The Lobby Group

The LGO manifesto on the constitution will be developed below.  

Suggestions for new points and debate about existing ones is encouraged. The list will be periodically updated according to the consensus view.

As a starting point the following baseline suggestions for debate are offered.

LGO MANIFESTO – THE CONSTITUTION AND CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS

The LGO , following debate recommends the following consensus of constitutional change to be adopted at this point in time:

No.1

The sum total of all elected politicians (Westminster and local bodies) to be reduced by 30%.

No.2

Upon the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, the Royal Family is to become the ceremonial head only of the UK and the Commonwealth. An office of  an elected president is to be established to be elected mid parliamentary term.

Note this does not appear popular and will be removed if no support is shown soon.

No.3

Radical reform of the House of Lords is proposed.  House of Lords appointees must obtain  a 2/3rds majority recommendation from the Commons to enter. The following categories of experience are to be filled in the House of Lords expressed as a percentage of total available seats in the Lords.

- legal background  15%

- Financial background 15%

- Armed forces 10%

- Clergy 15% (spread accross all religions)

- Politics  15%

- Science and Engineering 17.5%

- The arts / special recommendations 12.5%

House of Lords appointees can be de-selected at any time by a simple majority in the House of Lords and require re-appointing by the commons after a maximum 10 years service. life peers will be abolished.

No.4

 Suitable and secure accomodation is to be purpose built in London for all politicians who live outside orf reasonable commuter distance. No expenses for second homes will be permitted.

No.5

All politicians administrative staff are to be provided by the Civil Service to a set budget depending on the office held and will not be funded by expenses claims.

No6.

A system of proportional representation or a preference system is to be introduced for all elections….TBC

N07.

Only ministers whom have served in the armed forces are allowed to take the position of secretary for defence.

No.8

Undertake a review of all the honours bestowed in the last 15 years. If you are a knight of the realm and have not been a selfless servant to society or provided some great innovation they should be stripped of all honours. Honours should mean something to aspire to in terms of a descent moral code and a role model.  How can Sir Fred Goodwin and numerous knights of the realm in the boardrooms of the banks and elsewhere  others be held up as model citizens?

Hopefully that will be enough to get your teeth into..

Got any suggestions ?

Lets start the Debate.

LGO

General policy aim to become as self sufficient in energy as reasonably possible using renewable resources and Nuclear energy ? within our own Borders.

Must be something better than this?

This is the area to create and debate  policy ideas with a view to dealing with the ineviatable existence of long term unemployment in an increasingly efficient and mechanised society.

 No.1

 Land is to be set aside where the long term unemployed can choose to produce thier own food either individually or as a collective, for their own consumption or to sell as they wish or as a Kibbutz type principle. Note this is not meant to be demeaning but to give a sense of worth back to individuals and give them something productive to do which they will directly benefit from.

No.2

 Honest debate is required to determine measures to deal with the increasing mechanisation of society which means that it is not reasonable, practical or desirable to aspire to the whole population of working age to work for 40 hours a week for 47 weeks a year in order to produce more and more goods and services we dont actually need more and more efficiently..ad infinitum !!. we should be looking for everyone to work fewer hours and live more sustainably.

No.3

Break up local councils into much smaller more local bodies (more like parish councils) for the people to feel a genuine connection with their community and have a direct influence over it.

Join the debate.

Photo credit MAURICIO LIMA/AFP/Getty Images

This is the location to create and debate 10 potential policies to ensure a fair and efficient system of financial management.

No.1

 The instatement of Glass – Steagal as a guiding principle for the banking sector.

No.2

 Nationalisation of all major banks indebted to the tax payer for their survival. Only small banks, credit unions and mutual building societies should be allowed to remain independent.

No.3

 Automatic and mandatory 10% interest on all invoices outstanding over 60 Days to stop large corporations warping the credit market (Sainsbury / Tesco etc) for their gain

No.4

50% of the board of directors of  the regulatory body for the financial industry are to be drawn from business outside the banking industry. it is too important to society as a whole to only allow peop-le with abanking background to monitor the banks.

No.5

 Mandatory financial responsibility clause  in all banking industry executive contracts and a binding code of conduct like other critical professional services to society.

No 6.

A  cap on interest rates at around 10% to both protect the vulnerable in society and the banks and broader society from their own greed. Banks we own can borrow at 1% and lend that money back to us at 25% or more on credit cards and the like. The only institutions who may be allowed to use interest rates above 10% are credit unions registered as charities in order to fund the administration costs on very small loans of less than £250 to people struggling.

Join the debate …LGO

This is the location to create and debate potential policies to improve the current legal system.

1). Reform of legal language and the halting of the roll back of  trial by jury for complex financial cases and cases where jury protection is an issue. Public safety is increasingly being used as an excuse to roll back rights our ancestors spilt much blood to win for us. We owe it to them.

3). Longer court working hours to reduce remand prisoners time awaiting trial (judges enjoy short working hours and generous holidays).

4) A full review of the use of CCTV cameras e-mail scanning and similar technology.

5) Review of legislation which encourages the ‘compensation culture’..accidents don’t happen anymore, a crack in the pavement you trip over..claim against the council. a postman sprains his ankle on your drive ..claim against the property owner. This is a tremendously corrosive force in society driven by greed. We used to just dust ourselves off, curse our bad luck and keep our eyes open. Now everything is viewed as an opportinity to sue your fellow man for a buck.  the erosion of trust and social engegement this produces is terrible surely? Most people hate the compensation culture but nothing ever seems to get done about it.

5). removal of those silly wigs for goodness sake!

Got your own suggestion?

Post it, debate it, if it is supported it will be added.

Join the debate.

This is the area to create and debate  policy ideas in the area of foriegn policy and defence.

No.1

 All UK defence ministers must have served some time in the armed forces. Nobody should be able to put the lives of other at risk without having true empathy for thier task.

No.2

Abandon Trident and use the money for alternative advanced defence spending.  There are lots of non lethal options available now via high technology. Funny how they never seem to get developed much.

 Got a suggestion?

Post it, debate it, if it is supported it will be adopted and added

Join the debate

This area is a bit of a free for all on the above subject. No manifesto as such but maybe some interesting ideas may get floated.

 No.1

Does free will exist? Science tells us that any action we make is initiated in a part of our brain which comes before the conscious part of our brain. so in other words consciousness of an action happens after you have already done it.  So what is throwing the switches if you are not conscious of it?

No.2

Science has thrown up a lot of aparently counter rational but proven theories in the last 100 years or so. Is the ‘school of reeason’ in denial about what reason is now telling us about the way the universe words which, is often paradoxical and …well…irrational ! ( see the double slit experiment, quantum mechanics , Kurt Godels incompleteness theorem and the recent scietifically proven hardy’s paradox to really bake your noodle).

N0.3

It is a proven scientific fact that the moon (La Lune / lunatic etc) influences human bevavior. There would therefore appear to potentially be some scientific bais to astrology? Astrology was based on the ancients looking at the stars and noticing links between behaviour and their position, were they delusional..or simply apply reason without our modern day pre-disposition to dismiss it as hocus pocus. Should we be worried when the mayan calendar suggests some huge change in the world in 2012? The mayan calender has been shown to be an extrmely accurate predictor of the movement of the stars and the planets..not the work of randon crazies and witch doctors modern doctrine would have us believe.

N04. Does Alchemy exist?  You could argue it is already  here when central banks print money they realise the alchemists dream..but were these guys harmless romantics as is often portrayed?

see the link below to  see an interesting point of view on this.

http://www.thenewnewjerusalem.lsaweb.net/downloads/Chapter1.pdf

Join the debate

Sunrise at sea

The Lobby Group Org announces the commencement of  the system upgrade project.

As a non political organisation comprising various eclectic individuals, who were first introduced to each other in cyberspace, this project is strictly outside any self interested party, be it political, financial, corporate, media or philosophical.

Debate will initially be facilitated by using a series of subject headings and anyone is welcome to debate the contents of the headings. Posts will be updated periodically to contain the consensus of opinion debated within them with the intention of forming a coherent manifesto. This can be, and should be, challenged and debated at any time.

The Lobby Group administrators-persons who are drawn from different walks of life- will try to be as impartial as possible in editing the manifesto.

This final manifesto will then be promoted and publicised for use (in whole or partial form) by existing political parties or for use by a new party, formed outside of the Lobby Group.

The Lobby Group Org is commited to maintaining a non partisan position and will act as a facilitator to debate of issues outside of the self interested incumbent political, financial and media elite whom have a vested self interest in maintaining the status quo.

It is intended if we can get enough support to take the debate out of cyberspace and into our local pubs, to support them, learn to live and communicate outside of cyberspace again and hey..who knows we may even make some real friends and enjoy it.

Join the debate..this can not happen without participation.

Here is a taster below of why people are getting involved with this:

The global economic model is reliant on continual growth to keep people in work.

Continual growth is no longer possible because there are too many people on the planet who want to consume like the USA, so when we try to grow now we immediately hit the buffers of commodities availability and prices (remember crude at $150 a barrel, record steel prices, copper prices etc etc etc etc). That is one major factor that facilitated the crash. 

There are not enough resources for the world to continue to grow..so we cant..so the global economic model is busted and needs to change to a throughput model not an eternal consumption and growth model.

That is a huge change and is not in the interests of the incumbent financial institutions and large corporations in particular whom have become incredibly powerful under the current economic system and often fund political parties and actively lobby them constantly, they have the resources to do so. George Bush was a huge friend of Big business, all his policies on energy and foreign policy reflected that. They would rather stay extraordinarily rich and have huge influence than do the right thing and are happy to keep the populous in the dark. Pretty crappy really.

Leading governments and banks are not even talking about a change to a throughput economy (e.g. through a much more sophisticated VAT system and a vastly simplified income tax system). They are trying to reinstate the existing ‘Chicago school of economics’ consumption and growth model as described above through a combination of denial and greed the external influence of big business on the incumbent political parties.

The only logical long term solution to resolve the current unsustainable state of affairs is for everyone to work less and be happy with less in a throughput economic model not a consumer / consumption economic model. That does not mean our lives need be any less fulfilling..probably the opposite.

E.g. under a throughput model a family can save to buy a gas guzzling fancy car if that is what turns then on, it is their choice but the VAT on that would be 70% (say) as a reflection of its use of non renewable resources and climate damage, alternatively they could buy a wind turbine for their house, the VAT on that would be minus 70% say (a discount). The whole economy / tax system would run on those lines in order to keep the global model in balance, you would be rewarded in your pay packet and consume on the basis of the value the activity has to society as a whole. Isnt that supposed to be the point of taxation?

It is a massive change and in a global economy all the world economies would have to sign up to it simultaneously for it to work….no good having 70% VAT here if they have 10% in France. A good realistec starting point however may be for countries to start to become self sufficient within their own borders at least for their basic needs.

We have the technology now such that we do not need to spend 75% of our time in the fields just to feed ourselves. The technology and mechanisation dividend has not been passed on to the majority in the form of a reasonable standard of living and more time with their families and friends.

Instead we are culturally driven ever on to ‘desire more stuff’ and work hard to get ‘more stuff’. Usually the ‘stuff’ does not make us happy and the wealth generated by that system gets concentrated within a growing number of ‘super rich’ (was it not ever so?). Billions of people worldwide with wide eyes fixed upon the living standards in the west are hoping to jump onto this consumer bandwagon where we throw away 30% of all the food we buy comprise 10% of the world population but consume 70% of the energy.

Should we be surprised that the economic wheels have fallen off?

 I could be totally wrong of course….as I am not a high flying Harvard trained economist………what do I know…..

 Join the debate.