Top left of the page HOME PAGE|| Go to the base of the page UK Election 2010 Internal page links to abstracts of Labour, Conservative, Lib. Dems., Green Party, UKIP This site's political wish list developed independently. Added 6 - 9.4.10. Earlier manifesto ideas. 1. Human Rights and national security 2. Revenue raisers 3. Social policy 4. Business development 5. Political reform 6. Environmental policy 7. Defence 8. The law 9. Education 1. HUMAN RIGHTS AND NATIONAL SECURITY: Promote international and commercial policies that enable repeal of the MHAct and Official Secrets' Acts. Act unilaterally if need be. a. By promoting the use of the Freedom of Information and Data Protection Acts. In particular for those labelled as mentally ill. The MHAct sets dangerous precedents for the way the State treats its citizens when medicine and science are going through uncertain stages in their knowledge base and development. They often do. b. By encouraging the public and political classes to stop treating mental illness as something separate from other illness. It is not. The body is the body, including the delicate mechanism of the brain. c. By excluding from CRB checks any mention of police taking people to hospital. This criminalises people who have committed no crime and have been denied a defence and the right to know on what grounds they were arrested. It destroys lives and reputations. d. End arrest under the MHAct in all circumstances thus enabling medical defence where there is genuine medical defence. e. Ring fence shares in defence-related industries so that they are isolated from market forces. 2. REVENUE RAISERS: a. Increase Class 2 NICO by 50p per quarter***. b. Introduce a modest internet tax for all households and make no balancing increase in public spending. We need more money in the "National Savings Bank", ie The Exchequer. We should aim to have saved more than other countries to give us a fair competitive edge. The internet access tax per household should be for all living at a given address and should be modest enough that even those needing their entitlement for a short time to unemployment or disability allowances could afford to pay a little toward the tax if they are living alone and wish for internet access other than at a library**. Protect the tax from creating privacy and civil liberty abuse. 3. SOCIAL POLICY: a. Introduce a minimum wage of £7.00 per hour whilst seeking to keep transport and food prices low. This helps those temporarily unemployed or trying to buy a week's food and household goods for £20 per week. A £3.20 bus fair from £20 seriously damages finances. 4. BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT: b. Treat sole traderships as one revenue stream no matter what mix of work the individual does nor what their main skill and professional basis is. This means breaking down barriers between white and blue collar work. It matters if someone is going through a tough business patch or unusual personal circumstances and is claiming housing benefit in association with working tax credit in order to keep themself off the street. The current system is couterproductive and actively works against sensible market forces and changing personal circumstances, stifling business changes and recovery from adversity. YOU MAY NOT BUILD YOUR NEW JERUSALEM ON MY BACK NOR USE CREDIT INTEREST FROM UNAVOIDABLE DEBT (NOT THE SAME AS BOUGHT CREDIT AGAINST REALISTIC COLLATERAL) AS LIQUIDITY. 5. POLITICAL REFORM: a. Pay MPs a salary of £80,000 per year. Make a State-owned flat available for their use no matter where their constituency is. Pay their fuel bills when in London, and get HMRC to determine allowable business expenses. Some MPs will know how to earn more than that. Fine. That is a skill and a knowledge set not a con. If there is no conflict and their constituency does not object - no problem. 6. ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY: a. Promote waste compacting, energy saving (need to revamp the national grid?), renewable energy and variable power output input to the Grid, waste reuse, recycling and novel fuel sources. 7. DEFENCE: a. No member of the Armed Forces under the age of 21 to be deployed to a location where they might be in a combat zone. 8. THE LAW: a. Stop treating the law by rote and stop assuming guilt or fraudulent behavour and stop preempting the Courts and stop silencing both parties and keeping them out of Court. b. Explore a National Legal Service with credits assigned when born for small civil actions. This is separate from Legal Aid. Non refundable if not used. Not transferrable. Perhaps only to be used for small constructive civil reasons. 8. EDUCATION: I do not know where to start. But develop as a growth sector with flexibility and permeability between educational streams. I have seen the current system used in very discouraging ways. Helen Gavaghan Site Manager, 6.4.10. Publisher and editor Science, People & Politics (ISSN 1751-598X). N8 Science Events Small corrections made 6.4.10 within 24 hours of initial posting midday 6.4.10 in line with site policy. New Jerusalem addition 21.30 6.4.10. **Clarification to Internet access tax addition: if for a temporary time an individual household can show it does not earn in a given quarter sufficient to pay the tax in full it is not to be made up by the State from other revenue streams but noted as a household that pays a minimum - if need be set as a peppercorn and the anonymised data of location and time of not having sufficient income sent to the Office of National Statistics. Added 9.4.10. ***Added am 2.5.10. The self employed also pay Class 4 national insurance, and I am currently trying to clarify the way that not treating sole traders as one revenue stream with tax deductions apportioned proportionately and contextually (which I suspect most adults would know how to do intinctively) is linked with the concept of deflators as applied to gross national income and how this discrepancy might affect the relationship between GNI and GDP. This is because I am putting together my arguments for the higher tribunal, a case which would not have existed had Calderdale Council drawn to my attention the relevant regulations given that it knew a) my main business, b) my intentions, because I told them, c) what it was probable I did not know; and d) the full context of my circumstances, because I told them.

design column

Design column

Main stream party manifestos with their economic analysis Labour, Conservative, Lib. Dems., Green Party, UKIP. Go to daily one liner Labour Party THE LABOUR PARTY MANIFESTO Added 13th April, 2010. Aims: Protect frontline services and halve the deficit in four years. Ring-fence science budget in the next spending review (due by the end of this year if Labour is re-elected). Promote share ownership by employees. Promote greater access to education from nursery to work-related qualifications up to age 30. Seek 40 per cent low-carbon electricity by 2020 and create 400,000 new green jobs by 2015 (p56). Conduct a strategic defence review. Reform the UN, International Financial Institutions, the G8 and G20 and NATO. Reasons for engagement in Afghanistan given on page 68. Voting reform. Maintain committment to a minimum wage. (Google ads below the labour, conservative and liberal democrat manifesto abtracts) ADVERT REMOVED WHEN THE POLLS CLOSED 10PM 6.5.10 Conservative Party THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY MANIFESTO Added 13th April, 2010. Aims: Safeguard national credit rating to reduce structural deficit. Maintain inflation target of 2 per cent. Keep independent Bank of England. Reduce banking sector's reliance on wholesale banking. Restructure economy to increase exports and the private sector. Target youth unemployment. Real term increases for the NHS and enhanced patient choice. Target underage drinking. Reduce pressure on prisons (p57) and curtail early release schemes. Enhance Select Committee power over Quangos. Enhance local government. Support devolution. Reduce government stats kept on individuals. Cut carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. Create National Security Council. Amend the 1972 European Communities' Act to insist on referenda prior to any further transfers of sovereignty to Brussels. Conform to current OECD definitions of what constitutes aid. Comply with UN aim of 0.7 per cent of national income for aid and lock in this level beyond 2013 with legislation. Stop giving aid to China and Russia and review which other countries ought to benefit. ADVERT REMOVED WHEN THE POLLS CLOSED 10PM 6.5.10. LIBERAL DEMOCRATS LIBERAL DEMOCRATS MANIFESTO Added 14th April, 2010. Aims: Base tax £10,000. Cut class sizes. Make the House of Lords an elected second chamber. Invest in infrastructure for green jobs. Restrict tax credits. Scrap ID cards and biometric passports. Enhance co-operative social enterprise business schemes and structures. Seek to turn Northern Rock into a Building Society. Extend to all employees the right to request full flexible working hours. Introduce fair pay audits for companies over 100. Scrap tuition fees for all students taking their first degree. Rationalise quangos. Scrap the 50 per cent target for students at University. Restructure access to treatment in the NHS and give patients the right to register with GPs unrestricted by post code. Improve working relationships between police and hospitals by increasing police presence at times of risk. Use cash in dormant betting accounts for sports. Allow parents to allocate maternity and paternity leave in ways that makes sense to them. End detention of children for immigration purposes. Scrap compulsory retirement ages. Scrap the rule that compels purchase of an annuity when you are 75. End testing of household products on animals. Limit bank charges to the costs incurred by a transaction. Set a 40 per cent target for UK electricity from non-carbon emitting sources by 2020, rising to 100 per cent by 2050 and work with EU and international institutions (pp58 to 61). Meet UN aid target for developing countries. Hold a strategic defence review. Promote a two-State solution to the peace aspirations of Israel and Palestinians. Legislate to promote a Federal Britain. Enhance rights to protest. Break up the banks. ADVERT REMOVED WHEN THE POLLS CLOSED 10PM 6.5.10. Green Party Green Party Manifesto Added 4.5.10, for reasons of levelling the playing field and to fit publisher's schedule and not as a political comment by the publisher. Aims: Redistribute income and assets. The underpinning party economic analysis, presented under a subheading of "Taxation", is that to resolve the structural deficit and create a sustainable green economy that is socially fair and respectful one needs to increase the per cent of GDP that is tax (from different corporate, transactional and personal sources) from 36 to 45 per cent by 2013. Promote less lending, less debt, responsible lending, proper financial regulation (preferably at EU or international level) and exclude risky financial instruments. Move to a zero carbon economy. Separate retail from investment banking. Promote local community banks and green investment banks. Promote sustainable agriculture and (environmentally friendly) manufacturing. Protect public services, seeking savings of £2 to £3 billion over the whole public sector per year. Retrain skilled engineers from other industries in "green" engineering. Promote moves toward a 35 hour working week. Work to redress pay inequalities between men and women. Set minimum wage at £8.10 per hour. Increase the carer's allowance to £80 per week. Give carer's cheaper local travel. UKIP UK INDEPENDANCE PARTY MANIFESTO Added 13th April, 2010. Aims: Raise tax threshold to £11,500. Single tax rate for all others of 31 per cent, except pension income which should stay at 20 per cent. Phase out employers' national insurance. Aim to reduce the public sector employment levels to those of 1997. Abolish inheritance tax. Scrap EU's proposed direct taxes, reduce EU regulatory burden. Favour British firms to fulfil a government agenda that spends an additional £4 billion per year on defence, £3.5 billion per year on nuclear power over 25 years, £30 billion on coastal and flood defences over 10 years and enhance rail infrastructure. Begin a prison building programme. Set up a network of facilities for small to medium size manufacturers. Make Universties and FE establishments stand alone colleges responsible only to their students. Issue vouchers at age 18 to be used flexibly during adult life. Abolish the Crown Prosecution Service. Stand by the essential principle of the NHS. Promote teaching of basic reading, writing and arithmetic and enhance parental choice of schooling. Non means testing for pensioners' benefits. Immediately end spending on renewable energy. Withdraw from the EU. Daily election one liner from the Helen Gavaghan, editor of Science, People & Politics (ISSN 1751-598X). 13th April, 2010, 19.00. By tea time the manifestos look like its a traditional two-horse race. Socialism V one Nation Tories. 14th April, 2010, 15.15. The LibDems want to break up the banks. But how? Otherwise they look like a mainstream party in need of lobbying. 28th April, 2010, 18.05. It is a cruel myth that by going to University you will have a salary twice that of those who do not. Many do not. And not because they do not have a lot to offer. 2nd May, 2010, 7.52. Essential immediate reading for all parliamentary candidates: Understanding National Accounts, published 2006 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). ISBN:926402566-9. 4th May, 2010, 9.54. Its a classic. A three-legged race. Atishoo, atishoo - they all fall over. 5th May, 2010, 07.57. I'M STILL A FLOATING VOTER. 6th May, 2010, 8.25. The polls are open. Catch you tomorrow. Go to the Base of Page. Go to the Top of the Page. 7.5.10, writing at 8.40 am bst. I removed the three Google ad. scripts on this page at 10 pm, 6th May, 2010 - the time at which the UK polls closed in the 2010 UK Election. My intent was a natural response for a publisher and editor, and I made my decision unilaterally and spontaneously and without advise at about 9pm on 6.5.10. My intent was and is to forstall any unintended juxtaposition of page content and adverts that might have suggested meaning beyond the meaning of the content of either taken in isolation. As site manager and publisher and editor of this site I reserve to myself the right to decide when I insert Google ad. script onto pages I publish on the website www.gavaghancommunications.com unless Google choses to enter an agreement with me that is unique to me, Helen Gavaghan, the Finance Director of Science, People and Politics Ltd., a company registered in England and Wales with Co. No. 0590-1911 at 165 Longfellow Court, Mytholmroyd, Hebden Bridge, HX7 5LG, West Yorkshire, UK. I do not recall the date on which I first published this page, but it was early April 2010 with the intent of being on line during the political campaign. During the political campaign the editorial content on this page was updated, and I added additional Google ad. scripts until I reached the maximum permitted by Google general terms and conditions. My policy and other web publishing policies are undergoing development within the need for: freedom of speech; freedom of the press; fair competition; opposition to anti-competitive practice; privacy; and the right of the individual not to be abused by the State. But as of am bst my thinking is that policy for this website as of 7.5.10 will be to add a discrete line to each page published saying, this url was first published at (time and date). Adverts were added (date and time) and removed date and time. Clearly I need to say if it is a Google ad script, but I have not yet decided whether in the case of adverts sold and published by GavaghanCommunications the names of individual advertisers and date on line ought to be closely associated with each indiviidual page. Go to the base of page. Go to the top of the page.

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