If you were Prime Minister what would you do!

No one is denying that, granbunny, certainly not me!

Oh dear - just found this thread. The capital punishment thing is always polarising isn't it? My own view is that if killing is wrong, the state should not do it. And of course it has proven to be no deterrent, and is likely to be carried out mainly on those who cannot afford a decent lawyer. it is an offense to human decency.

Anyway, as PM I would start with the children, because adults are often beyond help. Pour funds into excellent secular education, teach philosophy and ethics, help struggling parents, take kids away from abusive parents, expand good foster care and recruit people our age to help with child safety, such as being care visitors where children are at risk.

As for prisons, aka universities of crime, I would rethink the whole system and only incarcerate the dangerous.

PS re crime and punishment - crimes of greed, eg embezzlement, non-violent burglary, theft, pick pocketing etc would be punished by restitution - they would have to pay it back, and more, by having part of their income garnisheed, even if it would take all their life. This would hit them where it hurts - ie in their wallets.

Murder and any violence would need prison, but prison should involve some sort of rehabilitation.

Drug crimes - well - I'd decriminalise the lot and supply them legally to addicts. This would ruin the drug supply business, and enable users to lead an honest life.

Social crimes like stalking would be regarded as a form of violence with the threat of prison.

All convictions without imprisonment would involve some community work, appropriate to the crime or the criminal's expertise. Eg graffiti crims would have to clean up their mess. A posh or highly educated criminal would have to do something like recording talking books, or teaching refugees English.

Oh and I'd put in a program at schools to eradicate bullying.

Hate crimes would be regarded as violence, and bother-causing hate filled clerics would be deported if not British-born, regardless of what overseas agencies said.

I am very grateful for your post at 23:16:23 on Wednesday, absent.

Fantastic Joan! You have my vote

Having read a few of the longer posts here I realise that one important qualification for being Prime Minister would be to avoid imposing one's own particular preferences on the nation as a whole. As an example, I cite granbunny's ideas re. pet owning.

Incidentally, when people can't refer to others with political ideas to the left without saying 'trendy lefties' (a well-known phrase which in two words rubbishes a whole political position) it says more about them than anything else.

I'm not a trendy lefty by the way.

People may be passionate about their political beliefs and it's insulting to dismiss them as only trying to be trendy.

petallus, this is a granny forum. relax.

'if you were prime minister, what would you do?' is an invitation to have fun with the job, not make a genuine application for that particular post.

Good morning granbunny. Er no, I didn't think any of us were making a genuine application for the post of Prime Minister.

Some of the posts in this thread are very light-hearted, others more serious. I took your post to be in the latter category.

I made a valid point. Anyone who gets to be Prime Minister would hopefully put some of their own personal preferences to one side when making decisions which effect the whole of the country. Your pets comments (didn't realise you were joshing) was a good example I thought.

I've always disliked the term 'trendy leftie' and just thought I'd mention it in passing.

If I were PM, I'd try to make sure that every family had - or had access to - a garden. Time spent in a garden makes me happy, so no reason why it shouldn't work for other people. Incidentally, I am certainly left of centre politically but I am by no means trendy.

Yes Annobel - I'm fed up of seeing landscaped gardens that the children can't play in, decking that they drop their toy cars though, and manicured lawns that they can't pedal their trikes on. Bring back proper gardens for children, with their own little veg patch, swings and slides, and a paved area they can ride their little cars and trikes on, as they can't play in the street.

"petallus, this is a granny forum. relax."

Patronising!!!

gardens are certainly a good idea. or allotments. i'll add them to my manifesto.
morning, petallus. hope you are well and happy. no, i'm not joking about pets, education, health. but i am joking about being prime minister. just want to make that clear. prime minister is a role i would not consider.

might give 'dictator' a go.

jingl!
me, patronising?!!!
dear me.
sorry petallus! i am quite happy and sending goodwill vibes to the world this morning. as i was last night when i wrote my manifesto in such detail. it was fun. allotments are definitely the way forward.

and... bunkers....

It made me cross when our local council decided to restyle the town centre garden, using lottery funding, and replace the paths with gravel ones. The object was to bring the garden back to how it was originally, years go.

It meant, of course, that the kids could not skateboard on the paths and a favourite, perfectly harmless meeting up place for them was lost.

You can't legislate what people do with their own gardens, but public places should be inclusive.

I do agree wotsup so many local parks and gardens are beutifully done up, and then all the prohibitive notices go up forbidding anyone to have fun in them. Our local one, next to a church, has areas for everyone, including fake rocks for children to climb.

Sorry, beautifully!

Granbunny you'd have my vote, we might disagree on law and order (capital punishment) but with regards to pet owning, UK borders and lefties we would agree.

You were just a tad patronising granbunny but I knew you didn't mean it .

But this thing with pets.

Animals can make a huge difference to the quality of life for many people. Your proposed stipulations would deprive many old people, poor people, young people from owning a pet. Would this be fair?

Of course, the Queen would be safe with her many corgies.

I wonder if there is a word for right wingers on a par with 'lefties'. I can't think of anything except rednecks but that's American so it probably wouldn't do.

The loony left and the rabid right?

Here in Australia those who go too far right are called all sorts of things, but 'Right Wing Ratbag' is used a lot. Trendy Lefties here are called Chardonnay Socialists. We once had a Prime Minister, Paul Keating, who was a master of the innovative insult. I remember when he was in opposition he called the then Tory treasurer 'All tip and no iceberg'.

I'm a leftie - always was. Oh, there was a time when I was 12 or 13 when I decided to be a Tory, for the very noble reason that it was the opposite from my parents. I knew I couldn't take this stand without being able to defend it. I was at grammar school, had access to a great library and lots of information, so I did my research - and ended up further left than my parents!

None I think petallus but that quite capture the tone.
Although, dammit, I do agree that pet ownership should be regulated - when it comes to the ones that use other people's gardens as toilets and slaughter innocent songbirds. Why do people think it is OK?

You can't blame cats for killing birds! It's ingrained in them. Nature red in.......



(and those innocent songbirds would do the same if they had the chance)