Your manifesto? Serious now...what would you include?

The problem is what can be done that is affordable? I would have a wishlist but many are not affordable...


I was always told in my youth, "Look after the pennies and and the pounds will look after themselves" so on that basis, if I lose the penny I'll lose the pound!!

All my political involvement is centred around disability issues - even the ones that don't affect me make me angry.

The first thing I would do would be to remove ATOS from the disability welfare assessment process. You wouldn't believe me if I started to tell you about some of the stuff going on with them. But even on the most basic level - if a person applying for disability benefits presents supporting statements from their NHS GP, their NHS consultant, their local authority social worker, their NHS physiotherapist, the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick-maker... there's no need for the taxpayer, who already paid for these public sector professionals, to pay even more for an additional half-hour "assessment" by a private GP who has no access to the applicant's medical notes.

Having saved several million (or possibly billion - ATOS aren't terribly forthcoming with the exact figures) doing that, I would then extend the Winter Fuel Payments to include all substantially/severely disabled people on low incomes - basically the people who end up housebound by the snow and whose health is affected by extreme temperatures. I would also withdraw the WFP from anyone who went abroad for the winter, if you can afford a holiday you can afford to heat your home.

Next up, I would get rid of all those stupid schemes like Remploy and Pathways, the ones that started out with good intentions about helping disabled people into work but are now more concerned with ticking boxes to get the next bit of funding for the company cars. That really would save billions - I would divert these funds around to Access to Work, which is the DWP's own scheme that provides real, practical support (wheelchairs, sign language interpreters, screen-reading software, etc) to disabled people entering employment. Like the NHS/ATOS issue, I see no point in the public sector paying for the private sector to provide something that the public sector already provides...

There's more, but you'd all start throwing eggs at me. So to lighten the mood, I present Mad Cap'n Tom, a parliamentary candidate I have been privileged to know for some years now, whose policies include fixing Broken Britain by issuing a free roll of duct tape to every household in the country.

For me it's simple, and feed me a Stella and I'll rant for hours.

Dismantle the money hemorraging non means tested, no health insurance required welfare system, that is sending the whole country to financial oblivion.

Let a new streamlined phoenix rise from the ashes, one that targets people that actually need assistance.

Pro's, savings far outweigh any initial extra spend to sort it out, and should get the country in the black in 5 years.

Break the current cycle of dependance "not worth me doint that potatoe picking job, as it's only an extra

i hope i dont upset anybody

the labour party have been very clever but very stupid by massaging unempoyment figures for years the true number is probably 8 mill.
dissability benefits are the worst abuses most people dont really qualify, the people who are genuine suffer the most it must be better regulated.

Immigration is totally out of controll and gorden and tony made you believe you were a racist if you mentioned it, most decent people hate racism of any kind but we are a small island and the rules of assylum clearly state that you must seek assylum in the nearest safe country.

i think that when you go to prison you should serve your full sentance .the first thought on being released should be that you never want to return. drugs must be removed, how hard can that be !!

The nations money must be spent wisely, waste is bad and gordon is
accountable for most of it

teachers must be given a chance to teach and disciplin children,
it never hurt us.

and does anybody mind if we birch all trafic wardens and health and safety officers ?

You leave me out of it! There is much confusion between Health & Safety and litigation. 99% of the time it is fear of litigation as opposed to over zealous Health & Safety...sadly people feel they must blame something or someone, in almost every case it is Health & Safety that cops for the full brunt of it!

Why not just hold up your hand and say..."Oh you can't do that because we do not want to get sued!

It is my chosen profession because I felt I might just make a difference. Sorry I'm a tad off topic, but had to clarify the birch bit.

Mike

sorry mike

i knew id upset somebody
having thought about your reply i think you are probably right but people should not confuse genuine H & S fears with fear of litigation, local councils and schools spring to mind, and having worked in construction for many years
it can be incredibly frustrating

mark

Mark

Firstly you have not upset me in the slightest. Crikey, I need wide shoulders to do this job. I consult to the construction industry so know only too well what problems you face.

Anyway, a really interesting banter of words and I would love to see a thread on its own on this very subject. So for now, let's just let this one potter on with manifesto updates. Although I fear after election day the thread will be quickly forgotten.Sadly because it is interesting to see what individuals would do or introduce. You yourself came up with some stormers.

Mike

I'm afraid the facts don't support your assertion that disability benefits are widely abused. The fact is that the abuse rate of disability benefits, when last officially measured (by taking a random sample of a couple of thousand claimants and doing the surveillance thing), came out at 0.3% fraudulent claims - lower than any other benefit (such as Jobseekers or Housing Benefit) and far lower than tax fraud.

It's just a really easy tabloid story when that 0.3% get taken to court and prosecuted. "This person said they couldn't walk but they ran a marathon," the story writes itself. For some reason I can't possibly imagine, the story of the other 99.7% of claimants who have exactly the difficulties they claim to have doesn't ever seem to get reported. Funny, that.

Meanwhile, a recent survey by Macmillan of their membership of cancer patients found that more than