The British General Election 2005 part 3 - The Liberal Democrats' manifesto

Written by Jon Downs
Published April 09, 2005
page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6


On to law and order. The first proposal to catch my eye is the scrapping of Labour's ID card scheme. I know, the Conservatives say they'll do this too, but it's reassuring to see both parties have realised the stupidity associated with such a scheme. Or, at least, have decided to follow the sway of popular opinion that is against it. For the record, as I mentioned when I went through the Conservatives' manifesto, I am against the ID card scheme, as I view it as an unnecessary and essentially flawed idea; it would further restrict the law-abiding, whilst having little effect on the likes of terrorists who'll still find ways to circumvent it, and all at the expense of the law-abiding. There's talk of more education for prisoners. This I like, as even if the statistics they give are a little skewed (4 out of 5 prisoners are functionally illiterate and over half of prisoners go on to re-offend after their release) it has been shown that if you give prisoners an education that can help them get a good job, and on the right side of the law, on release, they are a whole lot less likely to reoffend.

Their ideas for drugs are interesting. They have ideas for helping addicts to kick the habit, tougher treatment of career drug dealers, but legalisation of cannabis (both ownership and cultivation) for personal use and social supply. There's no definition of "social supply" given but I suspect it means if someone were to grow cannabis, and just share it with friends for cost, or free, as opposed to growing fields of the stuff to sell at a profit. It's not full-on legalisation, as career dealers would still be prosecuted, but the police would no longer have to spend any time and resources on catching personal users of the stuff. It's a good compromise, I think, unfortunately they don't seem to be making much of it, probably scared that labour and the conservatives would demonize such an idea and claim it's something it isn't. Nevermind eh?


The environment is the next document. As I already mentioned earlier, their idea is to make it easier and more attractive for homeowners to have green energy generators of their own to help power their houses and two-way electricity meters to allow surplus power produced to be sold back to the grid. This I view as A Good Idea. Things like wind turbines still have a way to go before the tiny versions suitable for home owners (they may look large but they're tiny compared to the huge ones used in wind farms) are a real investment money-wise. But they are an investment environment-wise. And combined with other ways of reducing pollution, they could go a long way towards reducing the damage we're doing to the environment.
They want to reform car taxing so that owners of less polluting vehicles pay less vehicle tax, and those with more polluting vehicles pay more tax. Fair enough on that. There's mention of the railways; both the mess the Conservatives left them in, and the little-to-no improvement that has come about under Labour. I'm not sure if their suggestion to improve things would work, but they really ought to be making much more of an issue over this.
There's mention of improving energy efficiency, and making businesses more responsible for the environmental impact they have (and making improvements in that area). Much like the Conservatives, they say they won't allow GM crops unless they know they're safe for the environment, and they want detailed labelling of food and easy traceability, to give greater power to the consumer.

page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
Keep reading for information and comments on this article, and add some feedback of your own!
The British General Election 2005 part 3 - The Liberal Democrats' manifesto
Published: April 09, 2005
Type:
Section: Politics
Writer: Jon Downs
Jon Downs's BC Writer page
Jon Downs's personal site
Spread the Word
Like this article?
Email this
Submit to del.icio.us Save to del.icio.us
RSS Feeds
All RSS Feeds (240+)
Comments on this article
BC articles by Jon Downs
All Politics Articles
All BC articles
All BC Comments

Comments

#1 — April 9, 2005 @ 20:02PM — Alan [URL]

There's mention of their want to change our voting system to one of proportional representation. Although now they seem to be calling it the Single Transferable Vote.

STV is a fairly well-known system of ensuring fair representation. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_transferable_vote

#2 — April 10, 2005 @ 08:06AM — jadester [URL]

aha, that explains it better. The thing is, before, whenever I've heard the lib dems mention it, they just called it proportional representation.

Want comments emailed to you? No spam, promise! Address:

Add your comment, speak your mind

(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/27936)

Personal attacks are not allowed. Please read our comment policy.





Remember Name/URL?

Please preview your comment!

Fresh
Articles
Fresh
Comments