The Common Good Party’s policies

When interviewed by the Birmingham Mail, Northfield’s Dick Rodgers (left) said:

“For me, participating in the political process isn’t about winning, it’s about getting my ideas across to the public . . . I’m trying to do something different, I’m trying to find an outlet for my ideas. What is needed in this country is a challenge. A way is needed of seeing Britain as having a collective role in the modern world so that each person could see themselves as part of a team that is achieving something. If we all play a part in that project then the country would be much easier to govern.

“If you look at Britain during the last war, there was a widespread perception that everybody was playing a specific role in a common mission and people were willing to accept that role – even if their own role wasn’t particularly glamorous or substantial. And I think that’s the sort of ethos we should be looking for today. I don’t think that electoral success in itself is essential for what I’m trying to do.”

The nine policies – and note this week’s news that the fourth is being implemented in Wales

1. Turn back the tide of privatisation to have a nation of people keen to work, inspired by the honour of public service and because they want our whole national project” to succeed. With a shared enlivening spirit, things will start to work.
2. Make the nation’s money the property of the nation not of the banks. Today’s system hurts people, makes houses unaffordable and starves industry of investment.
3. Establish the NHS on a public service model not a commercial one. Crucially, true to Bevan’s original vision, include elderly care within the NHS.
4. Nationalise the railway, modernise it, cut the fares.
5. Abolish student fees.
6. Set up elected regional government for the regions of England – ie the EU constituencies.
7. Take infrastructure into public ownership, especially tidal power generation.
8. Have a lively industrial policy eliminating the last 30 years’ negative balance of trade.
9. Use our influence to nurture a fairer world system.

Trending: post-Covid-19, the desire for unity and beneficial change.

 

 

 

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Elite stranglehold on Britain – unbreakable?

As Steve Beauchampé writes in the Birmingham Press and Political Concern, generations of an elite have ruled this nation (with a few intermissions) for as long as anyone can remember, due to a rigged electoral system.

Their dual achievements:

• comfortable tax arrangements for the few, a political/corporate nexus which ensures highly paid and nominal duties for all in the inner circle
• vast military expenditure bestowed on the arms industry, as rising numbers of the population survive in relative poverty, wait in hospital corridors, receive a sub-standard education and depend on handouts to eke out their existence.

Direction of travel

Beauchampé: “(The) economy is increasingly kept afloat by the economic support of China . . . The modern high-rise residential blocks that have sprung up throughout the capital may give the impression of a modern, flourishing economy, but look closely and you will see that many are all but empty, whilst homelessness and a reliance on subsistence level housing grows . . . “He notes that surveillance is at an historic high with spy cameras, and even microphones installed in many public places -describing the state’s ability to track the population and follow their activities and conversations as ‘frightening’. . .

The elite stranglehold could be broken

OB’s editor agrees with many that electoral reform is a priority for beneficial change – but even under the rigged ‘first past the post’ system, if the weary mass of people (Brenda of Bristol)  saw the true situation they would vote for the candidate with a credible track record who would be most likely to work for the common good.