What policies would you adopt?

The_Minister

You are quietly lying in bed, drifting off to sleep.

Suddenly, a man bursts out of your closet and throws a sack over your head! You are tied up and bound, and thrown in the back of some kind of vehicle.

You feel yourself carried down some stairs and thrown into a hard chair.

Suddenly, the sack is ripped off your head and you are blinded by a bright light. As your vision adjusts, the face of Richard Bruton swims into view.

It turns out that he is setting up a new, break-away party from Fine Gael.
But he needs your help.

His new party is making up a manifesto. He begs you for a policy.


What do you tell him?
What policy big or small, would you like to see in a new party/organisation?

Hypothetical was for my own amusement - feel free to ignore it.

Trashbat

A policy detailing the mandatory termination of all people called Richard Bruton.

drunkmonkey

I'd say Richard you have the right to shut the **** up, you bold brat now let me back to bed or i'll call Enda.

ItsAWindUp

Spread the wealth, and legalize it.

Dr. Baltar

Mandatory nudity for all persons who are not overweight.
Also weed. weeeeeeed man weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed.

Donkey Oaty

Abortion on demand.

stovelid

I would rush a bill through parliament to address lengthy post preambles.




:pac:

pitkan

Openness and transparency in reality and not the **** for this the present shower lied to us about.

PeterIanStaker

Tax the church and sieze their land.

AlmostFamous

As a few people have said, legalise cannabis.
I would also reform the social welfare system so that you can't choose to live off the dole.
I would make blood donations mandatory for anybody who fits the criteria to donate and doesn't have a phobia of needles.

SeaFields

Ask the people of Ireland, via a referendum, do they still want a Séanad.

Ask the people of Ireland, via a referendum, if by elections should be held after a fixed period of the seat being vacated.

Ask the people of Ireland, via a referendum, if they want less TD's.

Basically give the people the choice to help clean up politics - none of the FF waffle that we know whats best for them common people.

Oh and make it a criminal offence for an elected official to accept money, or other gratuities, for favours and make it a criminal offence to attempt to bribe an elected official (maybe these are in place but i aint ever seen somebody convicted and we all know it goes on)

Basically give the people the choice to help clean up politics.

Sea Sharp

I'd suggest that the public sector get a good kick up the arse by deciding whether they three days per week or five days per week based on performance reviews.

Banned Account

I would introduce a policy that would transfer the wealth of the country to my own personal swiss bank account and then fcuk off an leave all of yous to sort out the shite - oh yeah and i'd whole heartedly encourage the liberal useage of the following phrases in the Dail

1) Yore Ma - to be used during leaders questions
2) Pics or GTFO (not to be used in relation to Harney)
3) IBTL - to be spoken to the Ceann Comhairle
4) tl;dr - to be used for all bills not related to no. 2 above

brianthebard

SeaFields wrote: »

Ask the people of Ireland, via a referendum, do they still want a Séanad.

Ask the people of Ireland, via a referendum, if by elections should be held after a fixed period of the seat being vacated.

Ask the people of Ireland, via a referendum, if they want less TD's.

Aren't they already FG policy? Dunno about changing the number of TD's but I imagine a referendum would be needed to abolish the Séanad.

gandalf

• Abolish the Seanad.
• Reduce the number of TD's to 100.
• Reduce TD's and Ministers Wages by 30%.
• Adopt a list system for Elections.
• Bring in the maximum term that can be served by a TD to 3 terms.
• Ensure that TD's can claim only one pension at retirement age of 65.
• Amalgamate all 36 county councils into 5 Super Councils and reduce the number of admins staff accordingly.
• Give Councillors more powers to deal with local issues.
• Only vouched expenses with receipts for all Members of the Government, TD's & Councillors. No more un-vouched funds.

Thats to begin with

ScumLord

I'd want to make Europe change it's fishing quotas, I'd even go as far as to prevent other European fishing fleets from entering Irish waters until they do. Europe has been terrible for the health of the Irish sea.

Proper planning should be essential and it should be streamlined. This country is a mess because everything's done half arsed, to please every second pleab that drags themselves out of a ditch once a month to tell the rest of the country how stupid they are.
I'd want politics removed from essential services as much as possible, educated and experienced engineers should come up with the best way of doing things and we should follow their advice because they know what they're doing more than Biddy McBackwards.

I'd want to move towards alternatives to the country being dependant on a shaky world economy that doesn't serve the people.

And of course legalise weed, we could avoid it becoming a problem by removing the opportunity to make huge profit out of it's production so that it's of no interest to big business. Big business would push it like they do alcohol and would have little to no regard for the health of their customers.

SeaFields

brianthebard wrote: »

Aren't they already FG policy? Dunno about changing the number of TD's but I imagine a referendum would be needed to abolish the Séanad.

I've seen your posts in politics forum so I imagine you'd be better versed in these things than me. The Séanad one is definitely because Richard was saying he was p!ssed off Enda didn't consult on that one! A referendum would be needed for all three wouldn't it? Maybe not for the second although it was written into the constitution it would stop parties tinkering with it in the future for their own gain.

If the number of TD's wasn't reduced then maybe make the cabinet the 'upper house' and less answerable to the constituents and more answerable to the country as a whole. I dunno, wishful thinking I suppose.

prinz

Mandatory military or social service.

Reform of the legal system.

Proper public transport.

Bringing in proper outside help to clean house.

The_Minister

ScumLord wrote: »

And of course legalise weed, we could avoid it becoming a problem by removing the opportunity to make huge profit out of it's production so that it's of no interest to big business. Big business would push it like they do alcohol and would have little to no regard for the health of their customers.

How could you take the profit out of it yet not have a huge black market?

ScumLord

The_Minister wrote: »

How could you take the profit out of it yet not have a huge black market?

I'm not saying take the profit out of it completely but I'd want to encourage home grows or co-ops where it's controlled more by enthusiasts and social groups than make it a product to be sold for the most profit. That's could just be me being anti big corporation capitalist though.

Mr Benevolent

- Abolish traditional politicians. Electing the most popular wealthy person as an electoral representative is utterly illogical and corrupt.

- Electoral representatives would be chosen at random and service would be mandatory.

- The country's leader(s) would be legally responsible for their actions and decisions while in power.

- Referendums could be initiated by collecting more than 50,000 signatures agreeing to a specific proposal.

- Referendums voting would be mandatory and would be voted on online every week.

- All governmental decisions and the reason behind those decisions would be transparent and open to logical debate (i.e, no Joe Duffy types).

- Government decisions would also be subject outside scrutiny by a panel of EU representatives.

Donkey Oaty

Compulsory separate billing in restaurants for wine and cheese.

ScumLord

Confab wrote: »

- Abolish traditional politicians. Electing the most popular wealthy person as an electoral representative is utterly illogical and corrupt.

- Electoral representatives would be chosen at random and service would be mandatory.

The problem I have with that is those people are completely unqualified to do the job. The current lot aren't even qualified, despite years in politics the skills their picking up are of no benefit to the people they serve as they only serve the interests of the politicians career.

We should be teaching this stuff in school. How to run a country and how to interact within a social group, it will be their job after all when they grow up.

brianthebard

ScumLord wrote: »

I'm not saying take the profit out of it completely but I'd want to encourage home grows or co-ops where it's controlled more by enthusiasts and social groups than make it a product to be sold for the most profit. That's could just be me being anti big corporation capitalist though.

That wouldn't be too hard if they implemented a license per no. of crops, so it would make more sense to be a small grower than a large one. Not going to happen though obviously. :pac:

Wazdakka

Good question...

• Parent licences would need to be applied for before you had children.
• Abortion to be legalized.
• Removal of the stupid and in some case illegal taxes..
  Eg, Import duty on cars from Europe,..
• Make everybody in the Civil service re-apply for their jobs.
  If an employee can't justify there position they get the sack.
• Either,
  Restrict unemployment benefit to two years at full amount then cut by 15% every year after that.
• Or,
  Adopt the Japanese unemployment system where there is no unemployment.
  Anybody claiming that they cannot get a job will work 40 hours a week for the state in order to collect welfare. Training would be given if wanted (fas style) or else they would work as unskilled labour as needed.
• Restore the Off licence opening hours.
• Extend pub and club opening hours.
• Abolish anything in Irish law that is dictated by religion. eg, Good Friday alcohol rules.
• Legalise weed.

To start with..
Then on to some serious government layer culling / re-assigning.

novarock

mandatory castration for paedophiles...

Beruthiel

Streamline the health system and sack 75% of top heavy management.

prinz

ScumLord wrote: »

We should be teaching this stuff in school. How to run a country and how to interact within a social group, it will be their job after all when they grow up.

We do. It's called CSPE and is treated as a joke.

nice1franko

Relax the gambling laws in Ireland and develop a Gamblor District in Dublin City Centre. Market it as Gamblor Capitol of Europe and then all the fordners will come over and spend their monies with us.

soups05

i would give AH the power to run the country.

that way we would be safe in the hands of calm,level headed,unracist,unbaised.senible people who would make wonderful leaders.




oh wait.....

Wazdakka

soups05 wrote: »

i would give AH the power to run the country.

that way we would be safe in the hands of calm,level headed,unracist,unbaised.senible people who would make wonderful leaders.

Dibs on minister for general mayhem, social chaos and organised destruction.

Stinicker

• Privatize the Health System
• Remove all social security contributions except voluntary pensions
• As above remove the dole completely and all other socialist supports
• Cut Income Tax, VAT to 12.5%, VRT Gone, Fuel Duty scrapped, a law never allowing fuel to go above €1/litre
• Introduce the death penalty for serious crimes
• Abolish the Seanad
• Merge the County Councils into Provincial Councils
• Ending Firearms restrictions
• Ending the special place of the Catholic Church, introduction of a Religion tax like Germany.
• Banning the Muslim Veil
• Introduction of Abortion on demand
• Equal rights of access to Children for Mothers and Fathers
• Balanced Regional Development, no point on the island to be within 50kms from a Motorway. All Motorways free and opened to private cars, Vignettes for Commercial traffic offering them a better deal than the current tolls.
• FTTH in every corner of Ireland
• Cross border funds to develop the Infrastructure of Northern Ireland to the benefit of both communities.
• A €250 a year (to never change or rise) residential tax to pay for services such as water, streetlighting, estate management and waste collection, ending of refuse collection in Ireland as an industry open to competition. Companies can in future tender for contracts with the council, it is a vital service.
• An offical rural depopulation strategy, to end the sparsely spread populations all over Ireland, emphasis on the rural village and town.
• Ireland to bid for the 2020 European Championships
• A new political strategy to allow the provincial councils to force a General Election and topple the Government, Provincial councils elections to take place at midpoint in the tenure of the Government, this will allow the people to elect new provincial councils who can then bring down the government if given the mandate.

ScumLord

Stinicker wrote: »

• Cut Income Tax, VAT to 12.5%, VRT Gone, Fuel Duty scrapped, a law never allowing fuel to go above €1/litre

How would that work in a world where oil can only become rarer and more valuable. We have to buy it in so can have no control over it's cost which would mean the government would have to subsidise the difference to maintain a price below €1. Oil is a highly valuable and rare resource, it can only become more expensive to extend what we have, there's no avoiding that.

Sulmac

Oh God, where to begin...

• Abolish the Seanad.
• Reduce Dáil to 100 TDs.
• All elections (bar the presidential election) to be conducted via a list system. This means by-elections would never be needed. Current voting system for president remains. President has a bit more power but nothing too extreme.
• Party lists to be decided via open "primaries".
• Fixed-term elections.
• More power to Dáil committees.
• Cabinet members cannot be Dáil members (if they are promoted to cabinet, they lose their Dáil seat), and no person may hold any two politicial offices (from councillor to president). In other words, a full separation of powers.
• Legalise soft drugs (especially cannabis; regulate/tax it), prostitution (and regulate/tax it), same-sex marriage (and the rights/obligations that come with it), abortion and "no-fault" divorce (save in cases with children). Change the "morning-after" pill's state to that of an OTC drug.
• Fully secular state. Remove all religious references in the Constitution (starting with "blasphemy"). No religious influences allowed in any publicly-funded service or body.
• Adopt an education system similar to Finland's - with all students in a town/neighbourhood being taught in one large, well equipped, public, co-educational, secular school.
• Adopt a health system similar to the Netherlands - compulsary private insurance with premiums paid for children, students, elderly, unemployed and those on lower-incomes.
• Cull on QUANGOs.
• Ensure that expenditure is equal to or less than income, save in extreme circumstances.
• Mass improvements in public transport - tendering for bus routes (like in London and some Nordic countries), real-time information, proper timetables, integrated ticketing, etc.
• 24 hour licensing, alcohol allowed to be sold in shops at any time - including Good Friday and Christmas Day.
• Local government to be replaced with the eight regions as the upper tier and municipalities around major towns and cities as the lower tier. Each will have increased powers and ability to raise revenue.
• Amend the Constitution to give the State far greater power to remove children from unfit and abusive parents (the "children's rights" referendum).
• Work on renewable energy projects to carry on at a much faster pace.
• COMPLETE overhaul of the social welfare system to squeeze out people who "live" off welfare and don't work when presented with the chance of it (unless, of course, they can't work for a genuine reason).
• Equality among unmarried parents. Proper IVF and surrogacy laws.
• Ban on hunting and blood sports. Proper animal rights laws.
• National fibre-optic broadband scheme, water supply upgrade scheme.

There's more but I can't think of it right now...

prinz

Stinicker wrote: »

Ending the special place of the Catholic Church, introduction of a Religion tax like Germany.

I have a sneaking suspicion you have a wildly inaccurate idea of what the Church Tax in Germany actually is.

Banned Account

ScumLord wrote: »

How would that work in a world where oil can only become rarer and more valuable. We have to buy it in so can have no control over it's cost which would mean the government would have to subsidise the difference to maintain a price below €1. Oil is a highly valuable and rare resource, it can only become more expensive to extend what we have, there's no avoiding that.

Sorry, could you change the font your using - that just looks like blahblahblahblahblahblah to me and surely such words do not be belonging in the fantasy world of afterhours.

Nervous Wreck

The_Minister wrote: »

You are quietly lying in bed, drifting off to sleep.

Suddenly, a man bursts out of your closet and throws a sack over your head! You are tied up and bound, and thrown in the back of some kind of vehicle.

You feel yourself carried down some stairs and thrown into a hard chair.

Suddenly, the sack is ripped off your head and you are blinded by a bright light. As your vision adjusts, the face of Richard Bruton swims into view.

It turns out that he is setting up a new, break-away party from Fine Gael.
But he needs your help.

His new party is making up a manifesto. He begs you for a policy.


What do you tell him?
What policy big or small, would you like to see in a new party/organisation?

Hypothetical was for my own amusement - feel free to ignore it.

"Bruton..... It was only a matter of time before you came out of the closet...."