A new Prime Minister & his/her first 100 days in office


Later this year we should be having a new Prime Minister entering Number 10. progress have set up a page on their website http://www.progressives.org.uk/ asking people to suggest policies or initiatives they would like to see the new Prime Minister introducing in his/her first 100 days in office. If you wish you comment please visit http://www.progressives.org.uk/100/


Some the ideas that people have suggested which I like are begin the separation of executive and legislative powers, electoral reform, introduce a plastic bag tax, make a commitment to end the genocide in Darfur, make a commitment to move to a democratically elected head of state, reduce the voting age to 16, remove the right of the Prime Minister to exercise the Royal Prerogative on behalf of the Monarch and work to reform International bodies (EU, G8, IMF, UN, World Bank).


I’m not sure a new Prime Minister would be able to achieve a lot on some of these ideas in his or her first hundred days however I do hope that the next Prime Minister whoever it may be does achieve something on the issues mentioned above.


With regard to the separation of executive and legislative powers I hope that the reformed House of Lords is totally independent of the executive and has no Secretaries of State or Ministers.


I hope that the next Prime Minister can at least deliver the referendum on Proportional Representation that we were promised in 1997 Labour Manifesto.


Make a commitment to end the genocide in Darfur is a little vague but I must be honest that I don’t know enough about the situation there but I have to say that it has been going on for far too long and while our attention has been focused on Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq etc hundreds of thousands if not millions of people have been forced out of their homes and this is putting great pressure on the countries neighbouring Sudan.


Make a commitment to move to a democratically elected head of state is something that I would like every government to offer and I really hope that the Liberal Democrats will sooner rather then later adopt this as policy however I don’t think that there are many supporters for this idea at Westminster.


Reduce the voting age to 16 is something that seems to have disappeared from discussions on constitutional reform at the moment but sometime ago the Electoral Commission reported that it was not the right time but I hope that a new Prime Minister will look again at the issue.


Removing the right of the Prime Minister to exercise the Royal Prerogative on behalf of the Monarch is something that I doubt we will see any Prime Minister suggest I think this will happen by Parliament acting to limit the issues on which the Prime Minister exercise the Royal Prerogative on behalf of the Monarch one by one.


Work to reform International bodies (EU, G8, IMF, UN, World Bank) is also something that is important especially if we want to make progress in the twenty-first century however this requires a united effort especially from the leaders of the worlds leading countries such as USA, UK, France, Germany, Japan etc. Some of these have recently elected new leaders of their governments and USA, UK and France will all have new leaders by January 2009 so I hope that either by then or soon after the new leaders have taken office we get some movement of the reform of some if not all of these organizations.

How will politics change in 2006


I have been reading How will politics change in 2006 by Nick Assinder BBC News website, Political Correspondent from 1st January 2006 and found that he predicted that:


For Britain's three big party leaders (plus one), 2006 will without doubt be interesting. And, as far as politics is concerned, it will be all about them.


He seem to have got that prediction pretty spot on however I would say that David Cameron's early promise has still not been tested and Nick Assinder seem to be more tolerant of Charles Kennedy then some Liberal Democrat MPs giving him a few months of probation.


Nick Assinder predicted that in the budget Gordon Brown "will be forced to raise taxes, cut spending or increase borrowing, this may present the first real challenge to his reputation and leadership hopes". What we got was Tax rises 4p on wine and 1p on beer in line with inflation, but no increase in Income Tax or VAT. Spending promises from Gordon Brown included raising investment in schools from £5.6bn now to £8bn a year over five years, £600m to fund world-class British athletes, a new national sports foundation with £34m from the government, another £2m for evening sports clubs for young people, £1bn for a new energy and environmental research institute, Child Trust Funds to get an extra £250 or £750 when the children reached seven-years-old, child care vouchers increased to £55 a week, By April next year, to increase the number of community support officers from 6,000 to 16,000 by April 2007, free off-peak national bus travel for pensioners and disabled people from April 2008, £1m for Britons injured in terrorist attacks at home and abroad, £200m to promote international peacekeeping and an extra £800m for the armed forces. Gordon Brown said net borrowing would be £37bn in 2006-07 and £36bn in 2007-08.


On the local council elections Nick Assinder predicts "Labour can expect losses", we saw on 4 May 2006 was the Conservatives gain 11 councils, Labour loose 17 and the Liberal Democrats gain 1.


Nick Assinder also predicted that "the issue of the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq and the developments in that country, will continue to have a direct impact on domestic politics" I'm not sure how wrong or right he was on the issue but one thing we are seeing is the distancing of British policy in Iraq from that of the USA. President Bush recently announced an increase in the number of US troops in Iraq but we hope to start seeing the withdrawal of British troops in Iraq soon.