Lib Dem manifesto to build a fairer Britain

Today's unveiling of the Lib Dem manifesto 2010 was long awaited and most welcome.

Strap lined as 'change that works for you', I've enjoyed pulling out the things that get me really excited about what a Lib Dem government would do for us.

My top 10 are (cheating slightly by grouping same topic initiatives together):

1. First £10k earnings to be tax free: because it will cut most of our tax bills by £700 p.a. and increase pensioner revenue by £100 (and reduce the army of officials needed to manage income support monies as fewer people will need them); set the minimum wage for all people over 16 at the same level (except those on apprenticeships)

2. Break up monolithic banks and get them lending to business, which needs support to get the economy moving; cut red tape for putting on live music by allowing licensed venues for up to 200 people to host live music without the need for a licence and remove the requirement for hospitals and schools to have a licence

3. clean up politics and protect civil liberties with a Freedom Bill that would regulate CCTV; stop unfair extradition to USA; defend trial by jury; stop children being finger printed at school; scrap ID cards; scrap passports with additional biometric data; remove innocent people from the police's DNA database and stop them adding innocent and children in future; scrap the Contact Point database that intends to hold details of every child in Britain

4. Introduce a written constitution

5. Introduce the right to vote from 16 (why not, as one can join the forces and work and pay taxes then?)

6. Introduce the single transferable vote system, fixed term parliaments; reduce the number of MPs by 150; scrap the government offices for the regions unless there is strong local support for them and devolve power to local councils including making police authorities and health boards electable

7. A green economic stimulus plan in year one that will create 100k jobs

8. Scrap the government's plans to criminalise those who leave education between the ages of 16 and 18; scrap tuition fees for all students taking a first degree, including part time, saving them over £10k in fees each

9. require name blind job applications to reduce sex and race discrimination, initially for every company with 100+ employees; introduce pay audits for such companies to combat discrimination

10. support public investment in superfast broadband

View the full document on-line at:
http://issuu.com/libdems/docs/manifesto?mode=embed&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml&showFlipBtn=true&proShowMenu=true

Enjoy!