Recession-busting suggestions for UK plc

kabayiri

tyllwyd wrote: »

I don't believe that in the real world you can take crime away from drug supply just by legalizing it in the UK.

I never expected this to be the result of the legalising suggestion.

It's not a panacea. There is abuse and crime now, there would be after they were legalised.

But, at least we could sit back; watch the folding stuff come in; and laugh at them.

We already have a Drugs Tsar in this country. Shouldn't he have a supporting team of Drugs Barons employed by the state?

mewbie_2

Cannabis and Ecstasy could be legalised pretty damn safely straight away. For other stuff probably need to use doctors surgeries to prescribe / sell the weekend dose of cocaine, etc. Get your drugs cheaper and safer, but put up with a bit of counselling as well. Or maybe just provide a leaflet.

Pay the farmers in Afghanistan a decent wage for their opium crop, cut down terrorism and UK criminal gangs in one easy move.

All simple stuff and totally politically unacceptable. That's the pity. People seem to forget we have two major dangerous drugs freely available for sale already - yep alchohol and tobacco.

MrDT

mewbie wrote: »

Pay the farmers in Afghanistan a decent wage for their opium crop

How to deglamourise drugs - have tree hugging parents ramble on to their teenage kids about how they buy Fair Trade heroin.

co123456

Introduce a savings plan for employees administered by employers.
Employees can request that up to 10% of their salary is witheld by their employer and paid to them every six months with a reduced rate of tax paid.
Employer benefits from holding cash on their books for longer.
Employee benefits from lower tax payment and getting into the habit of saving.
Government pays for this (don't ask me how - I did Physics... not Economics)

Fire away!

blakester

Here's my suggestion FWIW, cancel the Olympics 2012 or let some other country host the games. Quite a financial drain on the country in these lean times. I appreciate that there would be job losses but will the investment in the games ever be re-couped long term.

Cidersid

stop paying benefits (all benefits)

that would save gazillions to the honest tax paying person (notice i didnt say MAN)

i'm fed up with people in my street shouting they get this and that i have not a bean to rub together just cause i work!!! for eg no rent to pay or council tax and social money every week..

rant over and can of worms open i think

Rochdale_Pioneers

Cidersid wrote: »

stop paying benefits (all benefits)

that would save gazillions to the honest tax paying person (notice i didnt say MAN)

i'm fed up with people in my street shouting they get this and that i have not a bean to rub together just cause i work!!! for eg no rent to pay or council tax and social money every week..

rant over and can of worms open i think

No thanks, I'm not going to bite.

kabayiri

Here's another :-
- announce that from 1-1-2009 the only currency accepted will be a new one (let's call it the crunchpund)
- there will be a 1 to 1 value between the new currency and the existing currency
- sit back, and watch all the black market money out there be converted into tradable goods, like fancy cars and houses and yachts [it's not like your average mobster can walk into HSBC and convert 200K of scruffy tenners without attracting attention, is it?]
- et voila, instant economy stimulus

tyllwyd

Didn't something like that happen when Ireland entered the Euro - I went on holiday there about seven years ago and everywhere you looked there was building work going on, and people reckoned it was because everyone who had been saving cash that they didn't want to declare to the tax man was busy spending it while they still could.

Strike_Team

1. Leave the EU, it would save billions in contributions and free businesses from the crippling burden of unnecessary regulation.

2. Promote saving so as to provide the banks with a supply of money to lend. This can be done by raising interest rates, making every savings account into an ISA and restructuring Council Tax Benefit and Housing Benefit so savers are no longer penalised.

3. Get out of Iraq.

4. Cut all the dead weight from government: 5-a-day Coordinators, British Council, Equality & Human Rights Commission. We'd save billions and the remaining parts of government would work much better.

5. Only allow foreigners who are willing to work and contribute into the country. Conscientious Polish builders - no problem. Asylum seekers wanting free money and housing - get lost.

6. Workfare for able-bodied welfare claimants. Make them do community work such as maintaining public parks or feeding the homeless in exchange for benefits. Put an end to welfare as a lifestyle choice.