General Election - what would decide the vote for you?

It was Tory austerity policies that cut the number of experienced prison officers and allowed private companies to make a profit out of taxpayers buy cutting staff. Cells are not routinely searched as not enough staff so mobile phones and drugs are rife. Those who think the Tories will suddenly shake their magic money tree to make prisons more effective at keeping criminals off the street can forget that one. It can’t be done by cutting staff. If you want criminals to serve longer sentences you need more staff, the same goes for getting rid of drugs , treating the mentally ill, arresting criminals in the first place etc. As someone said - this is a separate discussion.

CalendarGirl We'll have to borrow it. After all, one man's loan is another's investment.

Sustainable adult social care plan agreed & implemented as a priority, & note adult is not just the elderly.

Reinstatement of nursing bursaries so that training to become a nurse is achievable & affordable.

Affordable social housing built where it is required to address housing need, vide local authority housing waiting lists for more units than already exist in that area.

All of these are achievable & affordable step changes that have a knock-on effect that benefits the greater good & can be achieved by shuffling political priorities.

Protect the NHS from US big Pharma price rises.
Remain in the EU, probably with a People's Vote.
Make social care more accessible.
A fairer voting system.
Less divisive parliament with the center ground in the ascendancy.
A more equal society.

I appreciate that Taxes would probably need to rise but a caring government would be worth it.

The party that can best deliver social justice will get my vote.

Prisons would be less terrifying places and there would be better rehabilitation if there was a crackdown on drugs and that also means no mobile phones.

To those who say our prisons are too soft, I’d suggest you know little about criminal justice and effective ways of reducing crime.
As that isn’t the focus of this thread, maybe we need one on that subject

Peoney it sounds to me as if you are against the EU rather than for the UK. We do have control over our borders, you cannot get into the UK without a passport. We chose to allow new EU entrants straight in when other EU countries didn't. That was our choice.

We make 99% of our own laws.

If you think we can replicate all the things we have in conjunction with the EU by ourselves I suggest you watch this video to inform yourself of what we gain and what we will lose. It is very well put:

twitter.com/i/status/1190180045135994881

Grow stuff, you're confrontational posts, plain rude. The bullying nature is just how trouble starts.
The sort of Brexit I want: is just the responsibility of managing our own affairs, not to have Brussels opposing our decisions.. Different countries have differing attitudes to their affairs, what one works for one, doesn't necessarily apply to another. To have control of our own borders, to determine how many people we can have here and whom, preferably an ID card. We have always been known as a very welcoming country, which we have been for centuries before we were in the EU. We can expand our horizons, business expanding worldwide, not everything centres around Europe. However best of all we can make our own decisions, re fishing policies, asking the people who actually do the jobs what it is they need, for example, for too long people that fish our waters have had ridiculous restrictions on them, whole communities are struggling.

I'd like to know what this means … "shouting your mouth off is some peoples idea of liberalism". Peonyrose seems like a very confused person, who hasn't really grasped concepts such as democracy or facts.

I’d like to know what kind of Brexit you want peony?

That fear-mongering about a looming dictatorship again? Get a grip Peonyrose!

You're right that Johnson and Farage have shown that democracy doesn't matter.

If I could have something else on my electoral wish list, I'd have an overhaul of our voting system.

And I'd throw those who break electoral law into prison!

I’m not sure where the prisons argument comes from. Anyone who thinks they are a holiday camp and pleasant places obviously hasn’t visited one.

The above demonstrates muddled thinking by which everything bad is blamed on the EU. What about that Dyson man spouting on about how marvellous Brexit would be for the UK, then relocating to the Far East and buying himself the most expensive apartment in Singapore. Meanwhile taking wads of cash from the U.K. taxpayer to develop his electric car which he now won’t produce in the U.K. - don’t believe everything will be rosy in when such hypocrites abound.

Whoever delivers Brexit. I heard a female Labour supporter, raging about the wealthy people being the enemy of the people and how they would be taxed to the hilt to pay for proposed changes. the people with the money and employers won't stay here, look at the wealth of the champagne socialists who preach one thing but practise another. The Blairs, their property portfolio and the jobs in Strasberg, so highly paid. I am not swayed by spurious claims by people who shout their mouths of without the facts. So I will use a tactical vote to get us out of Europe, but I fear the worse, I fear Corbyn in no 10, a dictatorship looming. I feel this generation has let our children and grandchildren down, showing that democracy doesnt matter, your own personal agenda does, that shouting your mouth off is some peoples idea of liberalism. I seriously doubt we'd will have what was voted for and we are chained to Europe and our country divided for the foreseeable future.

Sorry, I know this isn't the purpose of this thread, but there are changes to the efficiency of the NHS too. I'm on a panel which is meeting in two weeks to discuss (from a patients' point of view) how the system could be more efficient.

Opal I think you will find that things have changed. I know of two people with foreign-sounding names who have been asked for proof of residence and ID before planned hospital treatment could happen. It would appear that an NHS agency (can't remember its name) is running checks, presumably through the electoral register, on people booked in for hospital treatment.

PS. Both of the people I know did, in fact, fulfil eligibility (ie residence) criteria.

RE social housing - if my memory is correct Thatcher, as well as introducing the sale of council houses also banned the councils for using the sale proceeds to build new housses.

Remain in the EU so we can afford to do all the other important things

Remain in EU
Reduce the inequalities between rich and poor
The NHS (and I agree with Opal that this means improving the way it is run, not just throwing money at it)

Totally agree with your post Opal.

Doodledog - health tourists are meant to pay for using the NHS, but the vast majority of them don't. I worked in the NHS until five years ago, and the policy to charge health tourists was not properly enforced. The NHS could save millions if it was.

Yes, the NHS should be protected and ring-fenced, but not before there is a massive overhaul of the way it is run, and its expenditure. As it currently stands, it's a money pit, and will continue to be so until difficult decisions are made. We are living longer, the population is increasing and medical advances are being made all the time - as a country, we need to re-define exactly what we expect of the NHS and what the demands are that it can reasonably be expected to meet, within a national financial framework. And yes, before you ask, the NHS has saved my life and that of my husband (twice!).

Whoever can get us out of the EU!

I had leaflet drop through my letterbox yesterday from my local Conservative candidate. He is 31 years old and it just says vote Conservative to stop Jeremy Corbyn getting into power. Also says to see him on facebook- which I did -nothing there
except some one asking ''can you tell us about yourself?'' - and a few other questions from others - which had not been answered. Not satisfactory!!

As Cangran and DoraMarr say, the environment (climate change) must come first. What hope is there for anything else if we allow more tree losses, droughts, wildfires, floods and heatwaves? Who was it who fiddled while Rome burned?