2010 Liberal Democrats Manifesto
The Economy
Annual savings totaling £15bn, including scrapping ID cards and not renewing the Trident nuclear deterrent.
Cap pay rises at £400 for all public sector workers, initially for two years.
Banking levy to pay for the state support they have received. Break up banks into retail and investment sections.
Base business rates on site values rather than rental values. Small company relief to be automatic.
Flights to be taxed per-plane, rather than according to the number of passengers they carry.
Set up UK Infrastructure Bank offering stable long-term returns on savings and private finance. Encourage regional stock exchanges to help business access equity. Turn Northern Rock into a building society.
Minimum wage set at same level for all workers aged over 16 - except apprentices.
Replace council tax with local income tax [England only].
Schools & Families
· Replace national curriculum with "minimum curriculum entitlement" in state-funded schools and scale back tests at age 11. More freedom for school management [England only].
· Pupil premium of £2.5bn given to head teachers, aimed at disadvantaged children, which could allow average primary school to cut class size to 20 pupils [England only].
Early intervention to tackle misbehaviour. Special Educational Needs diagnostic assessments for all five-year-olds [England only].
Schools to get loans to improve energy-efficiency - paid back from energy savings [England only].
·
Independent
Educational Standards Authority to oversee and restore confidence in exams.
General Diploma to bring GCSEs, A-Levels and high quality vocational qualifications
together
[England only].
·
Reform
school league tables and give 14 to 19-year-olds right to go to college, rather
than school, if it suits them better
[England only].
· Phase out university tuition fees within six years. Scrap fees for final-year students immediately. Scrap target of 50% of people going to university [England only].
· Introduce shared parental leave from work - extended to 18 months over time - and right for fathers to attend ante-natal appointments. Right for grandparents to request flexible working.
Enforce publication of serious case reviews in child protection. [England only].
Support "panic" buttons on social networking sites.
Health
· Payments to health boards and GPs to be linked more directly to illness prevention measures [England only].
· Cut size of the Department of Health by half, abolishing or cutting budgets of quangos, scrapping Strategic Health Authorities and seeking to limit pay of top NHS managers to below level of prime minister [England only].
· Integrate health and social care, allow people to stay in homes for longer rather than going into hospital or residential care by limiting bureaucracy [England only].
· Scrap Labour's personal care at home and divert cash to give one week's respite for one million carers [England only].
· Prioritise dementia research, improve access to counselling for people with mental health problems [England only].
· Look into introduction of minimum alcohol pricing [England only], ban below-cost sales and review tax on drink.
· Local health boards to take over role of primary care trusts [in England] to allow local people more say over service provision.
Crime Justice Immigration
· Put 3,000 more police on the beat, paid for by spending cuts elsewhere. Direct election of police authorities with powers to sack chief constables [England and Wales only].
· Focus on treatment, rather than imprisonment, of drug addicts. Drug policy based on independent Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs advice.
·
Make
prisoners work, contributing from prison wages to compensation fund for
victims. As resources allow, increase number of hours prisoners spend in
education and training
[England and Wales].
·
Presumption
against short-term sentences of less than six months - replaced by rigorously
enforced community sentences - allowing cancellation of prison-building
programme
[England and Wales].
· Neighbourhood Justice Panels to get powers to decide punishments for anti-social behaviour. Introduce statutory Youth Service, encouraging local sector involvement [England and Wales].
· Make hospitals share non-confidential information with police to allow targeting of gun and knife crime hotspots [England and Wales].
· Immediately reintroduce exit checks at all ports and airports, set up National Border Force with police powers and introduce regional points-based system to ensure migrants only work where needed.
· Prioritise deportation efforts on criminals, people-traffickers and other high-priority cases. End deportations of refugees to countries where they face persecution, imprisonment, torture or execution.
Political Reform
· Introduce single transferrable vote system, cut number of MPs by 150 and introduce fixed-term parliaments.
· Replace House of Lords with smaller, fully-elected upper house. Introduce written constitution.
· Introduce voting rights from age 16. Give powers for electorate to sack MPs who break rules. Require all MPs, Lords and parliamentary candidates to pay UK tax.
· Introduce statutory register of lobbyists, changing Ministerial Code to ban ministers and officials from meeting MPs on issues where the MP is paid to lobby.
· Implement Calman Commission recommendations to give more power to the Scottish Parliament and turn Welsh Assembly into true parliament, with greater powers to pass laws.
· Review funding of Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish governments and "address status" of England within UK.
Personal Finance- what is in it for you.
· Scrap compulsory retirement ages. State pension to rise in line with earnings, by 2.5% per year or in line with the Retail Price Index measure of inflation - whichever is highest.
· Tax relief on pensions only at the basic rate, with capital gains taxed the same way as income.
· New powers for HM Revenue and Customs to ensure properties cannot avoid stamp duty if they are put into an offshore trust.
· Commission independent review of public sector pensions, with aim of ensuring they are "sustainable and affordable" in long-term.
· More flexibility to access personal pension fund early, to help in times of financial hardship.
· Winter fuel payments delayed until age 65 but extended to severely disabled people.
· Year-long "Eco Cash-Back" scheme to offer £400 to install double glazing, replace an old boiler, or install micro-generation
· Change energy tariffs so first, "essential" use of energy is cheapest.
Other Areas
· Increased pay for members of the armed forces - at least equivalent to those on starting salaries in the emergency services.
· Split up Royal Mail and Post Office, keeping latter in public ownership. Sell off 49% of Royal Mail, dividing rest between government and employee trust.
· Block new coal-fired power stations, unless accompanied by highest level of carbon capture and storage and reject new generation of nuclear power.
· Reform regional development agencies, transferring more power over economic development to councils [England only].
· Review public sector value for money based on National Audit Office and Commons Public Accounts Committee findings.
· Invest £400 million in refurbishing shipyards so they can manufacture offshore wind turbines and other marine renewable energy equipment.
· Grants or cheap loans for renovations to bring 250,000 empty homes back into use [England only].
· Flexible working extended to all employees. Introduce name-blind job application forms to reduce sex and race discrimination in employment, initially companies with more than 100 employees.
· Cancel plans for a third runway at Heathrow and other airport expansion in south-east England. Tighter regulation on vehicle exhausts. End "hidden" charges in airline pricing.
· £140m bus scrappage scheme to help firms replace polluting vehicles. Reopen regional rail lines, paid for by cutting roads budget [England only].
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