My position on the political compass as of Jan 2010

A lot of my blog posts centre around political issues, so it’s always nice to know what my beliefs are that lead to those posts, right? So here I’m going to outline my views on UK and international politics.

If you haven’t been able to tell from my posts, this handy little graph, courtesy of political compass, nicely sums up my position – opposite the major UK parties. Rather annoying really, since it means on the whole I don’t have any representation in the Commons (although I’m hoping/expecting the Greens will get their first MP later this year).

In terms of political parties, I’ll side first and foremost with the party of which I am a member – PPUK, but you’ll also catch me agreeing with Greens, the Liberal Democrats, and sometimes Labour; although I’m also very critical of that last one.

In locals and EU, I exclusively support the Pirate Party and the Greens, and as with our Swedish sister party,  I support the Greens-EFA in the EU parliament, although I’m open to the possibility of a Pirate Party grouping in 2014, if other European nations can match the success of the original party in the 2009 EU Elections.

So here are my views, in no particular order, and bear in mind that the vast majority of these views are my own, and not represented by my party:

Political Reform

• Introduce AV+ into the electoral system for the House of Commons, to allow for true representation at a national level.
• Weaken the party whip, so that MPs may vote for what they believe in, without fear of punishment from the party.
• Reform of the House of Lords into either a proportionally representative elected house; or an independently appointed House of Specialists, working in a similar capacity to now, but without politically motivated appointments.
• Claims should be limited to travel/hotel expenses for those living more than 100 miles from parliament, and a subsidy for employing staff.
• Increase transparency in all level of government, by strengthening the Freedom of Information Act, and requiring publication of minutes and draft proposals both online, and offline in an accessible way.
• Remove restrictions to entering politics by abolishing or vastly reducing the expensive deposits required to contest a seat in a General or EU election.

General

• Optimise public sector spending to allow for better service without an increase in costs. Inefficiencies across the sector mean that potentially billions are wasted; by increasing efficiency this money can be put to better use.
• Protect the NHS from spending cuts, and make sure there is sufficient investment to provide the public the best possible free at point of use healthcare.

Education

• Scrap tuition fees, and widen access to Higher Education – Education should be available to everyone, regardless of background. Students are leaving university with record levels of debt, and entering into an economy of mass unemployment; whilst many more are restricted from even entering university in the first place.
• Increase funding to Universities and colleges to undo the damage done by Labour cuts, and future Tory neglect, and to allow educational facilities to maintain and improve standards of teaching and infrastructure, whilst allowing for more students studying both full-time and part-time courses.
• Introduce a Graduate Tax of 2%/year on those earning at least £20,000/year to help pay for education investment. In 2009, 89.3%  of graduates joining an AGR company had a starting wage of at least £22,001. This could be expected to bring in at least £120m per year based on current figures.

Economics

• Increase the Personal Allowance threshold on Income Tax to £10,000, to make sure those of us with less money are not denied access to a quality of life many take for granted.
• Lower the threshold for 50% Income Tax to £100,000
• Introduce a 70% tax rate on income over £200,000 – together, these tax rate adjustments would bring in millions more per year.
• Tackle Non-Domicile Tax Avoidance by introducing a progressive one-off fee on British citizens who (claim to) emigrate.

Transport

• Partial-Nationalisation of the rail industry to see investment from government to improve the rail network.
• Investment in new high-speed, and electrified cross-country rail lines, as well as opening new lines to remote areas lacking in public transport
• Subsidise train and bus fares for all, focussing on under-18s and over-60s, to encourage the use of public transport.

21st Century Britain

• Increase broadband tax to £12/year to help fund the roll out of high-speed fibre-optic cable “to-cabinet”, allowing for far higher speeds than the proposed 2MBit by 2012.
• Nationalise the infrastructure arm of British Telecoms, because the private sector has failed to provide adequate infrastructure for 21st Century Britain. Service Provision would be left to a regulated private sector, with ISPs paying line rental to the newly renationalised BT.
• Encourage public sector use of FOSS to reduce costs, and support open-source. Where bespoke software is to be developed for public sector use, it must be open-source, or able to be sold abroad, or to the private sector.
• Loosen restrictions on radio frequencies in the change over to Digital TV and Radio, to allow better service provision.
• Abolish the Internet Watch Foundation, and leave the internet unrestricted.
• Reform copyright law in line with PPUK policy, to prevent cultural and creative materials being held to ransom by large publishers in the name of their profits.
• Abolish the Digital Economy Bill if passed, and replace it with an Act focussing on investment and infrastructure, not pandering to the record industry at the expense of your liberties.
• Increase spending  to scientific research and development, in particular in the areas of Aerospace and Medicine. As only through scientific investment can we hope to stand at the forefront of human knowledge, and quality of life.
• Increase funding contributions to ESA, and encourage joint operations between space agencies.

Environment

• Reduce dependency on fossil fuels by investing in green alternatives.
• Radically increase funding in Green Energy- We, as an island are very privileged, we have access to a great deal of wind, tidal/wave power, we have pockets of geothermal energy, we have room for wind farms, solar power plants, and nuclear facilities.  Investment in these methods will help massively to reduce our emissions, and help to mitigate global warming.
• Commit to  funding into nuclear fusion research for energy supply – Fusion is the future solution to all our energy needs, and yet it gets paltry investment. With just a few extra million a year, we could harness power rivalling that of the sun in a safe and sustainable way.

Law, Civil Liberties & Rights

• Repeal all anti-terrorism legislation from 2001 onwards. The first decade of this century has seen a massive erosion of our liberties and rights in the name of countering the terrorist boogeymen. Enough is enough.
• Focus on rehabilitation, not retribution – Revenge is not a basis on which law should be built. We should be focussing on addressing the causes of crime, and supporting and educating criminals so that they have little reason to offend again.
• Oppose Capital Punishment worldwide – the Death Penalty is a barbaric, inhumane practice, that undermines the most basic human right to live; being a criminal does not mean a person forfeits their humanity, nor does it grant licence for governments to murder them.
• Charge Tony Blair for war crimes and starting an illegal war in Iraq, showing him that there is no matter what excuse he uses, there is no reason to start an illegal war, causing the destabilisation of a region, and the deaths of hundreds of civilians and soldiers.
• Reform libel law to meet 21st century requirements, and place the onus of proof on the claimant, not the defendant, and to protect the interests of society and preventing outrages cases such as Trafigura gagging the press, and even the work of Parliament, just to cover up their illegal activities that led to serious injury and deaths of so many people.

Military

• Scrap Trident and any replacement plans – No country should have nuclear weapons, or weapons of mass destruction. The proposed renewal could cost almost £100bn, money which is sorely needed to better the lives of citizens, rather than for breaching the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
• Scheduled Withdrawal from Afghanistan leading to complete withdrawal by Spring 2012 – The war has caused so many deaths, and cost us billions. We should pull out, however it would be reckless to do so immediately. A timetable must be drawn up to allow us to stabilise the area, whilst reducing our numbers in  the country.
• Reduce the armed forces to a defensive, peace-keeping capacity. Warfare is an antiquated, unacceptable method of conflict resolution. We spend billions to send our ill-equipt brothers and sisters into death traps, leading to countless deaths worldwide.
• Increase soldiers wages to an acceptable standard. Often they are risking their lives for less than minimum wage. Funds available from scaling down the military can be used to support those who do serve to protect the peace. However we should be careful not to raise it to high, to avoid people joining the army for the wrong reasons, or to be seen to be encouraging war.

International

• Support the expansion and strengthening of the EU, as in doing so, we come closer to a united, peaceful world, where rights are protected, and humanity shares its culture.
• Adopt the Euro by 2020 to ease the spread of peoples and culture across Europe, and to show our commitment to the Union.
• Work with other countries to help protect the rights of people across the globe.
• Encourage discussions leading to binding international treaties in regards to the banning of Cluster Munitions, Nuclear Disarmament, Global Warming, Human Rights, and Science/Technology.
• Support the strengthening of the United Nations in further efforts to bring the world together under one voice through peaceful means. Looking to the 22nd Century, we must lay the foundations of a United Earth to truly allow the human race to flourish and survive on Earth, the Solar System, and the Galaxy.