An ideal government

Ability to prioritise.
Vision
Courage

Oh I wish WW if only
Complete HONESTY would cover the first four so honesty in my eyes is the most important and something we certainly haven’t had from this sleazy, dishonest, incompetent government

The present Tory government completely disgust me

Yhis is taken from the Government website and is supposed to apply to all those in public office including those elected to serve in Parliament!

1.1 Selflessness
Holders of public office should act solely in terms of the public interest.

1.2 Integrity
Holders of public office must avoid placing themselves under any obligation to people or organisations that might try inappropriately to influence them in their work. They should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their family, or their friends. They must declare and resolve any interests and relationships.

1.3 Objectivity
Holders of public office must act and take decisions impartially, fairly and on merit, using the best evidence and without discrimination or bias.

1.4 Accountability
Holders of public office are accountable to the public for their decisions and actions and must submit themselves to the scrutiny necessary to ensure this.

1.5 Openness
Holders of public office should act and take decisions in an open and transparent manner. Information should not be withheld from the public unless there are clear and lawful reasons for so doing.

1.6 Honesty
Holders of public office should be truthful.

1.7 Leadership
Holders of public office should exhibit these principles in their own behaviour and treat others with respect. They should actively promote and robustly support the principles and challenge poor behaviour wherever it occurs.

Compassion.

People who have read the job discription and are engaged with doing itl to the best of their ability.

People who care about the people they work for, every single one of them and their rights, needs and futures.

Honesty, compassion and selflessness.

I don’t think it will ever happen.

Individuals do meet that standard but you can’t please all of the people all of the time, in addition party politics erode your principles. You may not agree with many of the policies but you have to follow them or you will get deselected, then you cannot help anyone.

Johnson is a particularly bad example of self interest, in the lead up to Brexit he was undecided wether to support it or not, his only reason for supporting was to gain power. Detached from any reality he lied and manipulated his way to PM and most voters lapped it up.

Not sure it is party politics that erode principles..plenty of examples of MPs who have stuck to their guns... but power can corrupt and it can be addictive ....

I find it incredible that the Nolan principles are on the .Gov website bold as brass with most of the cabinet failing by a mile to keep to any of them!

No government will ever suit everyone. Yet I am finding the current lying culture absolutely unbelievable. Johnson can lie through his teeth, but if an MP calls him out on it, he/she have to leave the chamber. I was wondering what would happen if the Speaker accused Johnson of lying. Would he have to remove himself? Yes I know politicians are often economical with the truth, but this current Tory bunch take the biscuit. Just another way that our blond, overweight leader is emulating the dreaded trump.

In the case of my own MP, the current Conservative policies enable her to push her right-wing principles. She's not the slightest bit interested in her constituency or the people who live in it. If she'd been honest when she was selected and subsequently elected, I doubt if her majority would have been so massive.

Sorry, I think it's naive to claim that some MPs only act the way they do because they don't want to be de-selected. Some of them are cheerleaders for what's happening.

Integrity
Respect for democracy

Possess morals!
Not to lie.
Is not Eton educated!

We had one like that Oldbat - Thatcher, and not many on this forum approved of her either!

No such thing as an ideal government and don't expect any government to look after you. I depend on myself, that's all you can count on apart from if you are fortunate to have good family and friends. Trustworthy politicians are a fantasy.

Honesty and the ability to see further than the next election when taking what have to be long-term decisions [flying pig emoji]

Exactly PECS 'power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely'.

A willingness to co-operate with others who have different views to achieve the best result for the most people, without ignoring the special needs of the most vulnerable in our society.

I would rather like people who believe in democracy. We seem to have moved into an oligarchy (1)

I would like people who understand economics too. Having become so retrograde in their views, I would accept a Keynesian economy with progress towards MMT.

Thatcher is the reason we are where we are now. I can't believe people still hold her in any sort of esteem.

(1) Any system of government in which virtually all political power is held by a very small number of wealthy but otherwise unmeritorious people who shape public policy primarily to benefit themselves financially through direct subsidies to their agricultural estates or business firms, lucrative government contracts, and protectionist measures aimed at damaging their economic competitors — while displaying little or no concern for the broader interests of the rest of the citizenry. “Oligarchy” is also used as a collective term to denote all the individual members of the small corrupt ruling group in such a system.

Integrity, humility and ability would be a good base for me. Unfortunately don't see much of these in evidence at the moment.

I would like people who understand economics too. Having become so retrograde in their views, I would accept a Keynesian economy with progress towards MMT.

The thing about MMT is that it isn't an economic 'theory'. It is a description of how a government with a sovereign currency issues money into the economy.

It is completely apolitical. It is up to the government to choose how to spend the money it can create. We have a sterling example of this with the current government which has issued £billions into the economy to deal with the covid crisis and has cheerfully placed enormous chunks of it in the direction of their friends and donors. A different government with a different political ideology could have spent the same amount of money completely differently; it could have taken a more public services oriented approach; improving NHS pay, improving the NHS infrastructure, funding existing local authority expertise for test & trace for example.

MMT already exists. I would like a government that comes clean about it and stops trying to con people into believing that taxation alone funds government spending. Then we might be able to think more clearly about the political choices parties make and whether or not to vote for them.

MMT is a view of the economy Maizie, and one the government do not share. I would just like a government that moved away from killing off the elderly, sick and unemployed because of their almost religious belief in austerity.

If I used a word you find offensive I apologise.

Would like this from the Royals as well if they are to remain as Royals after latest revelations re Andrew, Sarah, Bea and Eugenie and Turks! Lies, conniving, taking us all for mugs!

DaisyAnne

MMT is a view of the economy Maizie, and one the government do not share. I would just like a government that moved away from killing off the elderly, sick and unemployed because of their almost religious belief in austerity.

If I used a word you find offensive I apologise.

The very basic FACT at the heart of MMT is that a nation which has a sovereign currency (i.e it is their own, unique currency) issues that currency into the economy. Currency issuing comes before taxation.

The rest of MMT is about how that fact can be used to inform government spending and it can be used in whatever way a government chooses.

Understanding that the government is the issuer of currency and that tax revenue is not the source of the nation's money is a complete game changer.

Here is an explanation:

Making sense of money

Although it isn’t necessary to read or understand the long history of money creation in order to understand the economy, there are some basic principles contained in the history that make sense of what we are talking about in MMT. Because most of us don’t think about money other than in terms of whether we can afford to pay for what we want to pay for, it is very easy to fall into the habit of thinking of the government spending and earning its income in the same way that we do. Because money has real value to us and it affects our everyday lives, we assume that the currency itself has an intrinsic value. Once we can shift our thinking to the idea that at government level money isn’t a commodity, but a tool for carrying out government purpose then the MMT concepts start to fall into place.

gimms.org.uk/fact-sheets/a-brief-history-of-money/

I didn't find anything offensive. I just think that talking of MMT as something to 'move towards' is mistaken because its basic principle already exists (sovereign governments have always issued currency) and has become more important since we moved off the gold standard in the early 1970s.

I know you feel very strongly about MMT Maizie. It was just not as relevant as the other things I wanted to say at that point. I have learned a great deal about it from you and try to pass that on - as in yesterday having coffee with an old friend. (I would say 'poor soul' but we have been putting the world to rights for 54 years now).