diff --git a/labour.md b/labour.md index b3015bd..4de3c3c 100644 --- a/labour.md +++ b/labour.md @@ -144,21 +144,21 @@ leavers and veterans. ## Environment and Animal Cruelty * Introduce an immediate emergency price cap to ensure that the average duel-fuel -household energy bill remains <£1000 per year. + household energy bill remains <£1000 per year. * Alter the `National and Regional Network Operator` license conditions. * Support the creation of publicly-owned energy companies- at least 1 in every region. * Permit publicly-owned companies to buy the regional grid infrastructure. * Insulate 4 million homes as an infrastructure priority. * Homeowners offered interest-free loans to improve their property. -* Improve existing `Landloard Energy Efficiency Regulations` and re-establish the -`Landloard Energy Saving Allowance`. +* Improve existing `Landlord Energy Efficiency Regulations` and re-establish the + `Landlord Energy Saving Allowance`. * Ban fracking. * Protect the vital North Sea assets. * Support further nuclear projects. * Put the UK back on track to meet targets in the `Climate Change Act` and the -`Paris Agreement`. + `Paris Agreement`. * Introduce a new `Clean Air Act`. -* Keep forests in public hands and plan a million trees. +* Keep forests in public hands and plant a million trees. * Increase the maximum sentence for those convicted of animal cruelty. * Prohibit the 3rd party sale of puppies. * Introduce and enforce a total ban on ivory trading. diff --git a/liberaldemocrats.md b/liberaldemocrats.md index e915fbf..a305544 100644 --- a/liberaldemocrats.md +++ b/liberaldemocrats.md @@ -1,8 +1,27 @@ -# Labour Manifesto +# Liberal Democrat Manifesto ## Economy and Democracy - +* Spend on housebuilding to help build 300,000 homes a year + by 2022. +* End the 1% cap on pay rises in the public sector, and uprate wages in line + with inflation. +* Reforms to Capital Gains Tax and dividend tax relief, and refocusing + entrepreneurs’ relief. We would reverse a number of the Conservatives’ unfair + and unjustified tax cuts, including: + * The cutting of Corporation Tax from 20% to 17%. + * Capital Gains Tax cuts. + * Capital Gains Tax extended relief. + * The Marriage Allowance. + * The raising of the Inheritance Tax threshold +* Introduce a `General Anti-Avoidance Rule`, setting a target for `HM Revenue & + Customs` to reduce the tax gap. +* Reform `Corporation Tax`- consult on shifting away from a profits-based tax to + one that takes account of a wider range of economic activity indicators. +* Review the `Business Rates` system. +* Consider the implementation of `Land Value Taxation`. +* Require the major banks to fund the creation of a local banking sector + dedicated to meeting the needs of local SMEs. ### Deficit Reduction @@ -10,15 +29,48 @@ ### Infrastructure - +* Continued commitment to HS2, Crossrail 2 and rail electrification. +* Implement a programme of installing hyperfast, fibre-optic broadband across + the UK. +* £5 billion of initial capital for a new `British Housing and Infrastructure + Development Bank`. +* Continue to champion the `Northern Powerhouse and Midlands Engine` + initiatives and invest significant capital resources in infrastructure projects + across the north of England and the Midlands. ### Industry - +* Expand the activities of the state-owned `British Business Bank`. +* Create a new `start-up allowance`. +* Review `Business Rates`. +* Reform the `Regulatory Policy Committee`. +* Protect the science budget by continuing to raise it at least in line with + inflation. +* Major expansion of high-quality apprenticeships, including advances + apprenticeships. +* Invest to ensure that broadband connections and services to be provided + before 2020 have a speed of 2 Gbps or more, with fibre to the premises (FTTP) + as standard and unlimited usage by 2020 across the whole of the UK. +* Grow a network across the UK acting as incubators for technology companies. +* Retain coding on the national curriculum in England. +* Continue to support the `Creative Industries Council`. +* Encourage employers to promote employee ownership by giving staff in listed + companies with more than 250 employees a right to request shares, to be held + in trust for the benefit of employees. ### Employment - +* Raise the employee national insurance threshold to the Income Tax threshold. +* Extend transparency requirements on larger employers to include publishing + the number of people paid less than the living wage and the ratio between top + and median pay. +* Stamp out the abuse of zero-hours contracts. Create a formal right to request + a fixed contract and consult on introducing a right to make regular patterns of + work contractual after a period of time. +* Reduce the reporting requirement for disclosure of shareholdings to 1% in + order to increase transparency over who owns stakes in the biggest + companies. +* Require binding and public votes of board members on executive pay policies. ## Brexit @@ -46,11 +98,65 @@ ## Education and Childcare - +* Reverse all cuts to front-line school and college budgets. +* Protect per-pupil funding in real terms. +* Introduce a national funding system with a protection for all schools, so that + no school loses money. +* Protect the `Pupil Premium`. +* Increase the `Early Years Pupil Premium` to £1000 per pupil per year. +* Aim for every formal early years setting to employ at least 1 person who holds + an early years teaching qualification by 2022. +* End the 1% cap on teachers' pay rises. +* Guarantee that all teachers in state-funded schools will be fully qualified or + working towards `Qualified Teacher Status` from January 2019. +* Introduce an entitlement to professional development for all teachers- 25 hours + per year by 2020, rising to the `OECD` average of 50 hours by 2025. +* Establish an independent `Education Standards Authority`. +* Reform Ofsted inspections. +* Support the establishment of a new, independent `Foundation for Leadership in + Education`, working under the `Chartered College of Teaching`. +* Scrap the planned expansion of grammar schools and devolve all capital monies + for new school spaces to local authorities. +* Rule out state-funded profit-making schools. +* Introduce a `Curriculum Entitlement`- a slimmed down core national curriculum, + which will be taught in all state-funded schools- including PSHE which will + cover financial literacy, first aid and emergency lifesaving skills, mental + health education, citizenship and age-appropriate Sex and Relationship Education. +* Work with the profession to reform tests at 11, preventing curriculum narrowing + in upper `Key Stage 2`. +* Challenge gender stereotyping and early sexualisation, working with schools to + promote positive body image and break down outdated perceptions of gender + appropriateness of particular academic subjects. +* Ensure that all teaching staff have the training to identify mental health + issues and that schools provide immediate access for pupil support and + counselling. +* Include promoting wellbeing as a statutory duty of a school, and be part of the + Ofsted inspection framework. +* Extend free school meals to all children in primary education and promote + school breakfast clubs. +* Establish a new online `Family University`. +* Reinstate maintenance grants for the poorest students. +* Require every university to be transparent about selection criteria. +* Fight to retain access to `Horizon 2020` and `Marie Sklodowska-Curie actions + funding`. +* Reinstate quality assurance for universities applying for degree-awarding powers. +* Aim to double the number of businesses which hire apprentices. +* Work with the `Apprenticeship Advisory Group` to increase the number of + apprentices from `BAME` backgrounds, ensure gender balance across industry + sectors and encourage under-represented groups to apply. +* Expand higher vocational training such as `foundation degrees`, `Higher National + Diplomas`, `Higher National Certificates` and `Higher Apprenticeships`. +* Ensure that all the receipts from the Apprenticeship Levy in England are spent + on training, aiming to fund a wider range of types of training. +* Aim to meet all basic skills needs by 2030. ## Environment and Animal Cruelty - +* Additional funding to bring more private investment into renewable energy. +* Provide assistance to areas heavily dependent on fossil fuel industries, such as + the north-east of Scotland, to diversify away from these industries. +* Give the immediate go-ahead to the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon project. +* ## Housing @@ -58,7 +164,55 @@ ## Healthcare - +* Immediate 1p rise on the basic, higher and additional rates of Income Tax to + raise £6billion additional revenue to be spent only on NHS and social care + services. +* Commission the development of a dedicated health and care tax on the basis of + wide consultation, possibly based on the reform of National Insurance + contributions. +* Establish a cross-party health and social care convention to carry out a + comprehensive review of the longer-term sustainability of the health and + social care finances and workforce. +* Introduce a statutory independent budget monitoring agency for health and care. +* Guarantee the rights of all NHS and social care staff who are EU Nationals to + stay in the UK. +* End the public sector pay freeze for NHS workers. +* Reinstate student nurse bursaries. +* Protect NHS whistle-blowers. +* Produce a national workforce strategy. +* Increase access to clinically- and cost-effective talking therapies. +* Continue to roll out access and waiting time standards for children, young + people and adults. Includes a guarantee that people will not wait more than 6 + weeks for therapy for depression or anxiety, and no young person will wait more + than 2 weeks for treatment when they experience a first episode of psychosis. +* Transform mental health support for pregnant women, new mothers and those who + have experienced miscarriage or stillbirth. +* Promote and invest in the `Frontline` programme to fast-track exceptional + graduates into children's social work. Also promote and invest in the `Think + Ahead` scheme. +* End out-of-area placements. +* Ensure that all front-line public service professionals receive better training + in mental health. +* Roll out the `Liaison and Diversion Programme` nationally. +* Implement a cap on the cost of social care. +* Move towards single place-based budgets for health and social care by 2020. +* Introduce a statutory code of conduct backed up by a care workers' suitability + register. +* Raise the amount people can earn before losing Carer's Allowance from £110 to + £150 per week. +* Give the NHS a legal duty to identify carers and develop a Carer's Passport + scheme to inform carers of their NHS rights. +* Provide more choice at end of life and move towards free end-of-life social care. +* Promote easier access to GPs, provide national support to struggling GP practices. +* Encourage GPs and clinicians to work in disadvantaged areas through our `Patient + Premium`. +* Publish a `National Wellbeing Strategy`. +* Make `Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis` for HIV prevention available on the NHS. +* Support effective public awareness campaigns such as `Be Clear on Cancer`. +* Develop a strategy to tackle childhood obesity. +* Introduce mandatory targets on sugar reduction for food and drink producers. +* Introduce a `wellbeing premium` to reward employers to take clear action to + measurably improve the health of their employees. ## Security & Defense @@ -74,7 +228,7 @@ ### Diverse and Cultured Communities - +* Ensure that LGBT+ inclusive mental health services receive funding and support. ### Disabilities and Mental Health