A reminder about the Reform Contract/Manifesto

 Reform published a document which they called a 'contract' but appears to be a draft manifesto. They asked for people's views on it but when I responded within 4 hours they said they had closed the process. So here's my response on most of their points I've added extra letters in some cases since Reform don't appear to be able to count properly. The original document can be found online at https://assets.nationbuilder.com/reformuk/pages/253/attachments/original/1708781032/Reform_UK_Contract_With_The_People.pdf

Reform Manifesto? Contract

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Can Reform count?

2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 8, 9, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 243, 26, 27, 28, 29 Were these meant to be page numbers? In which case put them right aligned and check they go to the right pages.

Certainly, this is a trivial point but it doesn't inspire confidence when the first thing people see is an 'odd' count. Employ a proofreader!

 

2. Government waste - Certainly a good idea. (But make sure the PDF text can be read over the background) Proofreader again.

3. Economy - Personal (a Lift the Income Tax Start Point to £20,000 Per Year) Acceptable. Certainly, tax should not be paid by those on basic pension and benefits.

(b Cut energy taxes) Taxing energy is an evil tax. It's particularly hard on those with low income. Perhaps this could be done on a sliding scale?

(c Cut residential Stamp duty) If you've made the effort to buy a home why pay extra tax on this? Seems wrong.

(d Abolish the VAT tourist tax) I wasn't even aware 'they' had done this but I don't think it will have much effect.

(e Death tax) I approve. This death tax hits particularly hard in the South.

 5. Immigration. Reform seems particularly fixated on this. It may be your, racist priority but it's not the priority of most of the UK. Kind of reminds me of that quote "If you tell a lie, and tell it often enough then people will believe it." From Roman times the UK has benefited from immigration.

 5 (again) NHS. (a. Cut basic tax of all frontline NHS staff for 3 years as an incentive) An excellent idea.

(b Use Independent Healthcare capacity) Again worthwhile considering provided that the cost is not increased.

(c. Tax relief of 20% on all private health insurance) No - bad idea and unfair  to those without the means. But a discount of what is paid in National Insurance might be appropriate.

(d.Write off student fees pro rata per year over 10 years of NHS service for all doctors, nurses & medical staff) I would go further and scrap tuition fees for all UK doctors and nurses. Plus give them bursaries to cover housing costs while training.

(e.New NHS Voucher Scheme) Could prove expensive - Try to reduce waiting times by other methods first and consider introducing vouchers over time. (And a proofreader will tell you an ellipsis is three dots not two btw.)

(f) Cut waste and bureaucracy? Always desirable.

(g. Save A&E) I think this sounds an obvious step, but many A&E are being closed at night. Reconsider this.

(h) I'd like to see this. An investigation into vaccine harm would be useful even if is found that more lives were saved than deaths caused by the vaccines.

 8. Energy (a) DON'T scrap Net Zero. It's a target to work towards. We can't afford to burn the finite fuels we need as chemical feedstock.
BUT:
Put much greater emphasis on insulation and efficiency. For example, EVERY home in the UK could have its exterior walls insulated inside with a 1.5 mm layer of aerogel insulation which, in the worst quality housing, could save residents up to 35% of energy costs. It would cost less than three of those ten nuclear power stations and wouldn't take 10 years to complete.

(b renewable energy subsidies cancellation) Bad idea. We are not doing enough to promote renewables but building huge windmills may not be the answer. We need to put extra effort into wave and tidal power, vortex windmills in cities especially on dual carriageway central reservations, geothermal power, gravity power storage. By all means encourage solar power but not on agricultural land. Sheep are quite happy to graze under solar panels. Car parks are a good location for these too.

(c) Shale gas and fracking. Fine be aware of these resources but the time for them is not now. Leave them until we are desperate.

(d) Caution is needed for some 'clean energy' such as hydrogen. It has a potential  to cause disaster from accidents during transport or refuelling. It might have a use in aircraft. Nuclear power, unless fusion power becomes available, stores up problems we have no right to leave to our descendants.

9. Policing - I suspect this is another 'Tell a lie often enough' issue. Crime is low with the possible exception of Internet fraud. Violent crime is decreasing and will be lower still as lead works its way out of our environment. We do need to do something about police numbers though. The Conservatives lied by omission when they said "We've employed an extra 20,000 police (but omit to say 25,000 police left in the same period)"

 10. Huh? Where/what is it?

11. Justice - We do need more prisons and prison officers. The criminal justice budget does need updating. Hate crime needs public shame and you stressing this is much a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Public demonstrations need no new legislation. 'Life means life' can't be a general rule and needs interpretation on an individual basis. Organised crime? Yes - throw the book at them. Perhaps those trafficking illegal immigrants should spend 5 years working for subsistence pay before being deported if they are not British citizens.

Child grooming gangs? Is this as common as made out? Certainly a 'throw the book at them' crime on conviction.

Youth crime is a failure of society; fix that first.

12. ?

13. Education. The function of government here is to provide the funding needed and to stop interfering so as to reduce the stress on teachers. Teaching, especially in STEM subjects, doesn't need the input of politicians who only seem to have made matters more difficult. When I taught chemistry the government legislated that all children should study it. The immediate effects were an 80% increase in equipment breakage and disruption to those more capable of understanding the theory of valency.

Transgender ideology in primary school? I doubt if many would disagree here apart from a few who give 'woke' a bad name.

Critical race theory should be a part of the history curriculum so that students can learn from the mistakes of the past.

Labour has got it wrong on charging VAT on private education. It's likely to cause the closure of some schools and increase the load on public sector schools.

Student loans? I'd rather we brought back grants to those who have the ability to make use of a University Education.

Life skills classes? Yes this is a common sense idea and tremendously helpful

Smartphones? I personally wouldn't give a child under 14 a phone. Their developing skull doesn't need the radiation and their maturity lags behind in the responsible use.

 14. ?

15. Benefits - Sounds good but I suspect you would make a deeper mess of this. Not everyone is capable of working. Investigate Universal Basic Income first before tampering with the benefit system.

Two strike rule for job offers - Should a person with a degree in a STEM subject be forced to take a job flipping burgers? I suspect these people will take such a job while continuing to look for employment and won't need compulsion.

PIP face to face assessment? Have you any idea how stressful this would be to an autistic person?

16.  Brexit - a complete and utter disaster. A 37% minority made this decision based on lies and misinformation. A government elected by 29.1% forced it through. You are WRONG about this! The majority of the electorate now thinks this was a mistake. We should hold another referendum on re-joining BUT count those who don't bother voting as a half vote for the status quo choice which in this case would be remaining outside the EU. No decision by less than 50% of the electorate should be final. Less than 50% indicates we should investigate why people were unhappy with the EU and attempt to fix it.

17. Defense. Defense means exactly that - defense rather than offense. 2.5% of GDP is too much! It means every man, woman and child in the UK is paying an extra £230 to increase the profits of the 'merchants of death' - the armaments industry. 

18. By all means pay our armed forces and veterans better 

17 (again) ...but no one should profit from making the weapons that kill people! Introduce a windfall tax on armaments industries. 3% of GDP is ridiculous and will only help to make the world less stable, killing even more. In this respect item 12 of Hitler's 25-point-plan was correct. (12. It is wrong for people to make money from a war. Anyone who made money from wars should have all that money taken away.) Your 'Introduce incentives and tax breaks to boost the UK defence industry. Improve equipment self-sufficiency and manufacture world class products for export' is not just wrong it's EVIL!

19.  Housing. Suggesting that immigration is the cause of housing shortages is questionable. The idea that immigrants should go to the back of the queue for housing is wrong. Each case, immigrant or not, should be judged on its merit.

20. Children and families. I approve of supporting marriage through the tax system  and allowing mums to stay at home with young children but what about family partnerships? They exist.

Single sex spaces? Isn't this making a mountain out of a molehill? Are you going to have people at single sex spaces to determine if entrants are the right sex?

 21. Transport & Utilities? Scrapping HS2 and focusing on the North are  contradictory.

ULEZ does need further investigation. Perhaps making drivers more aware if their vehicle is not compliant.

We do need a national water  grid but I would remind you of the extensive tunnels dug from Northumberland to Teesside and then never used.

22. Agriculture. 'British farming needs reform to take advantage of Brexit.' Brexit has been an utter disaster for UK farmers. Things like  35,000 pigs were culled and tonnes of crops left to rot in the fields. If you want to improve agriculture then reverse Brexit.

23. ?

24. Fishing. The EU deal worked out wasn't beneficial to fishing. Our fishermen can no longer sell their catch to EU markets. This was yet another negative Brexit consequence.

25. ?

26. Pensions and social care. This section is complete and utter waffle. No suggestions other than setting up a 'Royal' Commission and looking at how Australia manages pensions. It's notable that UK pensions are Europe's poor relations. In a government report in 2019 the UK state pension compared to the average EU state pension was a ratio of 28.4:63.5 The recent removal of winter fuel allowance has reduced living standards of some UK pensioners by 1.73% Protest that!

27. Constitutional Reform. Many of the actions suggested here smell like Hitler's 25 point plan.
a) Leave the European Court of Human Rights within 100 days - Terrible idea unless you have something stronger in place which will take a lot longer than 100 days to formulate.
b) Commence reform of the House of Lords - OK some good ideas here. Let's get rid of political and religious appointees and make the Lords a body of successful non-political appointees worthy of peerages
c) Commence reform of the civil service. Did you copy this from Hitler's point 6? The civil service already has a structure where competent people can advance and the incompetent be dismissed or demoted. Don't try to fix what isn't broken.
d) Reform the postal voting system. You are again trying to fix a system which isn't broken. Voter fraud is practically non-existent. Voting should never be made more difficult. 

28. Reclaiming Britain. You did suggest, as other political groups did, some good ideas:
i) Proportional representation
ii) Bill of rights
iii) BBC and TV licence reform
iv) Anti-Corruption Unit
More dubious are:
v) Affirm British Sovereignty - Maybe useful after years of negotiation and external reform.
vi) Replace the 2010 Equalities Act - sounds like a good way of bogging Parliament down in years of argument.

29. Funding. A fanciful section reminiscent of the 'Savings to be made by Brexit'.