Quote:
Originally Posted by jfman
I could have been clearer - I wasn’t suggesting formalising that. But if it happened a few times it might make parties address unpopular issues because of how unsustainable it is.
The UK needs action on a number of issues it’s almost impossible to touch because parties tie themselves up in manifesto commitments unsuitable for reality.
- Benefit cuts
- Raising taxes
- Ending the triple lock
- Affordable housing
- Immigration
- Council tax reform
To name a few. |
Agree to all of the above. I’d add social care to that list as well. There needs to be a UK-wide extension to the NHS that deals explicitly with how people who can no longer look after themselves move out of hospitals and into care. It’s such a far reaching reform, requiring a permanent solution that is not open to regular political meddling, that it ought to start with a royal commission with authoritative recommendations all main parties buy in to. They can then squabble over fine details and devolved administrations can decide exactly how it’s run, but the basic principle has to be established and made politically impossible to ditch, much as the NHS was.
And on that subject, it’s amazing to think just how much was achieved in this country in the decade after WW2 when we were in a far worse state than we are now. Nothing facing us today cannot be solved, we have simply been cursed with the worst crop of self-serving careerist politicians of the modern era.