If you were dictator of the UK

[Edie]

Say you suddenly became dictator of the UK for the next ten years. What would your first steps be in changing the country?

I’d give a Universal Income a go I think. Abolish other State assistance

Close tax loops, especially for multinationals. Although you might have to accept you’d drive significant investment away from Britain.

Invest in forward-thinking national infrastructure like improving railways, cycle lanes, renewable energy.

Positive discrimination to improve meritocracy in all/most areas of public life including law, medicine, government inc civil service.

Massive focus of preventative medicine and public health. Re open Sure Start. I may devolve this power to LynnDoyleCooper as he has some good ideas.

I’d also massively de-regulate education, making schools a lot more autonomous and teacher run and getting rid of the National Curriculum. The cost would be a lot more variability in quality mind you. Also widen education with a lot more vocational subjects like car mechanics, cooking/baking, sewing/embroidery/craft, electronics, plumbing, building etc from secondary onwards alongside core academic subjects.

I might get rid of all private vehicles from cities unless you have a disabled badge. We’d all get wet, but we’d soon toughen up and our health would massively improve.

Reinstate National Citizenship Service from 16-20. You can choose your area eg health, parks, services, care work etc. But you will work for the benefit of society for the National Wage for the first 2-4 years after leaving education.

What would your priorities be?

 

[Argonia]

Got my vote Edie

 

[platinumsage]

Got my vote Edie

I don’t think you get one. You either accept everything or join the armed resistance.

 

[A380]

Invade New Zealand

Build a giant 500 meter tall statue of one of my cats.

Invest 75% of GNP into a space programme and build a British Space Empire across the inner planets and Jovian satellites.

Bring back telex machines.

 

[IC3D]

I'd oppose all Edies edicts with a freeman of the land militia

 

[The39thStep]

Close universities, give the accommodation to the Council and citizens panels for best use, and replace universities with a Russian type correspondence course.

 

[DotCommunist]

Land reform. The landed gentry can't keep hogging it all, most of it can become commons. Get rid of almost all grouse shooting land, thats a load of shit. More forests. Build social housing on the southern golf courses, good social housing. Its a source of perturbation to me that money from the middle ages still holds more say than a democratic mandate, de facto anyway.

 

[Edie]

Land reform. The landed gentry can't keep hogging it all, most of it can become commons. Get rid of almost all grouse shooting land, thats a load of shit. More forests. Build social housing on the southern golf courses, good social housing. Its a source of perturbation to me that money from the middle ages still holds more say than a democratic mandate, de facto anyway.

Yes we are gonna need serious investment in good quality, green, affordable housing in well designed social communities.

 

[a_chap]

Say you suddenly became dictator of the UK for the next ten years. What would your first steps be in changing the country?

Step 1. get rid of the rule that limits my dictatorship to ten years. Now I'm dictator for life.

Step 2. ban professional football.

Step 3. there's no step 3 yet. After all I've got a lifetime to decide what to do next.

 

[Edie]

What are we gonna do about farming? I’ve only watched three episodes of Clarksons Farm so far so don’t feel quite qualified to say. Something about local, small, good animal free range conditions, and organic right?

Will we all starve tho? Will we ban imported food for the sake of the environment?

 

[a_chap]

Step 3. Shoot Clarkson and sell his farm

 

[pug]

I'd declare a state of emergency due to climate change, convene a group of scientists and other experts and do what they say.

 

[JuanTwoThree]

And let all men say what they will, so long as such are rulers as call the land theirs, upholding this particular propriety of mine and thine, the common people shall never have their liberty, nor the land be ever freed from troubles, oppressions, and complainings, by reason whereof the Creator of all things is continually provoked.

The man of the flesh judges it a righteous thing that some men who are cloathed with the objects of the earth, and so called rich men, whether it be got by right or wrong, should be magistrates to rule over the poor; and that the poor should be servants, nay, rather slaves, to the rich. But the spiritual man, which is Christ, doth judge according to the light of equity and reason, that all mankind ought to have a quiet subsistence and freedom to live upon earth; and that there should be no bondman nor beggar in all his holy mountain.

No man shall have any more land than he can labor himself or have others to labor with him in love, working together, and eating bread together.

 

[The39thStep]

I'd declare a state of emergency due to climate change, convene a group of scientists and other experts and do what they say.

 

[xenon]

Invade New Zealand

Build a giant 500 meter tall statue of one of my cats.

Invest 75% of GNP into a space programme and build a British Space Empire across the inner planets and Jovian satellites.

Bring back telex machines.

and giant killer robots with laser eyes, obviously.

 

[Maggot]

Massive programme of carbon-neutral council house building.
No more digging for oil and gas.
No new oil and gas power stations.
Introduce frequent flyer tax.
Subsidise electric vehicles, renewable energy, organic farms.
Clamp down on tax evasion.
Increase top rate of income tax.
Ban all mention of Christmas in advertising and marketing before December 1st.

 

[mojo pixy]

Maximum wage capped at at (say) 10x minimum wage.
Recommonisation of all common land inclosed since medieval times.
Only individuals and companies normally resident and/or tax-registered in the uk may own land or property here.
Criminalise "for-profit" ownership of residential properties and agricultural / forestry land (want to own it? Then live there).
Make littering / fly tipping a capital offence.

Comedy option,
New national anthem: Chaise Longue

 

[Saul Goodman]

Free drugs for everyone. Free broadband, free food, free travel, free everything. Just force the bank of England to keep printing free money for everyone, with zero inflation... Party central!!! And let the next dictator worry about it in 10 years time.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

I probably wouldn’t do anything, at heart I am a lazy bugger. Maybe make Pepperamis longer or something.

 

[platinumsage]

What are we gonna do about farming? I’ve only watched three episodes of Clarksons Farm so far so don’t feel quite qualified to say. Something about local, small, good animal free range conditions, and organic right?

Will we all starve tho? Will we ban imported food for the sake of the environment?

Make it mandatory. If everyone is farming all the land, there's bound to be enough nice cheap food.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Make it mandatory. If everyone is farming all the land, there's bound to be enough nice cheap food.

Works for North Korea

 

[Smokeandsteam]

Hang the rich from lampposts

Deport the professional middle class and replace them with working class migrants

Widen accessibility to the square sausage

 

[maomao]

Legalise all drugs except nicotine which I would ban.

 

[The39thStep]

Bring back Tiswas

 

[SpookyFrank]

Close universities, give the accommodation to the Council and citizens panels for best use, and replace universities with a Russian type correspondence course.

The last bit has already been done, pretty much.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Turn Buckingham Palace into a great block of social housing.

Build a fuck ton more social housing.

All Golf Courses to choose between being closed and left to rewild or thrown open to the public for 2 days a week. You can golf if you really fucking want but no more can you hog a vast tract of land for a tiny number of people to hit a small little ball arond. Kids should be able to play on the damn things, dogs walk on them.

 

[LDC]

What are we gonna do about farming? I’ve only watched three episodes of Clarksons Farm so far so don’t feel quite qualified to say. Something about local, small, good animal free range conditions, and organic right?

Will we all starve tho? Will we ban imported food for the sake of the environment?

All golf courses turned to allotments. For a start. Slowly wind down intensive animal farming and replace with mixed arable crops and small scale animal farming alongside that. Invest and develop in aquaculture. Grants for community orchards and growing projects. Government advertising campaign to eat UK grown and reared food, and slowly try and change the expectation that all foods are available all year. Project of massive reforestation of areas that were previously farmed, the youth can do a year of tree planting for that as an option for their national service if they want, and then reintroduction of beavers, wolves, etc.

 

[Saul Goodman]

Mandatory cooking lessons for everyone over 14 years of age. A fucked FEB = a week in the stocks.

 

[The39thStep]

Turn Buckingham Palace into a great block of social housing.

Build a fuck ton more social housing.

All Golf Courses to choose between being closed and left to rewild or thrown open to the public for 2 days a week. You can golf if you really fucking want but no more can you hog a vast tract of land for a tiny number of people to hit a small little ball arond. Kids should be able to play on the damn things, dogs walk on them.

There used to be a few municipal golf courses

 

[AmateurAgitator]

Reinstate National Citizenship Service from 16-20. You can choose your area eg health, parks, services, care work etc. But you will work for the benefit of society for the National Wage for the first 2-4 years after leaving education.

What would your priorities be?

Bring back nation service!

My priorities would be overthrowing the new totalitarian autocracy.

And absolute power corrupts absolutely so your priorities would be maintaining your own power and privilege by any means necessary for yourself and your new ruling class.