Manifesto Mashup

Highlighting the best policies from the Labour and Green Party manifestos for the UK General Election 2015

After months of deliberation on whether to vote Labour or Green, filling out all the quizzes that I could find, I sat down with the final versions of their manifestos. This is what I found…

The Labour Party has taken a long hard look at the workings of the country since losing power in 2010, and put together a set of fully costed policies that will steer the country towards positive improvements across all aspects of policy, over the course of the next Parliament.

Whilst the policies are challenging, and much of the devil will be in the detail in terms of achieving results, five years from now, the country will look and feel much the same as it did before the economic downturn.

The Green Party, on the other hand, has taken a logical, evidence-based approach from the foundations upwards. Their manifesto provides a holistic and coherent vision for the future of the country, setting out principles that will remain relevant for decades to come, and providing a framework for future policies and decisions.

Whilst there is much uncertainty around a number of their more ambitious proposals, they have taken a measured approach towards the next Parliament, with a view to setting the trains in motion to usher in an historic new era for the country over the longer term.

Below, as well as drawing together the policies from each party that I believe will make a real positive difference, I have highlighted particularly thoughtful policies in bold. Spoiler: the majority of these are attributable to the Green Party!

Economy and national budgeting

Labour Party

• Building a long-term investment culture in the private and public sectors.
• All of our commitments will be paid for by reducing spending elsewhere or by raising extra revenue.
• We will ask those with incomes over £150,000 a year to contribute a little more through a 50p rate of tax.
• We will invest to prevent social problems rather than waste money reacting to them. And we will use digital technology to create a more responsive, devolved, and less costly system of government.
• We will create a fairer tax system, helping those on middle and lower incomes by introducing a lower 10p starting rate of tax, paid for by ending the Conservatives’ Marriage Tax Allowance.
• British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies will be required to produce publicly available registries of the real owners of companies based there.
• We will carry out an immediate review into the culture and practices of HMRC so that everyone follows the same rules and we increase the rigour of the tax system. And we will abolish non-dom status so that all those who make the UK their home pay tax in the same way as the rest of us.

Green Party

• Introduce a wealth tax of 2% a year on the top 1% to raise about £25 billion a year by the end of the Parliament. We accept that such a tax would need to be phased in gradually and that the potential yield is uncertain. We would tie the yield on the wealth tax to our proposals to lower employers’ National Insurance; to the extent that revenues from the wealth tax grow, employers’ National Insurance will be reduced.
• Begin a major ecological shift in the taxation of companies by removing disincentives to employ people. Specifically we would reduce employers’ National Insurance contributions by the same amount as the yield from the wealth tax above. In the long run this will remove £25 billion a year from a tax on jobs, enabling the tax to be reduced from 13.8% of pay to around 8%.
• Fundamentally reform inheritance tax and turn it into an accessions tax. At present, inheritance tax is one of the easiest taxes to both avoid and evade, and the very rich usually find ways of paying very little. We would make the level of the tax depend on the wealth of the recipient, not the donor, so that all bequests to individual recipients who have less than £200,000 would be tax free. This would encourage people to spread their wealth more widely.
• Move towards creating all national currency through a national monetary authority, answerable to Parliament. The power to
  create money must be taken out of the hands of private banks.
• Amend company law to ensure that medium and large companies take account of and report on the environmental and social
  impact of their activities.
• Introduce a Robin Hood tax of 0.1% on transactions in bonds and equities and 0.01% on derivatives, replacing the existing stamp duty on share transactions. This would raise up to £20 billion a year later in the Parliament and would help stabilise financial markets.
• Not cap what local authorities are allowed to raise in Council Tax, allow local councils to conduct revaluations and to set their own multiplier rates, provided they are more progressive, and not require a Council Tax referendum when they do so.
• Ensure that grant funding is sufficient to pay for all statutory services that councils are required to provide. To fund discretionary activities, we would allow local authorities to set local business rates, and then distribute the whole of Council Tax receipts and Business Rate receipts between local authorities on a basis decided by a Commission independent of central government set up by local authorities themselves.

Infrastructure

Labour Party

• We will continue to support the construction of High Speed Two, but keep costs down, and take action to improve and expand rail links across the North to boost its regional economies.
• We will legislate so that a public sector operator is allowed to take on lines and challenge the private train operating companies on a level playing field.
• Labour will ensure that all parts of the country benefit from affordable, high speed broadband by the end of the Parliament. We will work with the industry and the regulator to maximise private sector investment and deliver the mobile infrastructure needed to extend coverage and reduce ‘not spots’, including in areas of market failure.
• Following the Davies Review, we will make a swift decision on expanding airport capacity in London and the South East, balancing the need for growth and the environmental impact.

Green Party

• Pedestrian and cyclist fatalities and serious injuries when involved in collisions with lorries are predictable, preventable and unacceptable. The technology already exists and is in use in several countries and
  consists of a mixture of in-cab screens linked to cameras, multiple wing mirrors and physical modification to prevent people being dragged under the vehicle. Lorries already in use must be retro-fitted with the same equipment and lorries not so equipped will not be allowed into our towns and cities.

Media and governance

Labour Party

• [Not examined in detail]
• Labour will take steps to protect the principle of media plurality, so that no media outlet can get too big, including updating our rules for the 21st century media environment.

Green Party

• Ensure that all lobbying, and in particular corporate lobbying, is registered and fully disclosed, including lobbying of elected
  politicians and of civil servants.
• Bring in a fair system of state funding for political parties so there’s no longer a need for reliance on private and trade union donations, which can have a corrupting effect.
• Surveillance should be proportionate, necessary, effective and within the rule of law, with independent judicial approval and genuine parliamentary oversight.
• Oppose the privatisation of data held by the government that should be open to all, such as the Postcode Address File, or by companies providing public services, such as data on the progress of buses that can be used by Smartphone apps to predict waiting times.
• Limit the censoring or takedown of content or activity to exceptional circumstances, clearly set out within a comprehensive legal framework.
• Tighten the rules on cross-media ownership and ensure that no individual or company owns more than 20% of a media market.

Environment

Labour Party

• We will work to make Britain a world leader in low carbon technologies over the next decade, creating a million additional green jobs.
• Ambitious domestic carbon reduction targets, including a legal target to remove the carbon from our electricity supply by 2030.
• We will create an Energy Security Board to plan and deliver the energy mix we need, including renewables, nuclear, green gas, carbon capture and storage, and clean coal.
• For onshore unconventional oil and gas, we will establish a robust environmental and regulatory regime before extraction can take place.

Green Party

• Encourage eating less and better meat.
• Use taxation and regulation to ensure that products and packaging are designed with a view to what happens to them when they stop being useful and packaging reduced. We want waste designed out and fixing things– making them last — designed in.
• Seek to reform the Common Agricultural Policy and reform our national agri-environment schemes to prioritise and support farmers who farm sustainably and enhance biodiversity on farmed land with a variety of farming styles, methods and scales.
• Work to reduce food imports and increase home and local food production where feasible.
• Help hospitals and schools and other food buyers in the public sector to lead the way in buying sustainable products, and encourage children to be involved in growing and cooking food.
• Improved food labelling and better traceability of our food.
• End fossil fuel industry tax breaks, phase out other harmful fossil fuel subsidies (domestic and international) and use the money saved to help fund other parts of our energy programme.
• Work with financial institutions, local councils and others to encourage divestment from fossil fuels and develop alternative investment in efficiency and renewables programmes.
• Levy eco-taxes on non-renewables or pollutants, in particular pesticides, organo-chlorines, nitrogen and artificial fertilisers and
  phosphates, raising £1 billion by 2020.
• Introduce new taxes on the use of water by businesses and on waste heat from power stations, raising £3 billion by 2020.

Business and employment

Labour Party

• We will reform corporate governance to protect our leading firms from the pressure to put tomorrow’s share price before long-term growth potential.
• We will support employers to pay more by using government procurement to promote the Living Wage, alongside wider social impact considerations.
• Our Make Work Pay contracts will give tax rebates to businesses who sign up to paying the Living Wage in the first year of a Labour Government.
• Publicly listed companies will be required to report on whether or not they pay the Living Wage.
• We will make sure employees have a voice when executive pay is set by requiring employee representation on remuneration committees.
• We will consider how to support employee buy-outs when businesses are being sold.
• We will safeguard the public interest in the Royal Mail, supporting the creation of a staff-led trust for the employee share, and keeping the remaining 30 per cent in public ownership.
• We will abolish the Government’s employment tribunal fee system as part of wider reforms to make sure that affordability is not a barrier to workers having proper access to justice, employers get a quicker resolution, and the costs to the tax payer do not rise.

Green Party

• Introduce a maximum pay ratio of 10:1 between the best paid and the worst paid in every organisation.
• Improve the competitive position of small firms, maintaining corporation tax for small firms at 20% while raising that for larger firms to 30%.
• Increase the minimum wage so that it is a living wage.
• Give workers a greater say in the running of their companies, including employee-elected directors in medium and larger companies.
• Reduce the tax on conviviality and help small businesses in the tourism and restaurant businesses by lowering VAT to the reduced rate (5%)for cooked food, entertainment and accommodation.

Housing

Labour Party

• For those on low incomes, we will make 200,000 homes warm every year, delivered street-by-street by local authorities and community organisations. Privately rented properties will have to meet a decency standard, bringing warmth to a further three million homes.

Green Party

• Reform Council Tax by asking people in bigger homes to pay more and those in smaller ones less, and adding two additional bands at the top for the biggest homes worth more than around £2 million and £4.5 million. Under these proposals two-thirds of people would pay less, with the more substantial increases for those in homes worth more than £1 million. Overall this would be revenue neutral.
• Devolve Housing Benefit budgets to councils, so they can design packages that improve access to housing in their local market and enable them to provide more council housing.
• Introduce the right to rent (where local councils step in to help those in difficulty with their mortgage to rent their home).
• End mass council house sales and the Right to Buy at a discounted price.
• Change the definition of affordable rented housing to depend on local median incomes and not on local market rents.
• Introduce a mandatory licensing scheme for landlords.

Education

Labour Party

• [Not examined in detail]

Green Party

• Action to reduce teacher workload and introduce professional pay levels for all teachers.
• An increase in outdoor education and physical activity so children establish an early and strong relationship with their local environment.
• We will phase out public funding of schools run by religious organisations. Schools may teach about religions, but should not
  encourage adherence to any particular religious beliefs.
• Free nutritious lunches, with local and GM-free ingredients, and children involved in growing, preparing and cooking food where
  possible.
• An end to the trend whereby parents have to buy as extras equipment needed at school or for participation on expensive school trips.
• Restoring access to lifelong learning by supporting mature students and their families. We will reverse the 20-year programme of dismantling the lifelong learning sector.

Health and social care

Labour Party

• [Not examined in detail]
• We will bring together services for physical health, mental health and social care into a single system built around the individual.
• Expanding free childcare from 15 to 25 hours for working parents of three and four-year-olds, while doubling paid paternity leave for fathers.

Green Party

• Increase the current investment in young people’s services, providing a comprehensive and inclusive youth service, including youth clubs, youth councils and non-curricular education and training.
• Provide free social care funded by taxation on the same basis as the NHS.
• Adopt an evidence-based approach to the step-by-step regulation, starting with cannabis, of the drugs currently banned under the Misuse of Drugs Act as well as ‘legal highs’, with a view to introducing a system that reduces harms and brings the market under state control as a potential tax revenue generator. A Royal Commission or similar body would be established to review currently controlled drug classifications, within a legalised environment of drug use.
• Use quantitative data to better understand how the system is working, not to set targets, and to see them as a route to continuously improving patient care, not an end in themselves.
• Make equality and diversity lessons mandatory in all schools, from the first year of primary education onwards, to combat all forms of prejudice and bullying, to promote understanding and acceptance of difference and to ensure community cohesion.
• Provide mandatory HIV, sex and relationship education– age appropriate and LGBTIQ inclusive — in all schools from primary level
  onwards.
• Follow Scotland’s lead and make it illegal to stop nursing mothers feeding their babies in a public place.
• Integrate health and care services so as to look after carers as well as those they care for.
• Ensure that the UK’s child protection systems are effective at tackling child neglect and abuse early on, including changing the law so that emotional abuse is treated on a par with physical abuse and giving police and child protection professionals clear guidance to help them work effectively.
• National investment in evidence-based parenting programmes in order to improve the life chances of children and the wellbeing of families, and a free and universal early education and childcare service should be introduced.
• Treat drug addiction as a health problem rather than a crime, making drugs policy the responsibility of the Department of Health in order to ensure that resources are targeted at supporting, not punishing, drug users.
• Provide the right to an assisted death within a rigorous framework of regulation and in the context of the availability of the
  highest level of palliative care.
• Place the quality of patient care, especially patient safety, at the heart of the system. Reducing costs would not be the primary driver of behaviour but would be the outcome of best practice.

Immigration and foreign policy

Labour Party

• Commitment to universal human rights will be at the heart of our foreign policy across the world.
• We will establish a Centre for Universal Health Coverage to provide the support, encouragement, and global partnerships needed to help countries provide free healthcare.
• One of our first acts in government will be to conduct a wide-ranging review of Britain’s place in the world and how we can best uphold our values and the national interest.
• Everyone who works with the public in our public services must be able to speak English.
• We will work in fragile and conflict-affected states to improve the lives of those affected by violence, prioritising the protection and education of women and children.
• We will rebalance the [international development] budget to focus funding on the world’s poorest countries.
• We will work with companies to ensure they have sustainable supply chains that are free from slavery, treat their workers fairly, and pay taxes where they are due.
• We will re-engage with our European allies to protect our national interest after five years of Britain being sidelined in Europe and isolated abroad.
• We remain committed to a comprehensive two-state solution — a secure Israel alongside a viable and independent state of Palestine.
• We will appoint an International LGBT Rights Envoy to promote respect for the human rights of LGBT people, and work towards the decriminalisation of homosexuality worldwide.

Green Party

• Allowing countries that currently emit very little carbon dioxide to increase their emissions, using their energy resources to reduce poverty and improve their people’s well-being. Requiring all other countries to reduce their emissions to a small per capita limit, fixed to be consistent with a global limit that keeps temperature rises below 2 degrees C. Recognising the special responsibility of countries such as the UK that have become wealthy from 200 years of fossil-fuel-based industrialisation. Some of this wealth will need to be shared with poorer countries that have left their fossil fuels in the ground and their forests still standing.
• Seek negotiated settlements to a range of conflicts around the world and block sales of weapons and military equipment that increase misery and death for non-combatants and have particularly destructive impacts on vulnerable peoples, notably women and children.
• Enhance international security and non-proliferation by initiating and/or joining negotiations on a universally applicable nuclear
  abolition treaty to prohibit the use, deployment, development, production, stockpiling and transfer of nuclear weapons and
  requiring their complete elimination.
• Not simply accept [migrants] just because they are rich. The London housing market in particular has been gravely distorted by the
  number of rich migrants buying property, bidding up prices all along the housing chain. […] The arrival of a grandmother might well have no direct economic effect, but her contribution to family life may contribute hugely to our society.

Crime

Labour Party

• Putting in place tough new laws to reduce violence against women and child sexual exploitation.

Green Party

• [Not examined in detail]