• Davriellelouna@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    I’m not British so I probably shouldn’t get involved in British politics.

    I think Britain needs the following reforms :

    1. Nationalize all water companies.

    2. Increase taxes on soda, sugar. Use the money to pay nurses and doctors better

    3. Cancel Microsoft Windows contracts and switch to Linux. Cancel Microsoft Office contracts and switch to LibreOffice. Open Source can save the UK Government billions of pounds and improve national sovereignty.

    4. Cap immigration at 2% a year. It’s very clear to me that immigration in recent decades has been far too high. It has undermined the labor market, the housing market, and it may undermine national cohesion.

    5. Reform the UK campaign finance system. Why are foreigners allowed to wire money to UK political parties? Why is there no cap on donations? Britain has the most corrupt campaign finance system after the United States. Being better than the US is the same as having no standards at all.

    6. Ban MPs from having second-jobs. It’s totally absurd. Many of them work as “consultants” or “lawyers” for big corporations. Many European countries banned these shady practices, but Britain somehow can’t get itself to do it.

    7. Change the voting system to Proportional Representation. First-Past-The-Post creates disillusionment and anger. If nothing is done, FPTP may give Nigel Farage an absolute majority with only 30% of the votes.

    8. Reform the House of Lords. Currently, it’s a joke. The overwhelming majority are from London and Southern England. They have lifetime job security. Several of them get paid just to show up, they play cards with friends while drinking tea. They vote for insecurity for everyone, except for themselves? Transform it into a House of Nations. With 200 people from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. No centralized political appointments. They will be chosen by Mayors and Local Councillors.

    9. Increase tax on private jets fuel. France did it . The low rate they pay is a scandal considering climate change and inequality. There is absolutely no reason why Britain can’t do it.

    10. Ban foreign newspaper ownership. It shocks me that a foreigner (Rupert Murdoch) is allowed to own many newspapers (The Sun, The Sunday Times, The Times). He directly told John Major to change UK Foreign Policy. Why is nothing done about this? Because Murdoch is a white Australian? I feel that if a Chinese or Turk told the Prime Minister what to do, people would scream “foreign interference”. Foreign ownership of any British newspaper should be capped at 40%.

    I respect Jeremy Corbyn and I hope he can get these 10 things done.

    My main worry about him is foreign policy. He once called Hamas and Hezbollah “my friends” (1). He first refused to believe Russia ordered a chemical attack in Britain (2). He refused to send weapons to Ukraine after Putin invaded (3).

    Too often, he just assumes that because the West has done evil things, the anti-Western forces are the good guys.

    • Buckshot@programming.dev
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      4 days ago

      Agree with most of that. Immigration doesn’t need capping though. Firstly it’s not even 2% now, it’s not even 1%. Net migration in 2024 was 0.6%.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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      4 days ago

      I agree with pretty much everything you say except the immigration thing.

      If you actually look at the statistics rather than listening to all the rhetoric you’ll realise that immigration into the UK really isn’t a problem. The main problem with the housing market isn’t immigrants who make up a tiny fraction of the people looking for a house, the main issue is that consecutive governments for years on end have not built enough houses.

      The reason for this is actually pretty simple, it doesn’t cost much more money to build a house that will sell for a million pounds than a house that will sell for £100,000, so contractors build loads of expensive homes because it’s more profitable. What the government needs to do is force a minimum number of affordable houses to be built per year. Make it so they have to build affordable homes

        • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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          4 days ago

          It wouldn’t though because rich people are rich. They can afford to be extravagant, they all moan about it but ultimately just consider it the cost of doing business.

          You would actually have to implement laws that directly instructed affordable homes to be constructed, trying to pussyfoot around the issue will just result in it not working.

          • Birch@sh.itjust.works
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            4 days ago

            Just limit foreign investment in real estate, practically half of London is owned by russian, arab and chinese billionaires. Other countries don’t allow owning property if you don’t live there or tax the shit out of second and third homes.

    • lordnikon@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      One big thing you missed was create a homestead housing tax system that taxes the hell out of you if you own a home you don’t live in. This incentivizes landlords to drop properties and for homeowners to purchase homes. It will crash the housing market but also Make a law that forbids home ownership to a corporate entity. To get the stockmarket out of home trading.

    • JasSmith@sh.itjust.works
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      4 days ago

      Cap immigration at 2% a year. It’s very clear to me that immigration in recent decades has been far too high. It has undermined the labor market, the housing market, and it may undermine national cohesion.

      Honestly, any party which achieves only a migration cap of 100,000 per year will win the next four elections. 95% of the Kingdom wants lower immigration. I’ve never seen an issue this unifying in politics in my entire life. You can’t get 95% of the country to agree on anything. Except this.