My position on the political compass in April 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.

I am Member Communications Officer for Pirate Party UK, which stands for reform of copyright, patents, and libel, protecting citizens privacy and freedom of speech, and generally reforming our law to be fairer and up-to-date. PPUK are standing 10 candidates in the upcoming General Election on May 6th.

Below you will find a list of policies I would like to see introduced, not including those outlined in the Pirate Party Manifesto.

Political Reform

• Introduce AV+, AMS, or STV 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.
• Scrap MPs expenses, as they already earn almost 3 times the median salary. It is not right that the tax payer should pay for their homes and transport, when we already pay their wage. MPs should only be able to claim money to subsidise employing a single member of 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.
• Increase MPs accountability by introducing the ability for constituents to force a by-election if there is a sufficient lack of trust in their representative.
• 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.
• Ensure everyone over the age of 16 has the right and ability to vote, be they unemployed, homeless, people with convictions, imprisoned, or hospitalised. No adult should ever be refused the right to vote.

Culture

• Enforce neutrality in newspapers. Currently, unlike broadcasters, printed media have no requirement to not be biased. News outlets should deliver impartial news, not try to force the opinion of the owner of multinational corporations upon its consumers.
• Set a cap on BBC salaries. The BBC exists to provide services for the taxpayer at their expense, not to line the pockets of actors and presenters. By cutting salaries, the funding can be used to increase the quality and diversity of programmes.
• Scrap busking, and public performance licenses, which serve only to restrict the sharing of musical culture, and hinder the small, independent artists and venues.

Healthcare

• 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.
• Review drug classifications, and following extensive study into long-term health impact, legalise but heavily regulate the least dangerous drugs, to make sure the public are not put at risk from dodgy street dealers, and to provide new revenue streams.
• Disallow homoeopathy on the NHS, publicly funded treatment should be based on scientifically proven treatment, or on treatments showing positive results in clinical trials.

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 on graduates 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.

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 60% tax rate on income over £200,000 – together, these tax rate adjustments would bring in millions more per year.
• Increase Capital Gains tax and Corporation Tax to ensure businesses pay their fair share.
• Tackle Tax Avoidance by closing tax loopholes, and introducing harsher financial penalties for trying to cheat the system.
• Introduce a Living Wage – It costs over £14,400 per annum for an adequate standard of living. It wrong that so many struggle to get by in life.

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, with focus on under-18s and over-60s, to encourage the use of public transport.
• Increase fuel duty to discourage private vehicle use and to help fund investment.

21st Century Britain

• Introduce a progressive landline tax linked to income to help fund the roll-out of high-speed fibre-optic cable “to-cabinet”, allowing for far higher speeds than the proposed 2Mbps by Labour.
• 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 Act as it is unacceptable for corporate lobbyists to take away our rights to protect their outdated business models.
• Introduce a ‘Digital Infrastructures Bill’, that would lay out the above proposals, as well as enshrine Net Neutrality in law, and a ban on Deep Packet Inspection from ISPs. Measures in this bill would require the government to provide access to 20Mbps broadband to 90% of the country by 2015.
• 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 UKSA, 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 the some of the best winds and seas in Europe for green energy production, 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 the threat of global warming.
• Commit to 50% Green Energy by 2050
• 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, and related sections in other statutes. The first decade of this century has seen a massive erosion of our liberties and rights in the name of countering the terrorist bogeymen. 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 , adopting the proposals of the Libel Reform Campaign, and place the onus of proof on the claimant, not the defendant, to introduce a ‘public interest’ defence, 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.
• Establish a parliamentary committee to reform criminal law, codifying the common law, adapting Law Commission Reports, and rectifying incongruities. Much of the current law is unclear, unjust, and convoluted.

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 2015 – 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.