Reform

We are hearing much about reform at present but not yet as those with a traditional education would recognize it.

What is a ‘Traditional Education’?

Admittedly a subjective concept. I offer a crude definition, if you are over 50 years old, attended a public or grammar school or even a good pre comprehensive school era state school, you probably had a traditional education.

Five ‘O’ levels was the standard requirement to embark on a professional career, Accountancy, Actuarial, Legal & other Chartered exams (insurance, physiotherapy, surveyor & engineering etc.)

University education was the reserve of those seeking a vocational career, medicine, teaching, veterinary & such, sometimes a family college tradition at Oxbridge.

Where does this take us ?

Those pupils came through a system which furnished them with a reasonable grasp of the English language, literature, history, a basic knowledge of mathematics & geography.

My peers probably have a dormant sub conscious understanding of the 1500s European Reformation & the 1830s Reform Acts.

Don’t believe me?

Okay, over 50? Memory jog, English Reformation trigger words: Dissolution of the monasteries, Henry VIII’s 6 wives, Thomas Moore, Thomas Cromwell, martyrs, burning at the stake, blasphemy laws, heresy, the Tower Hill block etc.

The birth of the Anglican Church, separation from Rome, Scotland’s John Knox, a Protestant Northern Europe, Martin Luther, John Calvin & many others.

Such a jumble of school memories.

Post Waterloo Britain

Reform was more economic & social than religious notwithstanding Catholic emancipation.

Rotten boroughs, repeal of the Corn Laws, rebirth of a gold standard, broader suffrage, William Wilberforce & the abolition of slavery (20% of GDP loans to facilitate) Lord Shaftesbury’s work on child employment, non conformism & so on.

Many of you will be now saying “oh yeah, I remember those”. Contemporary history graduates might also be pondering “oh god, the Reform Acts of the 1830s+, “ I read a bloody great tome on the subject by Antonia Fraser & still didn’t really get it”.

My sympathies, universities make the mistake of covering British reform in isolation, a knowledge of French history of that era is essential.

I have left out the not insignificant medieval reforms for want of space.

WHAT SHOULD REFORM MEAN ?

Reform is a great name for a political party today. The country is begging for real reform. Not milk & water Tory Lite posturing. To turn the Reform party in to a real engine of government there must be realistic political party organization, a radical manifesto & a competent potential front bench team.

Currently Reform is nowhere close. If Reform is not to go the sad way of yesteryear’s UKIP & Brexit party a realistic foundation must be built. A privately owned limited company is not a political party. Expedient perhaps now but flawed.

It must not lose its grass roots, nor must it be a refuge for failed politicial journeymen trying to rescue their careers.

Rising membership is a double edged sword, electorate straw clutching is an ephemeral phenomenon.

In four years time in order for patriotic middle England to vote Reform it must not trim, not equivocate, not pander to legacy media but stick to a serious radical achievable agenda.

Although Trump’s foreign policy is the usual ill-informed Washington lunacy there is much merit in his domestic policies accompanied with ruthless implementation.

I suggest a manifesto here, there is no order of precedent.

A moratorium on ANY overseas taxpayer funded payments regardless.
Concede there is no climate emergency & stop the political green climate change hoax.***
Freeze the NHS budget & enforce a ratio of no more than one non clinical employee to forty clinical. 600,000 non clinical employees is preposterous.
Hold big pharma to account on all past drug dispensing & abandon their legal protection.
Totally halt all British military & naval overseas interference in any theatre of foreign war.
Cease forthwith ALL double taxation. The State must only tax a citizen once on income. So no tax on savings (goodbye IHT & CGT)
Introduce a flat income tax, 20% of income on earnings over £40k transferable between married couples. A boost to the family unit.
Disestablish ALL quangos.
Disestablish the Home Office.
Disestablish all police training establishments & recruit non politicised staff for a new deal. Reappraise promotional systems to reward competent & experienced police officers.
Return to community policing
Adhere to a strict policy of career diplomats to ambassadorships. No political cronyism.
Charitable status only to those which cap salaries for all employees at twice the national average wage.
Withdraw charitable where the annual audit shows less than 80% of revenue going to the core commitment.
Cap all civil service departments at 20% of current staff levels based on job reapplication.
Cease all forms of public sector pensions unavailable in the wealth creating sector.
All Defence spending only for protection of the United Kingdom & its dependencies.
Remove all local government allegiances to national political parties. Councillors must stand on the hustings as individuals, not ‘badged’ with irrelevant Westminster party affiliations.
The state educational syllabus in history must not denigrate Britain’s past.
Home schooling must be actively encouraged & facilitated.
All legacy EU laws must be abandoned in 36 months.
The principles of English Law must be adhered to at all times.
Disestablish the Church of England
Disestablish the House of Lords
Disestablish the General Medical Council
Test the Sovereign’s commitments with a view to his association with WEF & other organisations in contradiction to his Coronation oath.
Such revenue raised by taxation on motorists MUST be spent for motorists’ benefits.
Limit by statute the number of public sector workers as a ratio to those in the wealth creating sector.
Commit unequivocally to repatriation ALL illegal immigrants
Ensure welfare payments are committed only under the 1943/4 Beveridge concept. Let no able bodied man or woman remain idle in receipt of tax payer largesse.
Put all immigrants to work legal or not.
Abolish the now corrupt & discredited honours system.
Prison & sentencing policy review.
Remove all State interference with employment contracts.
Abolish public patronage grants of any type.
Abolish VAT
Introduce gold as a tier one reserve for British commercial banks.
Introduce six free ports nationally.
Reject all blanket open ended military treaties.
Leave all international political encumbrances. (WHO, UN, NATO, ECHR & others)
Enforce racial discrimination laws under existing legislation.
Ban overseas ownership of British newspapers & TV/Radio stations. Remove censorship from social media save direct incitement to violence.
Close the door of Number Ten Downing Street to foreign oligarchs.
10% corporation tax
Since the collapse of the church as a hub of community rescue the concept of the traditional pub, remove duty on real ale of 3.8% strength. No business rates.
Make Mass medication or spraying the atmosphere a criminal offence.
Ditch the England national anthem, awful dirge.
The abolition of blasphemy laws de facto or de jure.
No more idiot national projects, remember The Ground Nut scheme, TSR2, Blue Streak, Concorde,The Dome? Aircraft carriers!** HSR2 ! Comprehensive schools, Wind turbines, Solar panels,Tax payer money squandered on a monstrous scale. (Google)
Sell the BBC & Channel 4
Sell the Forestry Commission.
Charge entry for all museums.
No arts subsidies.
Restore capital punishment for child killers
Scrap the Constitutional Reform & Goverment Act
Scrap legislation making lives a misery with compulsory social housing

Should these radical solutions appear drastic remember with a spiraling debt problem of £3 trillion most of these measures will become inevitable anyway.

Moreover many are simply a return to the status quo of 60 years ago.

Planned economic reform is preferable to enforced piecemeal reform at the behest of international banks.

A society divided cannot stand. Equality for ALL. No quotas & no court sentencing differentials, no political dogma in everyday life.

Note how one of Britain’s greatest heroes The Duke of Wellington went from national icon to being hissed in the street 15 years after Waterloo for failure to deliver reform to a nation demanding it.*

I see no evidence thus far of a radical manifesto from any political party in Britain. I see no conviction in the hearts of our alternative politicians with pitifully few exceptions.

There is time though, who knows?

I could be wrong, there is always a first time.

*Wellington, Pillar of State, Elizabeth Longford
**See godfreybloom.uk articles Going Postal (White Elephants)
*** See godfreybloom.uk/climate /

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