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Wish list for Britain

(140 Posts)
janthea Mon 11-Feb-13 13:18:21

I was talking to a friend last, to whom I haven't spoken for ages. Naturally we set the world to rights. This made me think about how I felt about the current political situation and others things. So I set out it down. I warn you it's a long post and you may get bored. Say what you want! It won't upset me. If I like that you say, I'm pleased. If not, I don't care. So here goes:

I was thinking about what I wanted for Britain as a whole and here is my wish list:

I want everyone to be proud of being British.

I want the NHS to be the best. This is not going to happen as long as we allow illegal immigrants and others, who have paid no taxes or insurance to come here and claim benefits. This does not help anyone as the service is under severe strain. If you are sick in a European country, you have to pay and then claim back the money on your return to the UK. Why don’t we do that here? Look at the mistakes you keep reading about – children sent home and told ‘it’s only a virus’ and then die of something more serious. Cancers not caught in time because the symptoms have been missed as ‘nothing’. It’s can’t go on.

We can’t allow unrestricted immigration as we are a small island and there must be a tipping point. It may have already been reached. Services and infrastructure suffer because of too many people claiming benefits. I have no objection to people coming here working and paying their taxes.

The same goes for education. The standard needs to be raised considerably and not dumbed down to the lowest level. The problem in many schools is that English is not the first language and therefore children whose first language is English are held back by the rest of the classes. The problem lies with parents who come here and don’t make an effort to learn English and therefore their children have problems. I like cultural diversity but not to the detriment of Britain.

Justice needs to be toughened up! Stopping using the European Human Rights Act as an excuse not to punish or deport foreign criminals. People should serve the full sentence they are handed down and not let out after about a quarter of time served. I believe in the death penalty for crimes such as those where children are raped, tortured and killed. And if anyone did that to one of my children or grandchildren, I would happily throw the switch.

Religion – I think all religions should be tolerant of other religions. People are entitled to believe what they want, even if they list Jedi as their religion!

Politics – I am a Conservative and would never vote anything else, but I’m disappointed with David Cameron. I think he’s favours the Lib Dums too much. I know it’s hard for him in a coalition government, but he does need to stand up and be counted. UKIP is a little too much for me, although I agree with some of their policies (leaving the EU for instance). I suppose I’m somewhere between David Cameron and UKIP.

That's it!! gringrin

vampirequeen Fri 15-Feb-13 16:08:59

I think we have to allow that as we must protect a person's right not to incriminate themselves.

Grannyknot Fri 15-Feb-13 15:46:57

vpq I'm talking about when people are questioned by the police, not at the jury stage (I was watching Crimewatch last night - there are only 5 channels where I am in Spain smile).

My point is that in police interviews people e.g. having been shown a CCTV of them/their car at the scene sit there and repeat "No comment" in a monotone before the policeman/woman have even finished their question. I remember watching a documentary about that man who killed several young women in Surrey with a hammer, striking from behind, (he was also found guilty of the Milly Dowler murder once he was already imprisoned for I think 3 other murders). He did that in his police interview. "No comment" for hours. Because he can.

vampirequeen Fri 15-Feb-13 15:36:31

Isn't it against the law to spit in the street? There used to be signs up threatening a £50 fine.

Not so sure about the no comment. You have the right to say nothing...what the jury make of that is up to them.

Grannyknot Fri 15-Feb-13 15:30:18

Here are two things from me for the list: (1) Stop people from spitting in the streets; after 12 years of living in London, I still heave when I walk past the result. How is it allowed to carry on? Oh, I forgot "it's because the footballers do it". (2) When someone is taken into custody for questioning, if they repeatedly reply 'No comment' to questions, the assumption that they mean 'I'm guilty' should be permitted to be made.

vampirequeen Fri 15-Feb-13 08:13:45

The school I taught at was the most inner city school in the city and attached to the estate but better off families chose to ferry their children to it rather than send them to more local schools.

vampirequeen Fri 15-Feb-13 08:12:27

That's sad. It's never happened to anyone I know.

susieb755 Thu 14-Feb-13 22:54:24

nanaej , I agree with you - I am sure a lot of us were raised in council houses, andin our days there was no stigma, but there sure is now - for example young people on an estate near me struggled to even get interviews, until they changed there addresses to friends not on the estate !

nanaej Thu 14-Feb-13 20:23:17

POGS The school where I was Head was built between a road with owner occupied houses..£300K plus and a local 'social housing' estate. Very few families of the owner occupier homes chose our school as first choice because of their opinions of the residents in the social housing property. Think that is why there are people in social housing who may feel stigmatised!

POGS Thu 14-Feb-13 18:55:53

Ivanhoe

This is the first time I think I have ever heard of, or know somone, who thinks there is a stigma attatched to social housing.

I would hazard a guess a good number of GN's were born and raised in a council house. I was and I have never felt that was stigmatising to me, ever, in my lifetime.

It is true that 'some' housing estates do have, for very good reasons, a bad name I agree. I do not however think anyone would link that point to ALL of the people who live on those estates nor generally to everyone who lives in social/council houses.

That seems quite bigoted.

vampirequeen Thu 14-Feb-13 17:44:59

Have you ever lived on a council estate? Do you know anyone who does? If you do have they given you examples of feeling stigmatised?

Somewhere you said that up to 1987 you were a party activist and that the branch disbanded. Where was that? Did you work from the local party office or where you part of Militant Tendency?

vampirequeen Thu 14-Feb-13 17:40:53

The vast majority of the public think there is more stigma attached to social housing than to private rental, according to a new survey.

The operative word here is 'think'. There are no examples given. It's merely an opinion.

I think I will win the lottery tonight.....doesn't mean I will.

Ivanhoe Thu 14-Feb-13 17:11:12

vampirequeen, please go hear. And read here.

http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/stigma-attached-to-social-housing-says-survey/6510050.article

Stigma attached to social housing, says survey
3 June 2010 | By Martin Hilditch

The vast majority of the public think there is more stigma attached to social housing than to private rental, according to a new survey.

The survey, carried out by Fast Trak, a company that helps lettings agents find tenants, found 72.9 per cent of the 299 people surveyed thought there was a greater deal of stigma attached to living in a council home rather than the private sector.

A total of 68.9 per cent of people thought there was a shortage of council housing in the UK and 65.4 per cent expected the situation to get worse in the future.

The survey also revealed that most people have no idea about the current housing benefit system. Eighty-three per cent of those surveyed did not know what the local housing allowance is.

Damon Thomas, managing director of Fast Trak, said the survey revealed a ‘sure sign that the system isn’t working properly’.
‘Significantly, these same people [surveyed] have very little faith in the situation improving,’ he added.

PS. Im in the private rented sector.

vampirequeen Thu 14-Feb-13 16:57:56

Could you provide some evidence please. I lived on a large inner city council estate from 1980 to 2007 and I never felt there was a stigma about living there. Taxis were happy to take you day or night, buses ran, we had a local shop, credit facilities were available, insurance companies offered standard price insurance.....where was the stigma? My daughters were well educated ..one choosing to go to university and the other choosing to go straight into the workplace.

Also could you answer my question about your own housing situation.

Ivanhoe Thu 14-Feb-13 14:29:46

vampirequeen, There is a stigma in Britain about council housing and it's tenants.

vampirequeen Thu 14-Feb-13 14:12:45

That's a brilliant idea dorsetpennt. Would deal with housing shortage and not lead to building on green field sites.

Ivanhoe...I feel no stigma in renting. I've never owned a house. I've always been either a council or private tenant.

As a matter of interest do you rent or own your home? If rented, is it social housing? If you're a tenant can you give me some examples of when you've felt stigmatised for it?

dorsetpennt Thu 14-Feb-13 13:53:22

My wishes for Britain? More or less the ones expressed here with a slight alteration on the immigrant issue.
None of this countrys' ills can be blamed on immigrants. The ones I know work extremely hard, want their children to be educated well and live a better life then they have had. Of course there are those who use our Benefit system to fund certain lifestyles. However, those that are on Benefits want to work and do so as soon as possible. The so called Benefit abusers are not the norm, it's a theme much favoured by the Daily Mail to blame immigrants for everything. I wonder if all those that immigrated from here to Canada,Australia and New Zealand over the years were greeted the same way. BTW most Benefit abusers are British.
I would like our education system to teach English Language and Literature, also Geography, as we were taught. So many people have no idea about grammer, punctuation, writing a letter, even writing an essay correctly, it just seems to be acceptable to talk badly. I don't mean accents and dialect by the way. My DD left school at 17 years old in the 1990's. She can tell me about soil erosion but ask her the capital of Sweden and you receive a blank look.
As for the housing shortage. Our seaside town has loads of empty office blocks that have been empty for decades. I think if, after a certain level of time , a block remains empty, it should then revert onto cheaper rental properties.

Ivanhoe Thu 14-Feb-13 11:43:54

vampirequeen , I think both should be done actually.

Across the EU and Scandinavia there is no stigma to renting and/or council houses like there is in Britain.

In the EU and Scandinavia, social housing and owned housing are built together, there are no class differences.

I believe this should be the way forward in Britain.

vampirequeen Thu 14-Feb-13 11:15:07

I live in a privately rented house and tbh my rent isn't exhorbitant. In fact it's very fair. When I was able to work it was never a problem and only is now because of the way the benefit system works.

Not all private landlords are Rachmanns. A lot are like mine. Someone who owns a couple of houses which they use to supplement their retirement income.

Where would you build these new council houses? On greenfield sites? I don't want to live on a sprawling estate. I lived on one for too many years. What will happen to the currently rented housing stock? If there are no tenants then the landlords will lose their income and the houses will fall into disrepair.

I agree there is a housing shortage in parts of this country. In a nearby city there are 4000 on the council waiting list but for some reason there is also part of an estate that has been mothballed. Surely it would be better to use up all the current housing stock before we build more.

Ivanhoe Thu 14-Feb-13 10:50:28

vampirequeen , I think we should begin with a universal council house building programme to take people out of the means test trap of the higher rent private sector and naturally to provide low rented houses for people in general.

vampirequeen Thu 14-Feb-13 10:42:50

And how do you propose that this national renewal should take place?

Ivanhoe Thu 14-Feb-13 10:15:06

vampirequeen, That's a very good question. I cant see this country of ours ever picking up again and moving forward and away from being market lead to being once again industry and manufuring lead with good pay and conditions can you ?

Being competition im sure you know, means workers have to work for less money so our goods are cheaper than anywhere else.

Yet we are the mortgage payers of Europe, our house prices are extremely high, our private rents equally so.

What Britain desperately needs is a national renewal as after the second World War, when we were bankrupt.

What say you ?

JessM Thu 14-Feb-13 07:57:51

It is 2 years until an election pogs I think Milliband wise to keep his head down and let the coalition do the work for him grin
Yes quite, vampire and meanwhile in the far east, other countries had built more efficient, new facilities and were selling their products at highly competitive prices.
The UK car industry was, for instance badly managed (to put it mildly) and their plant was seriously out of date. It is only in the last few years with foreign ownership and investment that companies like Land Rover are being so successful. But it has taken 30 years to build a modern, competitive industry (instead of the truly awful one that existed in the 1970s).

vampirequeen Thu 14-Feb-13 07:22:33

Ivanhoe please explain to me how Labour could have restarted the lost industries without massive public spending. The steel mills were derelict, the mine shafts had been collapsed or were full of water, the dry docks were silting up and the trawlers had been scrapped.

This is a new experience for me. I've never been an apologist for Tony Blair before shock but much as we'd like to move back to when GB had a strong industrial base the infrastructure and to a great extent the skills had gone by the time he took over.

Joan Thu 14-Feb-13 02:51:48

Whatever you wish for, make sure it is not the American dream. Here is a story of what life is like for those in the USA who lose their jobs, in a country with no welfare state, no safety net.

www.abc.net.au/iview/?series=2303988#/view/30857

POGS Thu 14-Feb-13 00:04:25

Ivanhoe

Isn't that the problem with Labour at the moment. "I wonder what Ed Milliband will do?". He hasn't put anything forward other than his 5 point plan which keeps getting dicredited economically.

He simply must put meat on the bone or he will go the way of a Findus lasagna. I would listen if he did, contrary to what you might have thought about me.