The Devil's Kitchen: DK's Manifesto

Devil's Kitchen has his manifesto up and is asking for comment. So here is mine.

Europe

I quite agree, get out then use the fact that this will hurt them more than us to leverage a proper free trade agreement without all the federalist crap.

Trade

True free trade, how can anyone be opposed to that?

Tax

Since VAT is a fraud magnet, how about replacing VAT entirely with a local Sales Tax (summary here) (at 10%), the only reason that it was brought in was to follow certain EU directives, and since you propose leaving the EU (hooray!) it is no longer needed so why not replace it with something so much simpler.

Health

The prosthetics service is run entirely by private companies, and is entirely free at the point of delivery and has been doing this since way before the introduction of the NHS. The companies (there are 4 main ones) bid for ten year contracts to run clinics. Some actually bid at below cost with the aim of recovering the money through increased sales of the components that they all also make.

Personally I wish that the NHS had been set up as an extension of this already working system since it would have provided all that Bevan wanted, without creating the money destroying Bureaucratic mess that is the NHS. But since the NHS exists then breaking the hold of Whitehall and returning the purse strings to the users of the system is probably the only way to fix it.

Education

Sounds good, since privatisation and vouchers should remove education entirely from state control it is a much better long term solution as it will stop any return to the current fuck up. It is not completely without problems as under this system you can expect many more 'Faith' schools with all the socially divisive problems that they bring with them. If all that was wanted was a shorter term solution to the current fucked up system then restoring the old Grammar schools would provide that, without the problem of divisive 'faith' schools. But then government would still have it's claws in the education system so it is all a trade off. However almost anything would be better than the current state system.

Devolution

Finally a solution to the West Lothian Question. To this I would add that should any region vote for independence in a referendum it should be granted.

Law and Order

To this I would add a return of the supremacy of Jury Trial, make the absolute maximum number of crimes face a jury rather than anything else. Magisrates still have a place but it should be a small place for a few types of crime. And no more fines without legal process. The repeal of the RIP Act any any other acts that make you guilty until proven innocent. The repeal of Control Orders any any other infringement of Habeus Corpus. The repeal of ASBO's and anything else that allows gossip as evidence. The solution for what they where supposed to stop was known in the time of Robert Peel. Uniformed officers on patrol. To do this you would have to reduce the amount of paperwork, somehow, and actually get the criminals into court. The latter is easy give the decision to prosecute to the police as automatic with an arrest, rather than the CPS the former more difficult. Or something like that.