Evening all,
Things are slightly different today. Due to the upcoming elections
Debatewise will be working with votematch to help give voters an idea as to
the issues behind the policies of the parties. This means we have rather a
lot of debates to do and unfortunately the people behind votematch have
given us very little time in which to do these debates so we need your help
to create them.
I have listed all the debates that need doing below (we may get some more
for Scotland/Wales/NI later) so if you could take them as usual. I have
also listed some similar debates for reference. Equally for the ones I
have been doing please add to them and I apologise to those of you whose
points I have cannibalised in order to create the debates!
Because we only have the 19th to create these debates if you take one and
then decide you can't do it please email me in plenty of time so that we
can do the debate here at HQ
And finally could you please put the debates on our election site rather
than the normal Debatewise site: http://electionuk.debatewise.org/ (you
can log in with your usual details)
Thanks
Alex
Debates on the site for you to add to:
http://electionuk.debatewise.org/debates/1734-an-independent-board-should-al
locate-nhs-resources-to-different-parts-of-the-country
http://electionuk.debatewise.org/debates/1733-the-cost-of-nhs-administration
-should-be-cut-by-one-third
http://electionuk.debatewise.org/debates/1735-the-government-should-withdraw
-troops-from-afghanistan-with-a-year
Economy:
The Bank of England should have overall responsibility for financial
oversight
The financial crisis and the recession that have affected us over the last
few years have shown that we need a change in the regulatory system that
provides oversight for the city and the banks. The Financial Services
Authority having failed the Conservatives believe that the Bank of England
have much more power over the financial sector.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/5906113/Sir
-James-Sassoon-why-I-told-the-Tories-to-scrap-the-FSA.html
http://www.publicservice.co.uk/feature_story.asp?id=12296
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200809/ldselect/ldeconaf/101/1010
8.htm
http://debatewise.org/debates/870
The Government should be compelled by law to cut the deficit by 50%
within 4 years
The UK is currently running a budget deficit of 12%, that is higher than
Greece a country that is in particularly hot water due to its fiscal
imprudence. Everyone agrees that this has to be reduced, but how quickly
should this be done and how far does it need to be cut? No one really
knows. Governments do not like making big cuts in services as they are
unpopular so introducing a law forcing a cut in the deficit within a
certain time could be useful to whichever party wins the election.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/07/deficit-fetishism-govern
ment-spending
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8514767.stm
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102
<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=ay3jUtAyftac>
&sid=ay3jUtAyftac
All departments should bear the brunt of spending cuts to reduce the
deficit
Both the Conservatives and the Labour party are promising to ring fence
some areas from any spending cuts, areas such as international
development and the NHS. However such ring fencing simply means that the
cuts have to be bigger elsewhere in order to make up for the inability to
cut in some areas. This is unequal. The public may say they care most
about the NHS but they may change their tune when they find that the fire
service is drastically cut back because their can't be cuts in other
areas.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2009/sep/16/public-spending-departme
nts-money-cuts
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/05/financial-crisis-public-
spending-tax
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/artic
le7034353.ece
Employment and Equal Ops:
All companies who employ more than 250 people should be forced to publish
an annual report comparing the average pay of men with the average pay of
women in the company.
Pay between men and women doing the same job is supposed to be equal, but
even if and where it is there are many other little inequalities that
reducing the earning power of women. Having to publish a comparison between
the average earnings of men and women at companies would show which
companies are closing the gender gap and which have some way to go. Naming
and shaming is a way that may encourage firms to voluntarily equalise pay.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/jan/06/equality-bill-pay
http://www.efinancialnews.com/story/2009-09-14/gender-pay-gap-stays-as-wide-
as-ever
The total hours allowed in a working week should not be decided by the EU
The French and the Europeans generally are stereotyped in Britain and the
US as being much more fun loving and wishing to work shorter working
weeks than 'Anglo-Saxon economies' such as Britain. However the European
Union now has a big say over many areas of regulation that were
previously the preserve of Westminster. The amount of time we work is one
of them. The working time directive is one of them. It limits us to a
working week of 48 hours, however we are perfectly at liberty to set our
own national limits on working weeks that are less than 48 hours as
several European countries have.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timcollard/100007914/the-working-time-dire
ctive-the-one-jewel-in-the-eus-plastic-crown/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/17/eu-work-and-careers
http://debatewise.org/debates/818
People on job seekers allowance who refuse a job should lose their benefits
When there are millions looking for work people should be given every
incentive they can be to make sure that if they get offered a job they
take it. It is a simply a drain on the state's resources if someone
refuses a job and carries on collecting jobseekers allowance the state
should not nanny people until they happen to find a job that they like.
Job seekers should be given the option of either taking the first job
they are offered or losing their benefits if they wish to turn it down.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7176032.stm
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6605850.ece
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/conservative/1574822/Tor
ies-to-strip-benefits-if-jobless-refuse-work.html
Immigration and Asylum:
Asylum seekers should be allowed to work while waiting for their
application to be processed
Asylum seekers sitting around doing nothing is of no use to anyone. They
should instead be doing something productive while waiting to see if their
asylum application is granted. Not allowing them to work forces them into
poverty while they wait for our slow system of processing applications to
pass them through the system. If they are allowed to work and if at the end
of it all they are rejected at least they will have gained something during
their stay and contributed to the economy.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-let-as
ylumseekers-work-1609199.html
http://www.newstatesman.com/global-issues/2007/10/asylum-seekers-work-amnest
y
http://www.church-poverty.org.uk/campaigns/livingghosts/destituteanddesperat
e
ID cards should be compulsory for immigrants and asylum seekers
The Home office keeps getting into difficulties with asylum seekers,
either through having more than predicted or with failures to deport
asylum seekers who then go on to commit crimes. Having ID cards
compulsory for immigrants means that it is much more difficult for the
home office to lose people. ID cards are meant to reduce the numbers of
people working illegally so this makes immigrants an obvious target group
and they provide a test case for any eventual role out for everyone.
http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/managingborders/idcardsforforeignnationals/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/1793151.stm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/jun/09/labour-id
-cards
http://debatewise.org/debates/1
People committed of crimes who were not born in this country should be
deported
People who have committed crimes who were not born here should consider
themselves to have forfeited their right to stay in the UK. While it
seems obvious that where possible we should deport violent criminals who
are not native there are many circumstances where it would not be
appropriate. Should we be deporting everyone convicted for petty crimes?
What do we do if the country they come from is not safe?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1563890/Foreigners-commit-fifth-of-cr
ime-in-London.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6211514.ece
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/7149720/Failure-to-deport
-foreign-criminals-costs-60m-a-year.html
http://debatewise.org/debates/691
Parliamentary Reform:
There should be a referendum on changing the electoral system for General
Elections in the next Parliament.
The current first past the post electoral system that we have in this
country no longer interprets the people's wishes very well. It is very
possible that the conservatives may get a bigger percent of the votes while
getting fewer seats than Labour. The Liberal democrats and other small
parties will almost certainly be even worse off. Although it might not
include a range of possible electoral systems a referendum would at least
allow a debate on the issue of electoral reform and it is likely than any
system decided on would be more representative than our present one.
http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/votingsystems/systems.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/09/bill-define-election-bro
wn-legacy
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8492622.stm
http://debatewise.org/debates/155
The number of MPs should be reduced by 10%
During this parliament many MPs have discredited themselves and the
Houses of Parliament with their excessive expenses claims. While there
have been reforms put in place to reduce these claims there are still a
total of 646 MPs in the House of Commons. The House of Representatives in
the USA has 435 congressmen to represent a population almost five times
the size.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7294330.stm
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6078282.ece
The Government should legislate for elections to the House of Lords within
the next Parliament
Labour has been promising an elected House of Lords since they were
elected in 1997, there has been progress with hereditary peers leaving
however there has been no movement to having the House of Lords elected
rather than appointed. If we are going to lecture dictators on the
benefits of democracy we should show that we believe in them too, an
appointed chamber such as we have now shows that we do not take democracy
seriously. But is legislating to create an elected House of Lords really
a priority with the economy in such a bad state?
http://www.archive.official-documents.co.uk/document/cm41/4183/ref-08.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/20/parliament-reform-house-
of-lords
http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/article.php?id=30
http://debatewise.org/debates/1223
Pensions and Retirement:
Pensions should be tied to average earnings in the next Parliament
Margret Thatcher in 1980 abolished the link that there had been between
pensions and average earnings meaning that the state pension has been
falling in value relative to earnings in almost every year since. This is
obviously unfair, however it would be very costly to restore the link and
the public purse is in no position to foot the bill in the near future.
http://colineldridge.org.uk/news/000025/bring_back_link_between_pensions_and
_earnings_say_lib_dems.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tories-target-state-pension-in
-battle-to-balance-books-1787328.html
http://debatewise.org/debates/790
The retirement age should be scrapped
Scrapping the retirement age would potentially solve numerous current and
future problems. It could help reduce our budget deficit if the state
retirement age is increased meaning less is paid out while if more people
are working then there will be more money coming in to the treasury. So
long as there is a retirement age it is easy for companies to pressurise
people who want to work into retirement. In the future having no
retirement age would help combat the problems of an ageing population
such as a shrinking workforce and their being less people to pay for
pensioners pensions.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/jan/25/retirement-age-scrapped-equality
-commission
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/pensions/7309292/State-pe
nsion-age-should-be-70-PwC-says.html
http://debatewise.org/debates/848
Sovereignty and Devolution:
There should be an English Parliament
We have a Scottish Parliament, a Welsh Assembly and a Assembly at
Stormont for Northern Ireland that has just voted to have policing and
justice powers devolved to them. This leaves England, with most of the
British population without its own parliament. In many cases the MPs for
Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland can vote on laws that can only
affect England while English MPs have very little say over what happens
in those areas with their own assemblies, this represents a democratic
deficit that has to be sorted out.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/18/devolution-england-pseud
o-democracy
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/8558466.stm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/philipjohnston/7396040/David-C
ameron-will-have-to-finally-address-English-resentment-over-devolution.html
http://debatewise.org/debates/1246
http://debatewise.org/debates/3
There should be a referendum on the UK's continued membership of the
European Union.
We were denied a vote on the Lisbon treaty that many wanted, although so
far the results of the treaty have been less than spectacular. The UK has
however had a referendum on its membership and voted to become a member
of the EEC, so should a referendum simply be on the changes that have
taken place since then? There is very little in the way of referendums in
Britain, so such a referendum on leaving the EU should only occur if a
party that has promised one in its election manifesto wins the election.
Many would like to have a referendum on the continued membership of the
EU so putting aside questions about what do we do if we leave the EU
should we get to vote?
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/9238909/Would_Britain_vote_to
_leave_the_EU/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1225053/A-referendum-Mr-Cameron-CO
ULD-people.html
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23763500-tories-set-to-retrea
t-on-eu-referendum-pledge.do
http://debatewise.org/debates/846
http://debatewise.org/debates/784
Tax:
Marriage should be incentivised through the tax system.
David Cameron has proposed a that marriage should be incentivised, although
he rapidly had to retreat due to not having the proposal all costed. The
Conservative proposals would have a transferrable tax allowance for all
married couples costing £3.2 billion. The tax system is regularly used to
incentivise or punish behaviour such as smoking or drinking. So it should
incentivise things that are good for us such as marriage which provides for
more stability, particularly for children.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/election-2010/7005840/Marriage-is-good-for-u
s-its-time-to-support-it.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/18/family-marriage-tax-came
ron-labour
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6992961.ece
Estates less than £1million pounds should not be liable for Inheritance Tax
Inheritance tax, often portrayed as the 'death tax' by its opponents.
Everyone dislikes having to pay tax, but why should we be bothered about
paying taxes on unearned wealth. An inheritance is a windfall so it makes
no difference to those gaining the windfall if the taxman shares in the
gain. Does it make a difference if it is a relatively small amount?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/clarke-back-in-line-on-inherit
ance-tax-cut-policy-1652601.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/alicethomson/3554424/Ive-chang
ed-my-mind-on-inheritance-tax.html
http://debatewise.org/debates/1182
http://debatewise.org/debates/333
http://debatewise.org/debates/1052
People earning less than £10,000 pounds a year should not have to pay
Income tax
Income tax for an income below £10,000 seems like a pointless excercise.
The treasury is not likely to get much money out of the tax and at the
same time will be encouraging those people who earn such small amounts to
stay on welfare payments instead of spending their time working in return
for their pittance. However even if they do pay income tax the chances
are they will be able to get as much back in benefits and means tested
allowances. They still use the free services of the state such as the NHS
and the education system so should they not pay for it?
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/alexsingleton/8046867/Its_inefficient_and_
unfair_to_make_poor_people_pay_income_tax/
http://debatewise.org/debates/1013
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