A Brave New World

unrecordings

So how are we doing - are we building a better world ?

Next week, the commercial sector maybe - for example why don't you tend to see triangular solar panels ? It strikes me that with the addition of a couple of triangular panels on top of the ubiquitous four square ones, you could increase the surface area of the array by maybe 20%

Keep 'em coming, and don't be afraid to disagree (in a polite reasoned way of course)

pollypenny

An interesting thread. I'm amused that OP suggested keeping politics out, especially since most of the ideas are socialist policies, anyway.

Most suggestions have already been made or enacted. Sheffield's cheap transport, like that if other metropolitan areas, was introduced by its Labour council before a conservative government stopped it.

A standard curriculum, ie The National Curriculum, was introduced by the conservative government in 1991/2.

There has been a government white paper on social care and the NHS.

Sadly, this now seems to be driven by short-termism and profits for the few on the backs of the many.

[Deleted User]

Take politics out and think what would be best for the people of the land and most of these ideas would help make things better for all of us regardless of political persuasions. Common sense says improved infrastructures will make all our lives better.

VJsmum

I guess, for some people, these things are less significant as they can pay. THat's where the politics comes in.

I think the Swedish system is pretty good. There's a suburb of Stockholm, Hammarby-Sjostad which is an experimental eco village / town. I visited a few years ago and was given some insight into their eco credentials - things like their recycling system are a wonder as is their car pool ideas. however, Stockholm is an easy city to cycle round..

https://www.thenatureofcities.com/2014/02/12/hammarby-sjostad-a-new-generation-of-sustainable-urban-eco-districts/

Additionally, whilst the Swedish system is good (free health, free education), I believe they pay 50% or 55% income tax

[Deleted User]

I am all for recycling,I am from the era of the original recyclers i.e. 1940-50s when virtually nothing was wasted. I would also like to see those who recycle and want to save the planet teach their children to actually use a rubbish bin.I see more rubbish dumped on our streets than ever before The past few weeks have seen the climate activists protesting about climate change on the streets of London ,then going ome and leaving tonnes of rubbish and litter on the street behind them.It will cost the taxpayer ...that's you and I... more cash to clean the place up. There used to be a campaign calle Keep Britain Tidy...sadly it seems to have gone the way of a lot of good ideas and our streets are being used to dump rubbish and take-away cartons on with impunity. I live in the Garden of England (Kent) and at the moment even where I live its becoming daily more like a tip

JackieO

unrecordings

JackieO wrote: »

There used to be a campaign calle Keep Britain Tidy...sadly it seems to have gone the way of a lot of good ideas and our streets are being used to dump rubbish and take-away cartons on with impunity. I live in the Garden of England (Kent) and at the moment even where I live its becoming daily more like a tip

Another good one, though maybe the issue of litter is a little too Marxist for some. I'm wondering what can be done in practical terms though, up here on the roads out of the city, you'll find a bag of empty cans/fast food packaging etc every few hundred metres - that's a social problem though like chewing gum (which may resolve itself slowly like the whole dog poop thing....?

Fly tipping - people need better access to legal waste/recycling centre to reduce the temptation

PipneyJane

I had a brilliant idea the other night, while I was driving home. It covered three things: farmers complaining that they can't hire local people to help on their farms; how many of our long term unemployed are supposedly work shy; and that many of the people who harvest or process the food produced on our farms travelling in from Eastern Europe and potentially not being able to obtain visas post B*****. (Apologies, I can't make that sentence grammatically correct, however hard I try.)

I was mulling over the concept of food security and the issues around it. I think I've come up with a couple of solutions. Do you remember how, back in the dim-and-distant-past, London's poor would spend their annual holiday in Kent harvesting hops or apples? Well, how about we partner each secondary school with a farm, so that in the spring, summer and autumn each class spends a week on rotation working at "their" farm? The class would go for the entire week and camp in either large tents or the barns. They would be paid minimum wage for the work that they did, with a savings account being opened for each child when they started secondary school and their wages paid directly into it. Room and board would be deducted to a maximum of £30/week.

It would be a bit like a working school camp. As well as learning a work ethic, think of the lessons they could have re botany, biology, ecology, animal husbandry and food safety. They could also have lessons in money management and budgeting. And because they go back to the same farm each time, they'll be invested in its successful outcome.

My second thought was around the long term unemployed and processing the harvest. Our current benefit system actively discourages people from taking on low paid jobs like farm work at harvest time. How about we incentivise them instead? Any person who has been unemployed for six months or more and signs on to the "harvest scheme" will a) keep all their benefits for the duration of their participation in the scheme, and b) earn taxable wages of at least minimum rate less room and board of no more than £30/week. The person would have to commit to the harvest scheme for a minimum of 2 weeks with the maximum period per year being 2 months. They would also receive a bonus of a free class of their choice at their local higher education college, to enable them to learn new, more employable skills (which might include literacy, numeracy or even plumbing).

What do you think?

- Pip

dreaming

unrecordings wrote: »

I don't necessarily see libraries as obsolete, they just need to evolve along with the councils that own them. Case in point, Sheffield Central Library, a fantastic art deco structure was almost sold to the Chinese to turn into yet another luxury hotel. The building was donated to the city by (I think) JG Graves for the benefit of the people of Sheffield. That benefit doesn't need to be books, it can be anything from somewhere quiet indoors, to an internet something or other, makerspace , and in the case of the big old municipal libraries, continue to be a meeting place, cafe, art gallery, theatre, archive, good old fashioned library

No I don't see them as obselete either but it seems our council might. I am part of a group that has just spent the past 2years fighting to save our library (one of 21 in our county scheduled for closure) and finally it seems we may be able to take it over as a community library and run it with volunteers. Without being too "political" the council have not exactly been at all helpful in this and have not only moved the goalposts regularly but seem to have uprooted and taken them away so no-one else can play. In fact it took legal action to get them to rethink their oriiginal plans to close the 21 libraries and get a consultation period.

thriftwizard

Education: whatever happened to evening classes? Can we bring them back? My dear-departed stepfather became a well-respected industrial chemist by attending evening classes whilst working a day-job. People learnt to cut hair, maintain their own cars, do a bit of carpentry, learnt languages etc., usually in the classrooms & labs of their local secondary school.

I didn't have the time or energy to sign up for anything whilst they were still available here, as I had small children & a shift-working husband, but I really looked forward to learning a new language or something once I had the time. But now I do, there's nothing...

Brambling

We have a fortnightly rubbish collection which as a single person household works for me however if you combined that with a local authority tip which is now opened only 5 days a week with restrictions (they count the bags in your car and more than 10 regardless of the size will not let you back the same day) and from December we will need to produce proof of residency in the county. I drive to 12 miles to work via country roads and it's not unusual to see fly tipping which must cost more to clean up than keeping the tip open full time.