Prime Minister for a day

[Каие]

I was reading this on the Adam Smith Institute site: They were talking about what they would do if they were the Prime Minister for the day.

http://www.adamsmith.org/think-piece...-200809232606/

Here's their plan, I've edited it slightly to correct some things I would do different.

6.30am 5.00 am
I've never been a morning person, but if by some stroke of luck I became prime minister for a day, I would want to make an early start. Most PMs struggle to achieve much in five or even ten years, but I’d have big plans for my day in Number 10, and I'd need all the time I could get.

6.15am
Over breakfast – something substantial, to keep my hunger locked up till lunch – I'd kick things off with some simple reforms to make everyone's journey to work a little bit easier. For starters, I'd let people turn left on red lights, which would reduce congestion and make traffic flow more smoothly. Then I'd let motorcycles and cars with passengers drive in under-utilized bus lanes, making far more efficient use of our scarce road space.

7.30am
Getting into my workday now, my thoughts would turn to all those people toiling away in Britain's public services. I'd think of all the doctors, teachers and policemen whose working lives are made a misery by stifling government bureaucracy and I'd want to do something to help. So I'd get rid of all the Whitehall targets and memorandums, those orders from on high, and let the professionals get on with their jobs.

Instead of having to march to the beat of the government's drum, I would make them accountable to the people who really matter, the people they treat, teach and protect. Brits would elect their police chiefs, pick their doctors and hospitals, and choose their children's schools. And all these services would have the independence they needed to innovate, specialize and tailor their services to individual and community needs. Before long people would be asking, why didn't we always do it like this?

1pm
I'd watch myself on the news, reflecting on how much better the BBC had become since I privatized it over my elevenses forced them to cut useless channels, stop making shite programmes and cut the extraordinary inflated wages of the executives and 'stars' as well as the number of senior staff. Then I'd have beer and sandwiches - Number 10 have been good at that ever since Harold Wilson's cosy chats with the unions. They're pretty good at peas too, thanks to John Major. I'd head into the garden for a bit of fresh air, and feed any scraps to Humphrey, the Downing Street cat.

1.45pm
Back to work. Did you know the government will spend more than £600bn of the taxpayers' money this year? That's more than £10,000 per head for every man, woman and child in the UK, and twice as much as in 1997. It doesn't represent anything even approaching value for money.

As PM, I'd have to ask myself, do we really need 1165 QUANGOs, spending more than £63bn a year? Do we need a business department that does nothing for business and spends £5bn a year? Or a culture department that spends £3bn? Does the communities and local government department do anything useful? And why do we still have a Scotland Office and a Wales Office, now that Edinburgh has a parliament and Cardiff has an assembly?

Every government promises to cut waste. Most of them fail. They spend years re-arranging the furniture of government and trying to make things more efficient, but it never amounts to anything. Government just grows and grows. The only way to stop it is by abolishing whole departments, agencies and functions. And if I were PM for a day, that's exactly what I'd do. I doubt anyone would miss them.

3.30pm
Thinking of all the money I'd just saved, I'd get down to cutting everyone's taxes. I'd start by raising the personal allowance to at least £12,000, taking low-earners out of the income tax system altogether. Then I'd create a single, flat-rate tax on all income over that threshold – regardless of its source. Capital gains would have to be indexed to inflation, but apart from that there would be no added complications. While our current 'progressive' tax system hammers low-earners with disproportionate tax bills, my 'flat tax would put everyone from cleaner to fat cat on a level fairer playing field. All those New Labour zillionaires would be pretty peeved at losing their loopholes, so I'd take the phone off the hook and dodge their angry complaints. and shout violent sexual abuse at them.

11.30pm
By now my day as PM would be drawing to a close. Running the UK government has got to be a pretty stressful job, so I'd want to head to The Red Lion across the road in Whitehall to unwind. Before knocking-off, however, I'd make one more reform: repealing the licensing laws so that pubs could stay open as long as they wanted. pull out of the EU and NATO

My work done, I'd promote myself to the House of Lords. It would be such a welcome relief from serious politics.

So...


what would you do if you were Prime Minister for day, tomorrow?

[the Black Prince]

ahhh the poor deluded people... as if the civil service would ever allow any, let alone all, of that to be accomplished in one decade, let alone one day.


If i became PM for a day, the one and only thing I would do is sack the cabinet secretary and appoint myself in his place for life. Then I could get on with actually running the country properly for the next half century or so without having to worry about such trivial things as elections, opinion polls, public opinion and worst of all, politicians!

[Norge]

You forgot; "remove the cross from the Union Jack", and "establish open immigration".

But who are we kidding? You'll never get far in politics because of your Muslim background, Rome.

[Каие]

You forgot; "remove the cross from the Union Jack", and "establish open immigration". But who are we kidding? You'll never get far in politics because of your Muslim background, Rome.

Did you misunderstand the thread? I thought I made it clear. I've told you before man, if you're having trouble with english, just ask, their are plenty of gentlemen here like Prince who can help.

The thread is not a real application form. It is make belief. You know, like movies.

What I did was... ask members what they would do to the country, if they were Prime minister for one day. I think the part you had trouble with was the IF part.

If is defined as:
a: in the event that
b: allowing that
c: on the assumption that
d: on condition that

Do you see where you made your mistake? "The more you know".

PS. I didn't really intend for non-Britons to answer. I thought the implication was quite clear. Adam Smith Institute, Prime Minister, Whitehall, The Red Lion etc.

[Musthavename]

-Abolish road tax altogether. Make it up by increasing duty on petrol. If you've got an inefficient car and you use more, then you effectivly pay more "road tax". It's a much fairer system imo. Though there'd probably have to be some concessions system for HGV's etc...

-Get rid of all the targets, league tables and whatever (in schools / NHS/ police etc...). All it does is force the system into a particular route, not nescessarily doing what is best.

-Get rid of Tuition fees...again. Elsewhere in the education system, i'd reform it and simplify it. Get rid of pointless A-Levels like "General Studies", and only keep 3 types of courses. A-Levels, the IB (only for people wanting to go abroad afterwards), and an Apprentice scheme. Diploma's are an awful idea and should be left dead in the water. Likewise, I would go about banning faith schools. Awareness of all religions should be taught, but it should be known that everyone is taught to think and choose their beliefs, not have one particular doctrine forced upon them.

-Give the N.Irish, Welsh & Scots a referendum on independance. If they vote yes, it's granted. If they vote no, then their assembly or parliament is dissolved. All they do is create something akin to the postcode lottery. (Going back to the above point, an Englishman has to pay Tuition fees, a Scot doesn't... why?). At the very least, i'd certainly take away a lot of their decision making power.

-Build nuclear power stations, lots of them.

-Start looking at cutbacks I can make where money is being completely wasted. Rome's examples in this point are pretty much spot on. The money saved would go towards above power reforms and the like. That, and i'd start improving the rail network drastically, possibly even renationalise it.

-Pull out of the EU, keeping trade agreements.

-And then, just to finish, order an immediate enquiry into the Iraq War. I'd try and pursue charges against Blair if at all possible.

[the Black Prince]

The muslims in government, shadow government, parliament and the Lords would disagree.

I'm sure Keith Vaz MP, chairman of one of the most influential parliamentary committees considers that he hasn't got very far...

[MasterOfNone]

Establish a plan to phase out the welfare state and immediately opt out of the EU. I think those would be the two most important things for me. This would bring about both the independence of the people and the country - and thus facilitate genuine progress and prosperity in the future.

[Visna]

Being PM for a day is too short to do anything meaningful. You could however have all possible opposition removed. You know, car crashes, collapsing buildings, open elevator shafts etc.
Then around 16.00 when you have that sorted you could just manage to squeeze in time to get yourself appointed to dictator for life.

[cristophe el perno]

Number one at the moment has to put a punitive tax on pensions and bonuses above a certain amount, this being specifically aimed at those greedy bankers whove messed up the economy.

Get the BBC to fire Jonathon Ross, I'll say its a value for money thing, but really it's because I don't like him.

Nationalise all the banks. If they're very good they can be re-privatised in a few years.

Cut down on some health and safety beaurocracy - I'm all for being safe, but some of it has got a little silly.

Reform the house of Lords! No hereditory peers, limited terms for life peers, no Lords Spiritual, some elected peers.

Electoral system of the UK to be changed to STV with immediate effect, I will call a general election under the new, fairer rules shortly before leaving office.

Anyone who attended Eton, Rugby or Harrow, will be barred from politics or indeed any other public office for the next 20 years. After that, things might be fairer.

Adopt the Euro (just to pee of UKIP)

Build some more windfarms. I think they look lovely.

[Farnan]

Pull out of NATO????


If i was Prime Minister of Britain, I'd make you guys speak proper English... American English...


Naa, not sure enough about British politics, and President for a day can't do anything.

[Каие]

Pull out of NATO????

yes, pull out of NATO. USSR = dead. Russia = paper bear.

If i was Prime Minister of Britain, I'd make you guys speak proper English... American English...

They've been trying for 200 hundred years to get the north to speak proper English english, I would say you have very limited scope for success in a day.

Naa, not sure enough about British politics, and President for a day can't do anything.

Sure he can. He can stage a false flag operation, and suspend the constitution.

[Farnan]

Sure he can. He can stage a false flag operation, and suspend the constitution.

We suck at false flag operations, and suspending the Constitution is unconstitutional and will get me shot.

[Каие]

We suck at false flag operations, and suspending the Constitution is unconstitutional and will get me shot.

So there is no form of emergency rule in the states in case of emergency? Also you guys are the experts on false flags. Now Hitler he sucked.

[Farnan]

So there is no form of emergency rule in the states in case of emergency? Also you guys are the experts on false flags. Now Hitler he sucked.

Nope, there is not emergency rule at all...

And we suck at False Flags. Closest we had was the Gulf of Tonkin, but that didn't work out.

[cristophe el perno]

We suck at false flag operations, and suspending the Constitution is unconstitutional and will get me shot.

Surely if you've suspended the constitution, there is no constitution left to demand your shooting.
Thimk about it

[The Dude]

We suck at false flag operations, and suspending the Constitution is unconstitutional and will get me shot.

You mean like 9/11?

Oh shi-.

[Mr Mac]

yes, pull out of NATO. USSR = dead. Russia = paper bear.

Yes, definitely, the recent Russian invasion of Georgia certainly proves that.

[Каие]

Yes, definitely, the recent Russian invasion of Georgia certainly proves that.

Was that before or after Georgia was hell bent on denying a certain people their god given right to freedom and self determination?

[Mr Mac]

Was that before or after Georgia was hell bent on denying a certain people their god given right to freedom and self determination?

Ah, you're back tracking. I quoted your post: "Russia is a paper bear."

Now you're trying to justify their action, which in fact disproved your assertion.

I'm not interested in their ideological pretense, or the alleged infringement on human rights, I'm interested in Russia as a real threat.

It's pretty clear you just admitted they were, and now are hastily trying to justify why they're so good all of the sudden.

[Vizsla]

Invade and conquer France.

Then live there.