Soap Box Part III

In my last Soap Box rant I referred to 'wishy-washy liberals' that think criminals are not responsible for their own actions and that it's down to society.

David Cameron has put himself firmly into this category and will therefore not be getting my vote. He probably wouldn't have anyway but now it's definite.

Dave, lots of people have lousy upbringings and don't turn into criminals. Likewise lots of people are brought up properly and do. The victim that created this bandwagon in the first place had two loving parents who provided a secure environment and a stable income. However he was involved in a gang. Could this be because he made a choice?

Personally I'm sick of this modern political culture we have where the government and opposition offer to run our entire lives for us.

I'll run my own life thanks, you get on with running the country.

Can't we have a political party that tries to win us over with good ideas (aka policies) rather than promising to 'make it all better' for us?

Here's a few more ideas I would implement:

Put all road maintenance under the control of the Highways Agency.

It's stupid that some roads are maintained by councils and others by the Highways Agency. Have one agency that is responsible for all road maintenance and supplies the public with a structured timetable of maintenance.
They could have a sliding scale of re-surfacing depending on the road (e.g. Motorways every 3 years, A roads every 6 years, B roads every 15 years and all other roads every 25 years)
Roads would be re-classified according to the volume of traffic usage so for example the M50 would most likely be reduced to an A road whereas the A303 would probably become a motorway. That way a busy road would get more regular maintenance.
By taking the control away from the local authority you would be undertaking roadworks on the grounds of needs rather than satisfying/staying within a budget.
By having a specialised department you could throw more resource at it so roadworks would be more frequent but quicker. There is plant machinery available where you dig up a road with one machine and resurface it with another that follows (I saw it used in the USA in 'Extreme Machines'). Likewise roads would be worked on 24/7 rather than the approximate current equivalent of 6.5/4.5.
You could even introduce a pot-holes department so that road users could alert them to any dangerous potholes that could be repaired to prevent accidents.

Stop giving child benefits to growing families.

I've mentioned this one before but I figured I'd include it again. People on low incomes see child support as something of a cash cow and will have more children to get more money. If you want to have more children that's fine but I don't see why everyone else should have to foot the bill. When you already have two children, you should only receive child support for the next birth. That way if you have twins/triplets etc. then you won't get stung for going 'over the limit' but you can take steps (snips) to prevent yourself from having further children if you don't want to carry the financial burden.

Separate rural and urban transport policies.

The two environments are completely incompatible so I'd stop trying to apply a 'one size fits all' solution to them both. Regional railway is a waste of money if there aren't passenger numbers to back it up and cars shouldn't even be allowed in areas such as central London (but you don't make any money out of banning them)

Stop invading sovereign countries for political goodwill.

It would seem we went to war with Iraq purely because Tony Blair made a promise to George Bush and he didn't want to go back on it. Preserving human life is slightly more important than keeping a promise.

Give our armed forces the tools they need.

Not only does the government keep using the military, they keep scaling them back too. Doesn't this seem more than just a little stupid?

Give England its share of the devolution pie.

Again I've said it before but if you're going to let Scotland have its own parliament, you have to follow suit by giving one to England (That bit of the UK where 80% of the electorate lives). Scotland and Wales are ludicrously over-represented at the moment and something has to give.

That'll do me for now.

I thought I'd finish by congratulating the South West for having seven of the top ten hot spots for bankruptcy. It's hardly surprising as the houses are worth far more than the wages can afford. Plymouth is approximately 70% ex-council / forces housing so most people bought their homes for half their value and then watched the value treble. That's a 600% increase in equity which they then take a loan on to buy material goods and then wonder why they can't afford the repayments.
I'm hoping that some time in the future Joe Public will eventually realise that the only people that make money out of house price rises are lenders and emigraters. The value your house increases by is relative to the rest of the market.