Brown's change of tack

[agricola]

I'm clearly out of touch. Has there been mounting demand for more protection? The only people I've ever heard who were vehemently against the existing listed building system have been, er, developers.

Indeed, havent seen the detailed proposals yet but no doubt some central control of it (locals tend to actively oppose the destruction of local historical buildings) will feature heavily - this is pretty much what Piloti has been suggesting they have been trying to bring in for a while in the Eye. Burying it in a blizzard of new, more controversial, proposals on other subjects and hoping it sneaks in while they force it through Parliament without much scrutiny is probably the only hope they have of doing it.

What i'd want to see is
- A climate change bill that has a demonstrable target which we can judge the government by and which sets out a time scale for converting all of the UK's energy generation to renewables.
- A social message that scraps ID cards, launches a counter-offensive against the propaganda against immigrants and asylum seekers and seeks to build up disadvantaged young people rather than doing them down.
- An affordable housing crusade with a new generation of council houses everywhere.
- Reversal of the marketisation of the NHS. As somebody already mentioned, it's a public service not a hotel chain. The most important things are whether it costs money and is always free at the point of use, not having the luxury to 'choose' between different hospitals or, God help us, fine hospitals that don't meet targets.

This is all affordable within the govt's current budget!

I would be wary of any kind of climate change budget under this crowd - for a start, you know any target that is set will be subject to tinkering for political ends. Secondly, I think we need to bite the bullet and (in addition to renewables, which should NOT include biofuels) build more nuclear power stations. Added to that, the Government should immediately renationalize the railway system (the difference in subsidy would be minimal, and it will probably be more than made up for by the profits) and allow local councils (who are clamouring for new railways in lots of areas) to reopen those lines and stations, with an ultimate aim of returning to the time when every town is served by at least one railway. Post Office privatization should be immediately stopped and rolled back - as with the NHS, IT IS NOT A BUSINESS, but rather a service.

Immigration is more difficult to fix because a lot of the illegal immigration at present is occuring via organized, criminal, gangs who are exploiting the system in order to encourage people to come here, pay them, and stay under the radar - with all the potential for exploitation that situation results in.

IMHO we need to identify a way whereby people can come to the country legitimately for a period of time in order to work (a work-visa) and have this as the only way of working in the country (aside from asylum, which would remain separate), and enforce this with immediate removal of anyone who is not here under that system (there would be an amnesty of sorts in order to let people who are here illegally obtain one of these new visas).

This work-visa should be applied for in the country of origin and the presumption should be that it would be free and it would be approved; the person over here would not be eligible for benefits, but would be eligible for NHS treatment, and would be able to go home for free at any time. This would make these immigrants visible, legitimize them and prevent a lot of the exploitation that is occuring.

Sort of associated to that I would like to see the EU Agency Workers thing brought back, in the manner it was originally intended to be.