicians salary and corruption levels. We need better people doing the job and when they get there they need to not be persuadable away from either their values or the work they are being paid to do because of money.
  - pcdevils 4y ago
    Their values are money. You don't go to Eton, become a Tory MP and work for your constituency. You get there to gain influence and power that you can peddle to anyone willing to give you money. The ability to shift and sell public services to people for favours, donations and cash is part of their system, not a flaw that would be eradicated by another 50k
- neilwilson 4y ago
  We need to raise MPs pay higher than that, and cover it via a hypothecated levy on UK firms and partners that is a percentage of what they pay their executives. That way the more firms pay their top people, the more MPs get paid. In exchange MPs should be barred from such jobs for a period after leaving office - golden handcuffs. MPs are running the country. They should be paid more than a mere corporate executive.
  - zimpenfish 4y ago
    > cover it via a hypothecated levy on UK firms and partners that is a percentage of what they pay their executives. That'll just lead to more executives being paid £1 pa and then getting the rest in stock / image rights / whatevers. It's like Sagan said - "To pay MPs more, first you must invent a functioning tax system." > In exchange MPs should be barred from such jobs for a period after leaving office Currently I believe they're barred from jobs in sectors where they've had any influence, decision making, etc. but as a quick glance at pretty much any Private Eye of the last decade will highlight, that means nothing. > MPs are running the country. They should be paid more than a mere corporate executive. If the first sentence were true, I'd (maybe) agree with the second. But the current bunch aren't running the country, they're chasing the right wing vote whilst feathering their own nests.
oriettaxx 4y ago
May I suggest this plugin to read the article? :) https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clean https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clea...
deterministic 4y ago
Here is a radical plan for you: Don’t try and re-invent the wheel. Copy what successful countries in Europe already does. For example, Germany is a great example when it comes to creating a strong export industry. Finland is a great example of how to create a world class education system. Less ideology. More practical implementation.

20 points by nextos 4y ago

"It will take radical ideas to reverse decline: cut university places, ban foreign home-owners and drop HS2 for a start."

medo-bear 4y ago
i think whats needed to balance these radically rich-boy/girl pieces is a well funded radically poor-boy/girl media cut university places vs free edication for all ban foreign home-owners vs radical investment in high quality social housing drop H2 vs super tax on luxury cars wage cuts vs national net profit cap of 10M and that's just for starters ;)

deafpolygon 4y ago

How about rejoining the EU?

register 4y ago
As an European I don't want UK to join back the EU. The damage is already done and cannot be fixed.
- deafpolygon 4y ago
  As also a non-UK European, I don't care. Stay in or stay out. Stop bitching about what needs to be fixed. I'm not wholly heartless, so I would be OK with the UK rejoining if they wanted to.
  - nickd2001 4y ago
    As a Brit, or should I say English since it seems at least Scotland doesn't wanna be part of UK anymore if given a choice, it seems to me that talking about rejoining the EU, as though the EU countries will just say "welcome back" after the UK has basically "acted like a d*ck" for most of the time inside the EU, shows precisely the kind of arrogance and feeling of superiority that caused the Brexit mess in the first place. Maybe in 25 yrs time perhaps our country / collection of countries/ whatever the UK looks like by then, might be humbled enough to be seen as a helpful partner within the EU....
N19PEDL2 4y ago
Rejoining the EU would mean giving up the pound and adopting the euro. The British are not ready for such a big step.
- deafpolygon 4y ago
  They weren't willing to give it up before, so that probably tracks.

pzone 4y ago

How about funding vocational training, building more housing, rejoining the EU and courting the tech industry by any means necessary?

amoss 4y ago

https://archive.is/N7xvO https://archive.is/N7xvO for what it is worth. But, tl;dr Tories are gonna Tory.

zimpenfish 4y ago

https://archive.ph/N7xvO#selection-941.0-941.69 https://archive.ph/N7xvO#selection-941.0-941.69 I was pleasantly surprised at the sanity of the suggestions, especially in a Murdoch rag, until I came to ... > My last proposal: raise MPs’ pay by 50 per cent at the next election. Yeah, you're going to have a hard job convincing people having to budget how many eggs they can afford that MPs should get an extra £43k a year. > The calibre of too many politicians is shockingly poor. Many of those previously celebrated and pushed by Murdoch papers...

jerz 4y ago
You’re right around public opinion but I think the approach is correct. I remember reading a study showing clear correlation between politicians salary and corruption levels. We need better people doing the job and when they get there they need to not be persuadable away from either their values or the work they are being paid to do because of money.
- pcdevils 4y ago
  Their values are money. You don't go to Eton, become a Tory MP and work for your constituency. You get there to gain influence and power that you can peddle to anyone willing to give you money. The ability to shift and sell public services to people for favours, donations and cash is part of their system, not a flaw that would be eradicated by another 50k
neilwilson 4y ago
We need to raise MPs pay higher than that, and cover it via a hypothecated levy on UK firms and partners that is a percentage of what they pay their executives. That way the more firms pay their top people, the more MPs get paid. In exchange MPs should be barred from such jobs for a period after leaving office - golden handcuffs. MPs are running the country. They should be paid more than a mere corporate executive.
- zimpenfish 4y ago
  > cover it via a hypothecated levy on UK firms and partners that is a percentage of what they pay their executives. That'll just lead to more executives being paid £1 pa and then getting the rest in stock / image rights / whatevers. It's like Sagan said - "To pay MPs more, first you must invent a functioning tax system." > In exchange MPs should be barred from such jobs for a period after leaving office Currently I believe they're barred from jobs in sectors where they've had any influence, decision making, etc. but as a quick glance at pretty much any Private Eye of the last decade will highlight, that means nothing. > MPs are running the country. They should be paid more than a mere corporate executive. If the first sentence were true, I'd (maybe) agree with the second. But the current bunch aren't running the country, they're chasing the right wing vote whilst feathering their own nests.

oriettaxx 4y ago

May I suggest this plugin to read the article? :) https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clean https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clea...

deterministic 4y ago

Here is a radical plan for you: Don’t try and re-invent the wheel. Copy what successful countries in Europe already does. For example, Germany is a great example when it comes to creating a strong export industry. Finland is a great example of how to create a world class education system. Less ideology. More practical implementation.