Here’s my first draft of what could become a manifesto that eventually forms a movement to create a rationalist party within the UK.

Key Pledges

To only serve for 2 terms, none of us would be career politicians

To eliminate religious privilege

To introduce a written constitution outlining rights and responsibilities of citizens

To introduce policies based on scientific evidence rather than press hysteria

To make decisions in the interest of our long term finances and well being

To eliminate uncertainty in the long term by addressing long standing divisive issues through referendums within the second year of our government

To improve democracy

Divisive issues which will be dealt with by referendum

Certain issues are constantly discussed but never conclusively addressed. We will hold referendums on the following to put them to bed once and for all.

Ratification of the new constitution (Government will not interfere)

EU: In, Out, Free trade / movement only like Norway (Government would support the Norwegian option in the interest of restoring direct democracy)

Scottish / Welsh / Irish Independence (Government would back keeping the UK)

Monarchy vs Republic (Government will not interfere)

Finance

British Infrastructure Ltd

We will create “British Infrastructure Ltd” which would gradually take control of elements of national infrastructure deemed critical to promote economic activity much of which is in private hands. A CEO will be appointed from outside the civil service with a strong commercial track record and the business will be ran on a for profit basis with the profits reinvested in infrastructure or with dividends paid to the treasury which will reduce taxation or improve services. This will be done pragmatically letting existing contracts / franchises expire so we are not liable for breach of contract. Procurement will favour British companies where pragmatic to do so

This will include:-

Railway services and infrastructure

Other public transport

Oil, Gas, Mining of natural resources in the British Isles

Utility companies (Electric, Gas, Water)

Telecommunications (infrastructure only)

British Wealth Ltd

British Wealth Ltd will act as a private equity firm investing in assets, companies and intellectual property on a for profit basis aiming to deliver income to the UK.

Taxation

At present the poorest 50% of the country only contribute 11.6% of tax revenue. (Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8417205.stm). Moreover, many of them receive benefits which are paid from money taken off them in the first place. As a result, within 3 months of election we will increase the tax free personal allowance to £30,000 per year lifting thousands out of poverty. The reduction in benefits required and associated administration coupled with profits from British Infrastructure Ltd and eventually British Wealth Ltd. Everything earned above that will be taxed at a flat 10% (corporation tax will be harmonised to this rate) to encourage the Wealthy to pay tax in Britain rather than offshore. Separate National Insurance contributions will be abolished

Additional revenue will be raised by taxing certain drugs (legalised based on scientific evidence) and more importantly taxing religious organisations who are currently tax exempt. For example, the Church of England alone currently receives over £1000m in donations per year.

Elimination of religious privilege



In a modern and rational 21st Century Britain the vast majority of the population hold secular, post-christian values and as a result we must eliminate superstition and religious privilege. Key points are:-

Disestablishment of the Church of England

Constitutional separation between Church and State

The adoption of another national anthem (ideally Rule Britannia as the odd religious references are part of our cultural heritage which we should acknowledge we’ve passed but not airbrush out of history – it’s a little less religious than asking a deity to protect our monarch and is something people can still get behind)

Taxation of religious organisations

A law preventing the religious indoctrination of under 18s

A law similar to the data protection act allowing individuals to opt out of “Direct marketing” from religious institutions

Removal of people appointed to House of Lords or Senate (depending on what institution exists when we’re elected) purely for religious reasons (e.g Bishops etc)

Written Constitution

People’s rights have been substantially altered by successive governments without direct consent due to the UK’s unwritten constitution. We will write one which ensures people’s personal freedoms and responsibilities as British Citizens which will be ratified by referendum and require a referendum to alter in the future. (Superseding any existing laws which contradict it).

Party whipping in parliament will be made illegal to empower MPs to vote in a way that represents those who put them there. Lobbying parties through donations by corporations, religious groups and unions will be banned. Political manifestos will be legally enforceable using criminal rather than civil laws.

Rational Laws

Many laws have been created without scientific basis such as certain drugs being illegal whilst worse ones such as alcohol and tobacco are not. We will review all existing laws which counter scientific evidence and reform them. A logic / evidence test for future laws will be enshrined in the new constitution.

Health

We will commit to maintaining the National Health Service in its current form whilst seeking to exploit scientific and technological advances to improve the quality and efficiency of care delivered. We invest to improve our facilities to the point where people abroad will want to pay to use the British healthcare system. Profit from the foreign users will be reinvested to improve the completely free service to British Citizens.

Education / Employment

We will immediately appoint a panel of business leaders, respected scientists and creative marketing professionals to devise and implement a new National Curriculum (utilising modern technology, proven methods and engaging content) which can produce the world class people modern businesses need. School hours will be increased to 8:30 until 17:30 to raised standards of existing students and reduce the need for flexible working amongst parents. Children will be streamed by between 3 different types of school at 14 with tailored programmes to encourage them to develop the skills they need to become useful members of society. We will nurture our manufacturing (we are still in the top 10 manufacturing countries by % of GDP) and engineering industries as well as supporting emerging pharmaceutical, scientific and digital creative knowledge based professions.

Crime and Punishment

We will resist any return to capital punishment or other barbaric medieval approaches to justice. However, we will chemically castrate convicted rapists, pedophiles, murderers and persistent serious offenders. A life sentence will genuinely mean life.

Parents with troublesome offspring will be able to ask for help but it won’t be proactively forced upon them. However, a constitutional responsibility will be for people to consider whether they’re capable of raising children before having them.

Generally, we intend to reduce crime by improving education and opportunity but seek to eliminate the perception that individuals can justifiably blame their inappropriate behaviour on social factors. Actions have consequences.

Foreign Policy / Defence

We will undertake a comprehensive review of our current foreign policy and establish what our role should be going forward. Should our military continue to get involved in international conflicts or should it purely be employed to protect and defend British interests? Perhaps we should embrace a position of neutrality and use our troops purely to defend our borders and help with humanitarian efforts?

If so, what size military do we need? The recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have demonstrated our forces are not adequately equipped for our current position. We must make a decision which is sustainable going forward.

Planning / Transport / Population / The Environment

These four issues are intrinsically linked so we will take a holistic approach to them. Whilst there is a shortage of housing within the UK and many areas are overcrowded people only actually occupy 10% of the land within the UK. Large swathes of land doesn’t even have a registered owner. We pledge to take the following action:-

Designate another 5% of the UK land for human occupation

Alter standards to ensure newer build homes are larger to reduce overcrowding

Balance this by designating another 10% of the UK as national parks outstanding natural beauty are protected.

Introduce an Australian style points based immigration system

Build new motorways, major roads, railways and other public transport infrastructure to ensure people can get around the country quickly. This is essential to promoting freedom of movement and will allow businesses to operate across the country and people to travel to meet the demands of business whilst maintaining quality of life without the blight of long and impractical commutes. The Thames Hub proposed by Foster and Partners (http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=17957) could be the blueprint for this.

Aim to eliminate fuel / road taxation over the term of 2 parliaments. We will encourage people to use public transport through delivering the best in the world, not by pricing them out of their cars or intentionally engineering congestion.

Invest in promoting Hydrogen fuel cell technology to power vehicles

Whether climate change is man made or not we should exploit our island’s ability to generate electricity from tides and wind. Energy must become one of our major exports to counter the fact we have less natural resources than competing economies.

Update @ 22:15

I’ve had a lot of feedback via Twitter and other channels that this comes across as quite nationalist. My intention was to try and provide a compelling vision for the future of the country rather than the usual fear / uncertainty / doubt you get from political parties.

The two LTD companies were supposed to be similar to a Sovereign Wealth Fund although the one focussed on core infrastructure was designed to improve the infrastructure which currently gets in the way of economic activity rather than aiding it

The “favouring British companies” in procurement was poorly worded – The idea would be that if there was nothing between the proposals you’d select the British company to keep the wealth within the country.

Land of Hope and Glory would also make a decent anthem

Another point was that the numbers don’t stack up – again, this is a draft I put together in a few hours. With further research I believe this could become a workable proposal.

Thanks for all of the support and the criticism.