For the first time in a General Election I am totally unsure who to vote for. I did, for a short while, seriously consider throwing my hat in the ring myself and it is something I’d seriously consider later down the line. We are a representative democracy so you are voting for your voice in parliament and I’ve met two of the four candidates in my particular constituency and on a personal level I’d be more than happy with either of them acting as my voice in parliament. But – and it is a big BUT – you do have to weigh up that the voice you vote for is also a proxy for the leader of that party to be Prime Minister and for that parties manifesto which that candidate has pledged to honour.
An ideal manifesto doesn’t exist and there is an argument that producing one is a hostage to fortune which ties parties and candidates to promises made that maybe weren’t well thought out enough or costed before being committed to print and then used as a stick to batter them for the next few years. (They still talk about the ‘longest suicide note in history’ that was the Labour manifesto in 1983 and which the current one is being measured against).
I thought an interesting experiment would be to consider what I would have stood on had I followed up my initial intentions and stood. What would my manifesto look like and how does that measure up with what we are being offered? The first part of this question I will try to answer in this post and the second part in forthcoming ones.
Below I set out what are the big issues that I feel strongly enough about that I would actively campaign for and champion had I been elected an MP. I’ve not covered everything but I’ll put on record that …
- I’m pro-Nuclear power and particularly favour investing in fusion research.
- I’m not anti-trident.
- I believe that climate change is real and is man-made and we need to change our ways for the sake of our children, grandchildren and so on.
- I’m very much in favour of keeping – or even increasing – our overseas aid budget provided it went to countries in real need (if they can afford to fund a space programme maybe we should be asking questions about what they are spending their own money on if we are being asked to support them) and on projects that make real differences
For me, in no particular order, these would be my six key policies:
- Education – I’m a teacher. I have 25 years experience as a secondary school teacher and believe teaching is a vocation not a job. I also believe that the way to social mobility is through education – so says the first person in his family to go to University. I want to see a total reversal of the cuts of the last 4 years and REAL fair funding across the country – I don’t want anyone else to experience what I and other colleagues have experienced in the last couple of years. I want to see OfSTED overhauled and become a quality control mechanism for the collaboration and critical support that schools in similar circumstances and areas offer to other schools. High stakes inspections need to end – this does not lead to school improvement. I want to see curriculum changes taken out of politics and transferred to independent experts. End of key stage assessment should become teacher marked (but nationally or regionally moderated) start of key stage baselines so that teachers know where gaps in learning are and they become useful for teaching not just as a stick to beat schools with. Read my blogpost on this for more detail (https://mrchadburn.school.blog/2019/04/19/what-if-sats-were-used-to-educate-children/). I want to see league tables changed to take the context of the school into account much more than it is currently. I do not want to see grammar schools expanded and I have no interest in banning private education … I just want state education to be so good private education dies a natural death.
- Democracy and Devolution – I believe everyone’s vote is important and a national election shouldn’t be about competing for the 100,000 votes or so in a hundred marginal constituencies. The only way to equalise each vote is not to equalise constituencies but to bring in real electoral reform for all elections – for me this is the single transferable vote with open lists of candidates. The House of Lords in antiquated and a relic of the past, but it serves a purpose. I want to see it reformed so it has a democratic mandate but is free from the bias of party politics and the shenanigans of whoever is in power. Devolution for regions is a massive issue for me. I ultimately want a devolved Yorkshire within the UK. In Yorkshire we have a population greater than Scotland, an economy bigger than Wales and an area greater than London but the powers of none of these regions. I have no interest in a combination of local authorities other than a step on the road to a proper Yorkshire Assembly with real powers and responsibilities. Not enough focus is given to the towns within our region. Leeds, York and Sheffield are doing relatively well – it’s the likes of Barnsley, Rotherham, Huddersfield, Wakefield, Scarborough et al that really need support to revive their local economies. What they don’t need are policies which, whether by design or by accident are sucking yet more people and talent out of them towards the big cities. The old cricket analogy of a strong Yorkshire team meaning a strong national team is true in politics and the economy … strong and vibrant Yorkshire equals a strong United Kingdom.
- Of course the NHS is massively important and I could not vote for a party that wasn’t committing to supporting and properly funding it. I’m not adverse to private providers being used within the NHS but am against privatisation of the health service. Any future trade deals with large countries outside the EU should protect the NHS. The biggest issue for me within healthcare is mental health – for far too long parties and governments of all colours and creeds have given mental health care lip service but it still remains the Cinderella branch within our health care system. I’m looking for solid and effective moves to drastically improve our frankly awful mental health care provision for all ages so that people can receive talking therapies and other treatments with a track record of improving mental health much quicker than they do at the moment. Anti-depressants are not the answer for most people in the long term – it is an easy and ‘cheap’ option that masks the issues, not cures them. The research base in this field in comparison to others in the medical arena is poor and this needs to improve and real money needs to be spent on this.
- As a commuter, public transport is important to me. I and my fellow commuters using Northern Rail have suffered poor service on substandard trains for far too long. I’m looking at a future government to cancel HS2 and spend this cash on improving the existing infrastructure in the north, providing better and more reliable connectivity between our northern towns and cities. I have no interest on whether my train service is operated by the state or a private operator provided the service is regular, reliable, comfortable and not over-priced.
- Universal Basic Income is something I’ve written about before You can read more about it on this blogpost ( https://waynechadburn.wordpress.com/2019/05/09/free-money-an-idea-whose-time-has-come/). This is an idea whose time has come as we approach an era of greater automation. It could simplify welfare provision and massively decrease bureaucracy. It could provide the means for people to retrain for new technologies. Read my post to understand it more. It won’t be as expensive as it first seems and is morally the right thing to do.
- Brexit – I’m including this because it’s the Brexit election isn’t it? Everyone wants to know what your views are and then you become a democracy stealing, elitist Remainer or a thick, bigoted and xenophobic Leaver depending on your answer. Don’t you just love the way Brexit has poisoned politics and turned normally mild-mannered people into tribal ideologues. This is the least important of the 6 issues I’d stand on. Democracy has taken a big hit over the last 3 years because of ineptitude on both sides … remain because they never thought they’d lose and leave because they never thought they’d win and so neither planned for the decision to leave. I voted to leave and still believe in that decision. I wrote about why on this blog just after the referendum (https://waynechadburn.wordpress.com/2016/07/05/why-i-voted-for-brexit-and-dont-regret-it/). I think the current deal is probably the least worst outcome at the moment and I’d probably support it given the chance to. I believe a confirmatory referendum would be anti-democratic and would do more damage long term to the fabric of our society than leaving without a deal. I just want it over one way or another as I cannot think of anything in my lifetime that has divided and poisoned politics and debate as much as Brexit has over the last three years. I suppose immigration needs to be tied into this. I’m pro-immigration – or at least the right immigration. I have no issue with economic migrants trying to get into our country to better themselves – in the same position I’d do the same for my family as I’m sure most of us would. I’d expect them to be treated with dignity and dealt with fairly on a case by case basis. However as a nation we can’t absorb everyone and there are social issues which need to be dealt with attached to this. I do favour a points based system provided we take the politics out of it and it is done on an evidence and case by case basis by an organisation that doesn’t have to worry about a ballot box or the headlines of a tabloid newspaper. At the same time the housing, education and healthcare needs of the indigenous population need to be improved to take the heat out of the immigration argument. Without immigration our NHS and care system as well as our economy would be a total disaster – even the bigots and xenophobes out there need to realise this.
That would have been my personal manifesto were I to be standing in these elections. I haven’t costed any of it. I suspect some of my ‘policies’ would require extra funding and others such as devolution and improvement of the northern rail infrastructure could be cost neutral. I do believe that if these things were enacted our country would be a better, happier more prosperous place.
The View from Pengeston 