Our original policies are based on our two core beliefs:
- We must be able to govern ourselves as an independent nation.
- We must maintain and protect our personal and constitutional freedoms, for which many have fought and died over the centuries.
Neither belief is compatible with continued membership of the European Union.
All our policies are therefore based on our intention to leave the EU immediately.
Where our policies cost extra money, they have been fully costed. Our membership of the European Union probably costs us around £40 billion or more a year. You can check the figures in the recent reports from the independent think-tank CIVITAS (Tel: 020 7799 6677 or website: www.civitas.org.uk).
We believe that £30 billion a year or more of that huge cost could be used to fund the improvements we have set out in our Manifesto, such as increasing pensions and reducing taxes. None of the old parties can offer you this, because they all want us to stay in the European Union. And that will mean us paying more and more each year into Europe. We will achieve extra savings on top of this £30 billion a year by some of our proposals on cutting bureaucracy and red tape.
1. British people are worried about IMMIGRATION
THE FACTS: 80% of British people (and 52% of ethnic minorities) want immigration to be brought under control. They are right to be concerned. Immigration is out of control. 250,000 enter Britain each year - equal to a town the size of Peterborough. There may be 500,000 illegal immigrants in Britain today. Mass immigration increases company profits but reduces wages. Taxpayers must fork out for schools, health care, housing and transport.
WHAT WILL WE DO?
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withdraw from the EU, so we can control who comes into Britain
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end the government's 'open door' policy and admit only those needed because of their skills. They will be expected to speak English, pass health tests, have no criminal convictions and integrate into the British way of life
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impose a three-year general moratorium on immigration, whilst we develop an Australian-style points system. We'll always admit people on genuine compassionate grounds
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back these policies with a new approach to overseas aid and helping refugees abroad
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set up a special joint Police and Immigration Service task force to find illegal immigrants - and deport those without dependant children
2. British people are worried about ASYLUM
THE FACTS: Britain is a soft touch for asylum-seekers. Over two-thirds of all applications for asylum are refused. Many asylum-seekers come here via people-traffickers, and arrive from another safe country. They cost us £2 billion a year in Legal Aid, detention centres, advisory centres and extra housing and health costs.
WHAT WILL WE DO?
- only take our fair share of refugees from UNHCR - and return to their point of departure those that have travelled here from another safe country
- use the £2 billion a year we save to provide an extra £500 million a year to help refugees abroad. Those smuggled here will be deported
- allow judges will be able to jail people-smugglers for life and seize their assets
- provide an amnesty for all asylum-seekers with children under 16
- dismantle the whole expensive and shambolic asylum operation of detention centres, advisory centres, Courts, appeals, Legal Aid and the rest - saving the British taxpayer £2 billion a year
- provide an extra £500 million a year, initially, to help with providing for refugees abroad and use the remaining £1.5 billion a year we save to help to remove from poverty children and pensioners in this country
3. British people are worried about CRIME & ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR
THE FACTS: Countries like the United States, Spain and Ireland have relatively high prison populations, and relatively low crime rates. In Britain we have the opposite – high crime rates and a low prison population. Tough sentencing has worked in those countries – we want to see it work here.
WHAT WILL WE DO?
- work towards zero tolerance of crime, anti-social behaviour, litter and graffiti – and reclaim our streets
- allow householders to protect their own homes without fear of prosecution
- allow judges to be able to lock up paedophiles and people traffickers for life
- cut Police paperwork drastically and require chief constables to maximise visible policing of our streets
- re-open many local police stations
- cancel Labour's proposed Serious Organised Crime Agency
- deport any foreigner who is convicted or reasonably suspected of terrorist activities
- provide sufficient prison places for all adults sentenced
4. British people are worried about PENSIONS
THE FACTS:Pensions have barely kept pace with the rise in the retail price index. Retirement Pension has fallen badly behind average earnings. 2 million pensioners live on or below the poverty line.
WHAT WILL WE DO?
- take all pensioners out of poverty by increasing the State Retirement Pension to £176 a week for a pensioner couple and £110 for a single pensioner.This will amount to an immediate increase of £48.75 a week for pensioner couples and £30.40 a week for single pensioners - and help pensioners catch up at last with the general increase in the country's standard of living
- index-link pensions to whichever is the higher – the rise in average earnings or the cost-of-living index
- help pensioners struggling with high Council Tax payments
- stop the government raiding private pension funds
- 'ring fence' company pension schemes so that neither employers, nor shareholders, nor the government can raid them - and we will work with the pension industry to provide a contingency fund where schemes go bust
5. British people are worried about TAX
THE FACTS: There have been 61 tax rises in Britain since Labour came to power. A person on the minimum wage of £4.85 an hour, working a 40-hour-week, pays £736.10 a year tax. Millions, especially pensioners, find it hard to afford Council Tax.
WHAT WILL WE DO?
- work towards a 'flat tax' system with a single rate of tax that is only paid by the better off half of the working population
- take low-paid workers out of the 'poverty trap' by raising the Income Tax threshold for a single person to £10,504 a year
- make personal tax allowances fully transferable to a person's spouse or partner
- replace Council Tax with a local sales Tax
- completely exempt the value of the family home from Inheritance Tax – and raise the threshold for paying Stamp Duty from £60,000 to £150,000
- create new tax allowances to help people build or extend accommodation for elderly relatives
6. British people are worried about THE BRITISH WAY OF LIFE
THE FACTS: The British people are fed up with being made to feel ashamed of their history, tradition and culture. Even Trevor Phillips, boss of the Council for Racial Equality, admits: "multiculturalism is dead…I believe that once you decide to move to another country, you should embrace the host nation's culture and values".
WHAT WILL WE DO?
- stop this nonsense – and refuse to allow British people to be bullied and intimidated by the political elite telling us what to think and say
- create a society that is multi-colour, multi-ethnic, multi-creed - but one culture.
- expect everyone to integrate, and help them to integrate
- fearlessly and openly speak up for the British people - of whatever ethnic background, colour or creed - and defend the British way of life
7. British people are worried about CIVIL LIBERTIES
THE FACTS: The government has been steadily eroding our traditional British freedoms, like free speech. They've even tried three times to reduce the right to trial by jury.
WHAT WILL WE DO?
- stand for and defend freedom of speech and thought, freedom of conscience and belief
- restore and protect our constitutional freedoms, like trial by jury and habeas corpus, which are being threatened
- refuse to introduce Identity Cards, which won't reduce crime, fraud, terrorism or illegal immigration, but will cost a fortune and give the state too many powers
- repeal the draconian Civil Contingencies Act and the government's Control Orders, both of which give the government unprecedented powers
- refuse to introduce a new crime of 'incitement to religious hatred'
- end the nonsense of prosecuting traders for selling in pounds and ounces
- free ourselves from the power of the notorious 'E.U. Arrest Warrant' - British citizens must never be extradited without a Court hearing
8. The British people are worried about HEALTH AND CARE SERVICES
THE FACTS: Labour has spent more money on the NHS - and there are hundreds of thousands of dedicated professional workers in our health services. But big problems remain - and in some cases things have got worse. For example:
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deaths from the hospital 'superbug' MRSA have risen dramatically
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some waiting lists for treatment have got longer, not shorter
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far too many operations have been cancelled
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Labour's obsession with 'league tables' has distorted clinical priorities
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some of the government's foundation hospitals are already in serious debt
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more and more people are unable to get NHS dental treatment
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reports suggest that many hospital patients get insufficient food in hospital
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carers of seriously disabled people are entitled to Carers' Allowance of only £44.35 a week - a pay rate of a mere £1.26 per hour
WHAT WILL WE DO?
- train enough British people to become doctors, dentists and nurses
- pay decent wages to health professionals who work directly with patients
- drastically reduce health service bureaucracy by cutting out target-setting, abolishing meaningless 'league tables' and unnecessary statistics-keeping
- provide adequate funding to the hospice movement
- increase funding for community hospitals, voluntary units providing specialist services, health care centres and better mental health facilities
- reduce waiting-lists by allocating more resources to the NHS
- end the unfair 'postcode lottery' by ensuring that each local health authority is able to provide an adequate level of health care and treatment on all key ill-health issues
- financially support the 'care-at-home' schemes for the elderly to reduce the distress of uprooting them in their last years
- raise the Carers' Allowance so far as resources permit
- cancel the £30 billion project to computerise the NHS
9. The British people are worried about DRUGS & DRINK
THE FACTS: 70% of crime is linked to drugs. There is a crisis in illegal drugs use in Britain. Those who see the damage drugs are doing, from social workers to police officers, agree the current drugs laws are not working.
WHAT WILL WE DO?
- Establish a Royal Commission to examine - and to report and to make its recommendations within a year - all issues relating to the sale and abuse of illegal drugs
- Reverse the policy of extending licensing hours so as to allow 24-hour drinking
- Remove and prosecute those found 'drunk and disorderly' on our streets
10. The British people are worried about EDUCATION
THE FACTS: Labour has introduced student 'top-up' fees despite promising not to. As with health, Labour has spent more money on education, yet our primary and secondary schools still have many serious problems. These include:
- over one-third of children reaching the age of 11 without being able to write
- an exodus of qualified teachers who find themselves unable to cope with classroom indiscipline and mountains of form-filling and red tape
- pressures from the arrival of the children of asylum-seekers
- a recent survey by OFSTED showing that up to one-half of all pupils had problems of self-control in the classroom
- drugs being sold in or outside many inner city schools.
WHAT WILL WE DO?
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introduce a voucher scheme to give parents the power to choose the school they want for their children. This will increase parental choice, foster the creation of new schools and new types of school to meet demand, and cause failing schools to close
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abolish student 'top-up' fees, partly by introducing more free-market alternatives to the current funding system for higher education
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reduce the number of University places - the government's target of 50% going to University is too high. Instead, we'll increase the number of vocational training places
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change the national curriculum to ensure that children learn about the history and culture of these islands, and take a pride in their nation
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give teachers and governors more power to exclude disruptive pupils
11. The British people want LESS GOVERNMENT
THE FACTS: We all know that we have too much government. A recent report showed that every day since Labour was elected eight years ago, an extra 60 staff have been appointed to work for the civil service, local government or various unelected quangos.
WHAT WILL WE DO?
- abolish the expensive and unelected Regional Assemblies and Development Agencies and hand their powers back to County and District Councils where they belong
- scrap all quangos that are not strictly necessary. We will review the effectiveness of them all, including the Commission for Racial Equality
- end the unfair practice of MPs who represent Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland constituencies voting on purely English matters, while English MPs can't vote on issues which affect Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland
- require local Councils to provide a range of basic services, but with optional services to be approved beforehand by residents in local referendums
- restore the powers of local County and District Councils on planning and development matters
- remove the disclosure requirements imposed on unpaid local Councillors
12. British people are worried about THE EUROPEAN UNION
THE FACTS: Our E.U. membership costs £40 billion a year - according to a recent CIVITAS report. That money should be spent here. The E.U. is removing our ability to govern ourselves and make our own decisions about our future. Decisions in the E.U. are made by unelected and unaccountable Commissioners, who now make 70% of our laws.
WHAT WILL WE DO?
- govern ourselves with our own Parliament in Westminster
- replace the Treaties on European Union with a free trade agreement
- secure an agreement with the E.U. similar to the ones Norway and Switzerland have. They have a free trade agreement and only have to implement a minimum number of E.U. regulations, paying a modest fee for the privilege of free trade
- save £40 billion a year (or more, according to recent studies), the day that we leave the E.U. and replace all those E.U. Treaties with a simple free trade agreement
13. The British people are worried about SMALL BUSINESSES
THE FACTS: Small businesses are being strangled by increasing regulation, nearly all of it coming from Europe. The Federation of Small Businesses, which represents over 150,00 businesses in Britain, wants Britain to leave the European Union.
WHAT WILL WE DO?
- Free our small businesses from the unnecessary regulations that are hampering them, by leaving the European union - the root cause of most of the unnecessary regulations affecting small businesses
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14. The British people are concerned about DEVOLUTION
THE FACTS: Many Scots people are very unhappy with the way their Parliament works and the massive cost – more than ten times over budget. The Welsh are even more unhappy with the poor performance of the Welsh Assembly. The English are upset that Scots and Welsh MPs decided English policies and are concerned about the level of subsidy to Wales and Scotland.
WHAT WILL WE DO?
- hold referendums on whether the Scots and Welsh want to keep their Parliament and Assembly
- if either the Scots vote to abolish their Parliament, or the Welsh their Assembly, we will spend the resulting savings on improving health services in that country
- if either Scotland or Wales keeps its Parliament or Assembly, make sure that the English are not discriminated against by:
- stopping Welsh and Scottish MPs voting on purely English matters
- reviewing the amount of the English subsidies towards Scotland and Wales
- considering the introduction of an English Parliament, to manage purely English affairs. This could be achieved, for example, by having special sittings of Parliament just for English matters
15. The British people are concerned about OVERSEAS AID
THE FACTS: It is well known that much overseas aid is wasted. Overseas aid channelled through the E.U. has been subject to large-scale waste, fraud and corruption. Aid given to poorer countries often gets into the wrong hands. Yet projects to help communities in the third world to help themselves lack finance and rely on charitable aid.
WHAT WILL WE DO?
- Give effective aid directly where it is needed, diverting overseas aid from going into the pockets of corrupt third world leaders
- Set up 'twinning' schemes between British towns and poor communities in the third world to target help on particular communities in need
16. The British people are worried about TRAVELLERS
THE FACTS: Many travellers - by no means all - have caused significant disruption to many communities. They occupy land without permission and often leave it in a terrible mess when they move on. They have been flouting planning laws by claiming special protection under the Human Rights Act. On the other hand, there are not enough permanent sites for travellers because the Conservatives ended the duty on local authorities to provide adequate sites - and Labour has done nothing about the situation either.
WHAT WILL WE DO?
- evict travellers promptly if they occupy sites illegally
- require them to clear up after they've been on a site - not leave Councils to clear up the mess they leave behind them
- require travellers to be subject to our criminal and planning laws like everybody else
- make it a criminal offence for travellers to occupy land without permission – thus ensuring that they can be removed immediately from land they've occupied without permission - and charged with a criminal offence
- reinstate the duty on local authorities to build enough sites for travellers - always providing that traveller are charged an economic rent for using them
17. 'CONSCIENCE' ISSUES
We have no 'party line' on 'issues of conscience', like the death penalty, abortion, euthanasia, and fox-hunting. On these issues, we invite voters to question their VERITAS candidate on where he or she stands. Our candidates will give a truthful answer. In Parliament, we would allow a free vote on these controversial issues. |
