Britain Is Broken
thetimes.co.uk
thetimes.co.uk
I was pleasantly surprised at the sanity of the suggestions, especially in a Murdoch rag, until I came to ...
> My last proposal: raise MPs’ pay by 50 per cent at the next election.
Yeah, you're going to have a hard job convincing people having to budget how many eggs they can afford that MPs should get an extra £43k a year.
> The calibre of too many politicians is shockingly poor.
Many of those previously celebrated and pushed by Murdoch papers...
I remember reading a study showing clear correlation between politicians salary and corruption levels.
We need better people doing the job and when they get there they need to not be persuadable away from either their values or the work they are being paid to do because of money.
That way the more firms pay their top people, the more MPs get paid.
In exchange MPs should be barred from such jobs for a period after leaving office - golden handcuffs.
MPs are running the country. They should be paid more than a mere corporate executive.
That'll just lead to more executives being paid £1 pa and then getting the rest in stock / image rights / whatevers.
It's like Sagan said - "To pay MPs more, first you must invent a functioning tax system."
> In exchange MPs should be barred from such jobs for a period after leaving office
Currently I believe they're barred from jobs in sectors where they've had any influence, decision making, etc. but as a quick glance at pretty much any Private Eye of the last decade will highlight, that means nothing.
> MPs are running the country. They should be paid more than a mere corporate executive.
If the first sentence were true, I'd (maybe) agree with the second. But the current bunch aren't running the country, they're chasing the right wing vote whilst feathering their own nests.
Don’t try and re-invent the wheel. Copy what successful countries in Europe already does. For example, Germany is a great example when it comes to creating a strong export industry. Finland is a great example of how to create a world class education system.
Less ideology. More practical implementation.
cut university places vs free edication for all
ban foreign home-owners vs radical investment in high quality social housing
drop H2 vs super tax on luxury cars
wage cuts vs national net profit cap of 10M
and that's just for starters ;)
But, tl;dr Tories are gonna Tory.