Manifesto pledges for the next decade
THE UK has a broken NHS, a mountain of debt, record numbers of legal and illegal migrants and an evolving but difficult relationship with the EU. The UK no longer has the military power or moral authority to broker peace in either Ukraine or Gaza which realistically only the US can do.
The spirit of the times is changing and reminds me of the 1930s. I fear the next 10 years is likely to be dominated by regional conflicts, religious and ethnic cleansing and consequent famine, disease and migration.
So I humbly offer party leaders a menu of manifesto pledges for 2024-2034:
Vision: To create a high productivity and low carbon economy, efficient and effective public services, security against internal and external threats and minimum reliance on energy and food imports and migrant workers.
Policy:
Provide tax incentives for small to medium size businesses that export goods and services;
Invest in technology, AI and people to boost productivity, exports and innovation;
Calculate business rates on gross turnover rather than rental value to help town centres prosper;
Increase the minimum wage and thus reduce in-work benefits;
Provide overseas aid for emergencies only and save billions of pounds;
Use a variety of energy sources such as a Severn Barrage, small nuclear reactors and hydrogen in order to ensure energy security at an affordable cost;
Scrap Trident and use the money to build frigates, destroyers, drones and mobile tactical nuclear weapons;
Create a cyber response force to deal with internal and external threats and sabotage to underwater communication cables; Remain a member of Nato; Cooperate with other nations and agree legal ways and means of dealing with the migrant crises in order to maintain economic stability and social cohesion;
Benchmark NHS performance against global best and use the results to improve NHS healthcare outcomes. Integrate the NHS and