To follow CU's post, here is what the Marxists have in mind.
I saw this on the comments at Dave's Part. On first reading I thought it was a joke post.
Alas, I think the poster was serious.
Thought it prudent to respond, but all your comments welcome.
I saw this on the comments at Dave's Part. On first reading I thought it was a joke post.
Alas, I think the poster was serious.
Thought it prudent to respond, but all your comments welcome.
HOW TO REINVENT THE LABOUR PARTY
renationalise the railways;
Can't be done. The cost would be crippling. The ongoing costs worse
stop all forms of privatisation;
Such as ? What's left..Royal Mail? Even the Army is privatised
double pensions and benefits;
Madness. Can't afford what we already have. And that isn't enough.
national training grants for all;
OK:Just scrap new deal, and take out the 'for all'
expand the educational network;
How could it be bigger?
extend public transport and fully co-ordinated;
Crossrail is allowed. + some new road bridges for London. Transport. Its a must for government
repeal all anti-trade union laws;
ermm ...no.
increase the national minimum wage;
Already it needs to stop rising.It costs jobs. Needs to be taken away from government too.
stop nuclear power, greatly expand renewables;
And turn all the lights off at 7pm.
remove all of the management "consultants" from the NHS;
we may have something here. But I think we mean different things by consultants.
control MRSA, etc by following Norway's/NLs methods, etc;
I dont know, we'll look into it.
fully resourced literacy schemes and a national-wide libraries;
I'm more for repositioning libraries inside other public buildings, but, yes ok
organise a full funded exchange international schemes for young people;
Why? children travel and exchange without this already.
implement more fair trade policies;
If you can show they don't hurt us and do favour them then,OK.
re-start the OU on the TV.
This I like. BBC 4 is unneccessary. During the day its for schools and the OU. And modernised.
seriously limit copyright laws.
We can't. And what for.. even Microsoft can't use them!
repeal the blasphemy and associated laws;
Could, but for what purpose.. its never used. Might as well repeal the one about carrying a bale of hay in a taxi.
fund international development schemes to at least 10% of GDP;
Cut International development schemes by 10% GDP
language classes from the age of 8;
Semi-Agreed.Lets say for those who show aptitude. Now I'm sure we disagree on what languages.
lower the retirement age to 60;
Raise it to 70. We're going to have to anyway, stop pretending. And that's for all workers in public and private sectors.
A National Housebuilding scheme.
Got one. Its rubbish.
A scheme to remove the stigma of vocational work amongst the slow witted middle classes;
OK. Now vocational is called "Social Assistance" happy?
reduce utilities standing charges to nomional values;
By Privatising them? Can't be done. Can threaten a lot of toothless ombudsmen if you like.
provide Phone/ADSL and other services as a basic to all homes and locations;
It already exists. Only you have to pay for it.Its called BT.
Do away with costly IT projects, implement small scale co-ordinated pilots and use open source nationally.
Part 1. we agree to limit costs on...+ I'm no programmer, but if IT projects are supposed to contain confidential data isn't open source a bit of a security risk?
free training in programming languages;
Why should this be free as oppossed to say, medicine? I don't get it.
nation-wide but locally managed computer re-cycling schemes;
Can do. In fact doesn't it exists already under the EU hazardous materials?
dramatically expand mental health and drug rehab provision;
Certainly look at it. Its shocking. But something will have to come off the NHS.
a limit on Oxbridge graduates in any profession in a accordance with census related figures.
I don't even no where to begin. But if you want less political science graduates then we agree.
compulsory purchasing of empty and under-utilised properties, for use as social housing, after quality refurbishment.
Hard to defne under-utilised.+ the law of unintended consequences is staring you in the face. When you grow up and leave your family council home, your parents must now move out. If one dies, the other goes into care?
{what is it with Marxists and Scandanavia. It used to be Russia didn't it?}
PS: make it compulsory for all Left groups to have at least 50% of the leadership made up of women, ethnic minorities, the rest to be working class and the remainder can be the usual suspects (in proportion to the society's socio-economic/ population breakdown)
although I appreciate that the latter might be a bit unrealistic!
Anyone got any idea of how much taxes would have to rise to fund all this?
I'm sure there's a lot more, but that's a beginning.
{Oh good}