2010 Election proposals.

For the most part my candidacy will promote the Institute of Ideas' 21 pledges for progress as outlined below, to which I add -

• Full, meaningful and rewarding employment.

• An end to Carbon trading schemes and offsetting, promoting rather than curtailing development in underdeveloped countries and breaking out of constricting environmentalist schema in the UK and beyond.

• Decriminalising recreational drug use and ending all intrusive meddling in private affairs and lifestyle choices.

• Recognising that recent and ongoing warfaring by western leaders is much more about propping up their dubious authority,  right to rule over us and to cement their position at the top table of global affairs. On their own terms it has proven largely counterproductive and for those on the ground a disaster with no end in sight.

21 PLEDGES FOR PROGRESS 2010                

Policy ideas that would make candidates worth voting for; positions that voters should argue and campaign for.

Re FREEDOM

1. Repeal hate speech legislation, in the interests of free speech, with no ifs, no buts.
2. Repeal the UK's libel laws, in the interests of free speech, no ifs, no buts.
3. Stop bureaucratic CRB checks and vetting of adults who come into contact with children and vulnerable adults, in the interests of free association between generations and countering the climate of mistrust.
4. Repeal any equality legislation that interferes with the freedom of private organisations like churches and political parties to act on their beliefs, in the interests of free association.
5. Revoke unnecessary and nonsensical health and safety rules and guidelines in the interests of countering today's risk-averse, safety-first climate of fear.
6. Allow pubs and clubs the option of permitting smoking, and get rid of the new 'no drinking zones', in the interests of countering the over-regulation of public spaces.
7. Scrap the 'database state', including the ContactPoint database which holds information about every child in the country and the DNA database which includes details of criminal suspects without convictions, in the interests of civil liberties, the privacy of families and the principle that we are innocent until proven guilty.
8. Limit the police's power to detain people without charge to 24 hours rather than 28 days, in the interests of civil liberties and due process.
9. Declare an amnesty for all illegal immigrants presently in the UK, whether asylum seekers or economic migrants, in the interests of recognising the positive aspirations of those who seek to improve their lives by moving countries.
10. Open the borders, revoking all immigration controls, in the interests of the free movement of citizens.

Re CONSTITUTION

11. Get rid of police Tsars and unelected 'experts' from government decision-making in the interests of parliamentary sovereignty and democratic accountability.
12. Abolish the monarchy and the House of Lords in the interests of a fully elected legislature and executive.
13. Hold a referendum on the EU constitution and any subsequent treaties, in the interests of a national democratic mandate.

Re ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

14. Direct state expenditure into infrastructural projects such as power grids and telecommunications, increased facilities for road, rail and air travel, in the interests of productive economic growth.
15. Build new nuclear power stations across the country in the interests of ensuring we have more than sufficient energy to power a new round of economic growth.
16. Reduce the onerous regulation of new scientific and technological developments such as GM technology and biomedicine in the interests of increasing R&D and encouraging innovation.

Re PUBLIC SERVICES

17. Stop excessive centralisation and bureaucratic control of public services, enabling professionals to make judgements in the interests of those using the services rather than artificial targets.
18. Scrap the 'impact statement' demands on university research in the interests of valuing knowledge for its own sake and academic freedom from policy outcomes.
19. Support the arts financially, for their own sake, in the interests of liberating them from ever more prescriptive and politicised instrumental demands.
20. Direct state funding of health to biomedical research into cures, the latest drugs and equipment, rather than punitive campaigns to change individual behaviour, in the interests of public health and good cheer.
21. Direct state funding of schools into providing universal access to the highest standard of education in academic subjects, rather than politicised cross curricular themes like sustainability or citizenship, in the interests of passing on real knowledge to our children.