Election 2024: NationalWorld manifesto

23/05/2024

Ralph Blackburn with NationalWorld's election manifesto.

Transcript

00:00 So the time has come. Rishi Sunak has called the general election for the 4th of July.

00:07 Over the next 6 weeks, the political parties of this country, Labour, the Conservatives, the SNP, the Liberal Democrats,

00:16 will have the chance to put their case to you about why they shouldn't be entrusted to make up the UK's next government.

00:24 And then on polling day, you'll have the chance to choose the next Prime Minister of this country.

00:29 As I've been reporting across the UK ahead of the general election this year,

00:35 one of my main reflections has been the apathy with which a lot of voters have.

00:39 There's a feeling that MPs don't represent them, and also the issues they're covering are not the ones that matter.

00:47 So to try and combat this, National World is launching our very own manifesto.

00:53 We've come up with five key policies which we think the main parties are avoiding,

00:59 which will make a huge difference to your lives.

01:02 The first policy on National World's manifesto is to have a public inquiry into Brexit.

01:15 The UK economy has been trapped in a low growth cycle for years,

01:20 and that's meant less money going into the Exchequer,

01:24 and less money going into our struggling public services like the NHS, teaching, and overcrowded prisons.

01:31 The Office for Budget Responsibility and big multinational banks like Goldman and Sachs

01:37 have estimated that Brexit has taken 5% of the UK's GDP.

01:42 That's a huge amount of money which should be going into the Exchequer.

01:46 We believe there should be a public inquiry into Brexit to find out what went wrong,

01:52 what is still going wrong, and what can be done to rectify this in the future.

01:57 Policy two on the National World manifesto is to bring in a windfall tax on banks.

02:10 Over the last year, banks have raked in sky high profits due to high interest rates.

02:17 However, one of the ways to help fund our public services could be to bring in a windfall tax

02:23 on these excess profits from banks in the same way as the government has levied an additional tax on energy companies.

02:32 Now this is not a radical idea. Margaret Thatcher brought in a similar tax 30 years ago,

02:38 and Positive Money reckons this could bring in £14 billion a year for the Exchequer.

02:43 Policy number three on the National World manifesto is for the government to fund university places

02:56 for doctors, nurses, and teachers.

02:59 Short-staffing across the NHS and the education sector is one of the biggest issues

03:06 hitting our public services at the moment.

03:09 Doctors and nurses are moving abroad after having been hit with sky high student fees,

03:14 which are coupled with vicious interest,

03:17 and the education system is struggling to fill teacher vacancies across the country.

03:23 While there is an NHS bursary scheme which funds places for students studying medicine,

03:28 we believe this does not go far enough and that the government should fund places at university

03:33 for doctors, teachers, and nurses.

03:37 They could then be required to work in the UK for 10 or 15 years, which would pay this back.

03:43 Places could be prioritised via means testing or academic aptitude,

03:49 but National World firmly believes that someone has to put their money where their mouth is

03:53 and help fund our struggling public services.

04:02 Point four on National World's manifesto is to nationalise the water companies.

04:07 The sewage scandal is a national disgrace and so far the government has shown absolutely no signs of getting a grip on it.

04:14 Water companies have been able to pollute our rivers, seas, and waterways with sewage and other pollution,

04:23 leaving Britons unable to swim in the sea or take part in water activities.

04:29 To make matters worse, the water companies have threatened to put up people's bills just to pay for their own mistakes,

04:38 all the while paying out huge dividends to their shareholders.

04:42 And in some cases, the government may need to step in to bail out companies like Thames Water as they're threatening to go bust.

04:52 The system has shown that clearly privatisation does not work with water companies as there's absolutely no competition between them.

05:02 We believe where possible, the government should seek to take water companies back into the public ownership,

05:09 like may soon have to happen with Thames Water.

05:19 The fifth and final point on National World's manifesto is to bring in a regulator for MPs and also ban second jobs.

05:28 Now in the last parliament, a litany of MPs have lost their seats after being disgraced and having a by-election called.

05:35 However, unless an MP commits a crime and a recall petition happens under these circumstances,

05:42 there is no way for voters to hold MPs to account and decide whether they're doing a good job or not.

05:48 There's nothing to stop MPs from not living in their constituencies full-time,

05:53 not holding constituency surgeries or even having an office in the constituency where they're supposed to represent their people.

06:01 At the moment, MPs can also spend more of their time on their lucrative second jobs instead of working hard for their constituents.

06:09 So we want to bring in an Ofsted-style inspector who will give ratings to MPs

06:15 and then if they achieve a certain amount of bad ratings in a row,

06:19 their constituents will get the chance to sign a recall petition which could go through to a by-election.

06:25 We believe this would improve performance from MPs and on top of that,

06:30 we would also ban second jobs to stop business being able to get into fear with our democracy and politics.

06:38 What have you thought of National World's manifesto and what are the issues that matter to you this general election?

06:44 Get in touch with us at hello@nationalworld.com or via the National World website or app.

Election 2024: NationalWorld manifesto

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