General Election - what would decide the vote for you?

absthame What an utterly ridiculous comment you made in response to a mention for the need for proper prison sentences.

Are you honestly saying you don't want to see criminals properly punished ? Have you ever been the victim of crime?

It's in all our interests that they are and of course they should serve their full sentence.

In fact I would go further and call for prisons to be really tough and unpleasant to act as a proper deterrent so that upon release, criminals vow NEVER to go back inside.

I honestly don't understand the mentality of the bleeding hearts brigade whenever this topic is discussed.

We all pay our taxes Calendar Girl. We then vote in a government that tells us what it is likely to spend them on. Everyone pays tax.

I thought this was just a thread for a simple list, not yet another place for people to vent their spleen.

Well I'm afraid my spleen virtually vented itself after reading that post I commented on!!!

^ Everyone pays tax.^
You do, I do, Gracesgran and probably everyone we know does
but somehow, some people manage to evade paying their dues!

I will vote for the party that has the best hope of killing Brexit.
Not really interested in anything else as it is same old, same old stuff, every election.

Davidhs Wed 30-Oct-19 18:13:1, absthame Wed 30-Oct-19 19:11:28 & jo1book Thu 31-Oct-19 11:56:48 I totally agree.

I don't think the manifestos are that important, whoever wins can be voted out in just over 4 years but Brexit is forever. We may lose out short term with the 'wrong' government but in the long term are better off in the EU.

(JenniferEccles, you assume that longer, tougher prison sentences actually work as a deterrent. Evidence? They don't!)

Pressing issues:

1 The environment - or we are all truly lost

2 Equality, reduce the divide in our society

3 Proportional representation

GGMk3

Trouble is, I don’t think our taxes are enough to pay for everything on the wish lists.

I know social housing tenants still have to pay rent, well some of them do, but the houses have got to be built in the first place.

Amongst our failing institutions are the prisons, taken together with our conviction policies, they are producing amongst the highest levels of recidivism in Europe and the amongst highest level of imprisonment per capita also in Europe. It is no accident, the traditional punishment regime increases the levels of crime it makes it almost impossible to reduce crime levels and yet the cries for more punishment and revenge re the only cries heard by our political masters. We never want or will learn it appears

Yes they do, Calendargirl, but think how much could be saved in paying housing benefit (UC) to go straight into the landlords' bank accounts. Housing is a good investment.

BTW I'm in the process of applying for social housing because I know that I won't always be in the position to work to pay my private sector rent. Please don't make "digs" at social housing tenants.

Building houses creates churn which is needed for capitalism to work Calendargirl.

BTW There are people queuing up to lend money to safe borrowers, such as councils and the government.

SNAP GracesGran

The houses have to be built. Yes indeed but that isn't a one-way street
Not only providing much-needed homes but also boosting employment, upping the take of income tax and improving infrastructure.
The huge building programme of the 30's helped pull the country out of depression.
Building the Hoover dam plus many other engineering projects did the same in USA.
Keynesian economics at its best.
Plus - new energy efficient homes will help with climate crisis.
New innovative jobs in the energy sector will also contribute.
It worked back then and, despite our world being a different place today, it could again.

Overcoming NIMBY resistance is often a bigger problem than finding the capital to build.

Absolutely.
Investing in social housing is investing in jobs as well as creating a good housing stock and potentially bringing private rents down.

growstuff

It wasn’t intended as a ‘dig’, my MIL lived in a social housing bungalow after she was widowed. She didn’t pay rent as her income was too low, the same as many similar people around her. I apologise if I offended.

Accepted.

Remain in the EU

If we don't, nothing else on my wishlist will happen, but in case we do:

*NHS funding massively increased, with a ring-fenced contribution from everyone, based on income (whether from salary/pension/profits/assets other than housing).

* Clampdown on tax evasion, particularly of big companies such as Starbucks and Amazon, with an enforceable requirement to submit records of all profits made in the UK before squirrelling money away in offshore accounts.

* An end to social media data-mining in times of election . . . Oh.

absthame
What would be a better way to reduce crime and rehabilitate offenders?

I certainly wouldn't want a murderer, rapist or trafficker (of arms or people) being handed a derisory sentence then only serving half, dodging probation meetings and whilst in prison, laughing at the ease with which they can still organise crime and joke on social media about the judiciary.
Would you be content with a murderer getting 7 years or less because if it was my 'loved one' I certainly wouldn't.

Doodledog
Are you ok with every registered (note, I write registered) UK resident paying more but health tourists/visitors and those under the radar getting off Scott free?

Are you ok with every registered (note, I write registered) UK resident paying more but health tourists/visitors and those under the radar getting off Scott free?

'Health tourists' have to pay. Other EU nationals don't, at present, and I am 100% fine with that, as it means that UK nationals can get free treatment in EU countries too.

If prisons currently aren’t effective in reducing reoffending it’s because they simply aren’t tough enough. I still insist that if they were harsh, unpleasant places then criminals would ensure they stayed on the straight and narrow.

How many times have we seen pictures of yobs , perpetrators of some crime or other, smirking as they walk out of court?

They have no fear of our justice system and that should be apparent to us all,

Meanwhile their poor victim often lives the rest of their lives terrified of it happening again.

To be honest, I've never seen any pictures of smirking yobs walk out of court. Did they walk out because they were found not guilty?