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THE RIGHT THING TO DO
The social democratic
consensus which has gripped Britain’s
traditional parties is set to be broken as the UK Independence Party widens
its policy position beyond its core European issue. Party Leader Nigel Farage MEP has
said "UKIP will be focusing in the
first instance on five planks of policy – Education, International Trade,
Immigration, Tax and Devolution – and would announce its detailed policies as
they were completed. He added that the first were nearing completion, and
would be announced over the coming weeks". “The traditional parties have
left voters with a Hobson’s choice between New Labour and Blue Labour:
authoritarian, centralised visions of a Britain which few would choose to
live in. “UKIP’s vision is for democratic choice to replace government
dictated choice, where local matters are resolved by local residents and
where consultation exercises are genuine and not a prelude to the imposition
of a pre-decided outcome. “UKIP has so far offered negative opposition to the
Westminster and Brussels
consensus: opposition to the EU, to ID cards, to war in Iraq. What we intend to do now is
to show a wider, more positive vision based on what our nation could achieve
if we replace the control freakery of Blair and Cameron with a more
libertarian ideal. “Our task is to provide real opposition by providing a
real alternative. It’s the right thing to do.”
INTRODUCTION
Unlike the Labour,
Conservative and Liberal Democrat Parties the UK Independence Party believes
in Britain
running its own affairs as a nation independent from the European Union ( EU
). Our Party has a clear sense of direction but has in the past lacked the
resources to develop policy in depth. The Party has matured and over the
coming year will roll out domestic policies in a number of fields, some of
which will address areas of policy recently abandoned by the Conservative
Party.
The UK Independence Party declares its belief in:
- parental choice, equality of opportunity, equal status of academic and
vocational abilities, and the freedom of schools to select pupils;
- the ability for our country to conduct our own international trade in the
British national interest;
- controlling the volume of immigration with common sense solutions;
- lower taxes in a greatly simplified system;
- solving what is known as the West Lothian Question, and to address a second
question: ‘The English Question’.
These points are expanded in what follows but do not amount to a manifesto.
They are signposts pointed in the direction the Party is headed in the domestic
policy field. Detailed policy papers will follow, and other policy subjects
will be addressed in due course.
EDUCATION
Education is a
legitimate public cost not an investment. It is not the case that,
economically (or in any other way), the more we have of it the better.
Training, on the other hand, is an investment and in general should be paid
for by those who expect dividends from it - that is, the employers of the
trained and the trained themselves.
- UKIP believes in facilitating quality education for all, regardless of
income, age or range of abilities, with a full and unashamed emphasis on the
3 Rs
- UKIP believes that the right of parents to select the schools their
children go to is an empty one unless schools are free to differ from one another.
To be free to differ, they need to be free to choose their pupils
- UKIP will increase the number of grammar schools
-UKIP
will provide education vouchers, which will allow parents to ‘buy a years education
at a school of their choice’ This will force up standards as no Headmaster
will want to receive a smaller budget.
- UKIP believes in giving equal status, esteem and resources to all forms of
schools from grammar schools to specialist schools.
-UKIP
will Provide Technical courses for Pupils who Leave school with grades not
quite high enough for University.
- We will create assisted places for children of parents with modest incomes
to attend fee-paying independent schools
- We shall encourage traditional apprenticeships
- UKIP will restore the integrity of university entrance criteria to reward
merit and drop the arbitrary 50% target
- UKIP will abolish tuition fees and will look to restore educational grants
over time
- Once reformed and restored, UKIP will not seek to micromanage education.
UKIP Education Policy
INTERNATIONAL TRADE POLICY
At the World Trade
Organisation ( WTO ), Britain is currently represented by the European
Commissioner for Trade, Peter Mandelson and, across the world, EU
representatives bypass the British government to conduct trade negotiations
in the interests of the EU:- interests which are not necessarily favourable
to Britain.
- UKIP will seek to restore United Kingdom control over its own trade policy
- UKIP will work to achieve preferential trade agreements for Commonwealth
and least developed countries
- UKIP will seek ‘Trade alongside Aid’ with the Third World
IMMIGRATION
Britain cannot
continue to accommodate immigration at its present net rate of a million
newcomers every three years Sir Andrew
Green - BBC TV Question Time - Jan 2006 ). The numbers of those permitted to
enter legally has been rising sharply as a result of the Eastern expansion of
the European Union. The Government predicted that some 13,000 Polish workers
would come to the UK when Poland joined
the EU in May 2004; Migration Watch puts that figure at 600,000 today. The
recent enlargement of the EU with Bulgaria
and Rumania
joining is likely to exacerbate the situation especially since Romanian gangs are believed to cause 80% of
Cashpoint crime as well as various other criminal acts. The Labour
Government’s untenable excuse is that we need large numbers of immigrant
workers. Recent research has proved that each immigrant benefits our country
by 4 pence per week. Only UKIP’s MEPs voted against enlargement and warned of
the likely outcome. Having taken Britain out of the EU, the UK
Independence Party would aim to introduce a ‘Common Sense Immigration’
policy. This policy would be to:
- Approach zero net immigration both by imposing far stricter limits on legal
immigrants and by taking control, at last, of the vexed problem of illegal
immigration
- Adopt a ‘points’ system for evaluating applications for work permits based
on an identified need for specific skills and other tests of suitability.
Applicants from EU countries to be treated in the same way as those from any
other country. Stricter control of residence rights granted because of family
connections
- Reinstate embarkation controls to check those entering and leaving Britain.
It is essential to keep proper records of those crossing our borders – the
Government has admitted it has little idea who is in the country
- Introduce ‘Britishness’ tests to encourage those settling here to acquire
knowledge of our language and culture and to assimilate fully into our
society
- Set our own criteria for determining those deemed to be refugees. No
refugee status to be considered for asylum seekers who arrived via some other
‘safe’ country
- Ensure all those entering Britain with the intention of staying to be made
subject to health checks for certain communicable diseases.
TAX
Current taxes are
unfair, complex and costly to administer - in fact it's hard to find anything
positive to say about Britain's
current tax regime. While future governments of whatever persuasion will
always need money to run the country - which means we will have to pay tax -
the UK Independence Party is giving its support to a much simpler and fairer
system of revenue collection which is business-friendly, results in virtually
everyone becoming better off and increases tax revenue in the medium to long
term. UKIP is proposing a ‘flat tax’ - a uniform rate on all income above
allowances and on companies with a gradual absorption of other taxes such as
tax on dividends, inheritance tax and capital gains taxes into the flat tax
system over a period of time. The experience in all cases where the Flat Tax has
been adopted, shows that tax revenue falls initially because the flat rate is
lower than average rate that it replaces, but revenue then rises after about
2 years as the reform stimulates economic activity and discourages evasion.
UKIP will
- Scrap Inheritance Tax
- Increase Personal allowances to £9000, Making
most taxpayers £1100 per year better off
- Scrap employees National Insurance (currently
10.1% of your earnings)
- Remove 4.5 Million of our poorest citizens from
paying tax altogether.
Advantages
Simplicity:-
- No multiple tax
bands, fewer allowances/exemptions.
- Compliance is easier; Income tax form would be much simpler- Often
accompanied by abolition of some types of tax e.g. dividend tax
Fairness:-
- Higher personal
allowance so the poorest pay no income tax at all
- Rich pay more tax, as tax evasion is less attractive
- Yet still progressive (thanks to allowance)
Prosperity:-
- Removes many
disincentives both to work and to save.
- Low rates attracts foreign business investment
Transparency:-
- Harder for
politicians to manipulate
- Easier for the electorate to understand
UKIP will look to reform local taxation to strengthen local democracy and
accountability and reduce central bureaucratic control. The Party will
examine local control of business rates and a local sales tax to replace VAT
and Central Grants.
UKIP
Tax policy
THE WAY WE ARE
GOVERNED:
The West Lothian and
English Questions – a consistent UK-wide policy - Broad Principles:
UKIP is the true party of the UK.
We believe that each part of the UK should be treated fairly and
equally, in terms of policy and representation, and that the present
structure has singularly failed to solve the ‘West Lothian Question’.
- National parliaments/assemblies should be retained or created - should that
be the continued wish of the people of those individual nations - but
regional government and regional chambers, particularly the English regional
chambers, be dismantled. However, all measures passed under devolved powers
by devolved bodies that would act to disadvantage one part of the UK over
another ( such as free tuition fees / dental fees / free nursing care ) will
be made subject to referral to UK Westminster Government for final approval.
Devolved powers would be altered accordingly.
- UKIP is the true party of localism and local democracy – we will give the
people the power of national referendums and give local bodies local
independence and control of schools, hospitals, planning and local taxes
- UKIP will fight for the distinctive British means of government – a
strengthened House of Commons, the return of UK-wide Secretaries of State
responsible for overall UK-wide policy direction, a reformed ‘House of Lords
and Senators’ with elected Senators and appointed Lords, the well proven and
historic system of county councils, metropolitan, town, district and parish
councils – whose powers will all be strengthened
- UKIP will act to remove unnecessary and costly tiers of government, and not
just talk about it as other parties do.
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