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Suggestions for a Post COVID19 Britain.

We should have green economic policies and orient the economy to local production and employment.  State Investment Councils should be created to foster Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) into larger companies and further develop large companies. The Internet should be controlled.  We should clarify our foreign policy.  We should clarify the powers of Local Authorities, Public Health England and the NHS.  We should sort out the political extremism of the BBC and Academia.

Green policies are sustainable policies. Sustainability starts at home. Shunting production to Germany, China and India so that the UK can appear green is unacceptable.

The Economy

These are the self evident truths of global trading:

If we rely totally on foreign imports and services there will be no work.
If we have no global trade we cannot obtain commodities and services that are not available at home. Hence somewhere between these extremes is the best level of global trading. We must recognise that there is an optimal level of global trading.

COVID19 is a wake up call for Government Economists.  They should revisit the data on the 1929 slump and learn what actually happened.  Economists widely tell a story about the slump that maintains that protectionist measures were responsible for exaggerating the banking and economic crisis.   The actual data shows that the global crisis of 1929 was caused by excessive international interdependence of banking, trade and manufacturing.  The reduction of this interdependence led to strong growth until it recurred in the 1970s.

After the slump, in the period from 1933-39, when the world was further closing its doors to international trade, international trade plummeted but GDP growth was actually stronger than before.

Please look at these graphs carefully. Strong growth accompanies drastically reduced international trade.


The slump was due to the instability of global trade and national prosperity recovered after that trade was halved.  Our economies became stable until the next rise in International Trading that began in the 1970s with membership of the Common Market.  In the 1970s we witnessed the collapse of manufacturing employment as a result of the negligently sudden removal of tariffs, in the early 1990s there was a recession, in 2008 financial crisis and now the COVID19 recession.

Manufacturing employment fell as international trade rose
 
There is a straightforward lesson from history: intensive International Trade carries risks that are not worth taking.  If the global economy is insufficiently diverse and too interconnected events in countries far away can precipitate global meltdowns that take us with them.

The solution today, as it was after the 1929 slump, is to ensure that domestic industry is healthy and the economy is not controlled by the multinational corporations that mediate International Trade.  A limit of around 45% of GDP should be the target upper limit for Imports+Exports and exports should equal imports.  This is optimal global trading. 

Britain is currently far from optimal global trading.  In particular domestic manufacturing has been severely impacted over the past 50 years.  To achieve optimal global trading the Government will need to set up three Investment Councils that would acquire over 50% of the shares and provide loan guarantees for successful British companies that need development capital.  The performance of the Councils would be compared and staff replaced if performance of a Council's investments is poor.  Over a decade or so it should be possible to return UK production to UK ownership.

Government and Government Agencies should buy British goods wherever possible.  A tribunal should be set up to allow British companies to challenge foreign purchase decisions by Government where it can be demonstrated that those purchases are strategically dangerous or result in cost savings of under 20%.  Arbitrary limits for government purchasing such as only dealing with companies that have turnovers of more than £50m a year should be eschewed. Government money is our money, spending it in Britain creates jobs for us. 

Local Enterprise is essential for the economic success of Britain.  Local Authorities should be audited for spending money for supplies and services outside of their area and unjustifiable expenditure should be subject to sanction.  Local Councils should have up to 50% of seats reserved for Enterprise Councillors.  It is time to stop Local Government from seeing itself solely as a dispenser of benefits and services. Enterprise Councillors would monitor local purchasing, local technical education, ensure that Internet Services are sufficient and that Local Internet Marketing and Delivery is available.  They would also liaise with Chambers of Commerce to ensure that local suppliers and consumers are brought together.  The Local Authority would reward companies that provide local employment and use local products with Rate Rebates.

The NHS is a monopoly consumer and has destroyed whole areas of the UK medical industry.  It should be instructed to ensure that in all major areas of consumption at least 30% of contracts go to UK companies.  As we have seen with COVID19, medical supplies are a strategic industry.

The Internet needs to be controlled and oriented to the national interest.  A National Firewall such as those used by other states must be installed.  This will allow foreign interference to be stopped and provide a secure foundation for the "Internet of Things".  British replacements for internet suppliers such as Amazon should be encouraged, especially at the local level.  Local Internet Markets should be seamlessly joined to regional and national markets.  Local taxes should be applied to foreign emporia such as Amazon and Ebay.  All overseas transactions should be automatically recorded and taxes levied from foreign suppliers appropriately.  Social media should fall under the regulations for publishers and British replacements encouraged.  Our Governments have been astonishingly lax about Internet Regulation.

UK Banks should start lending to the real economy rather than to finance:

The tall bars are real estate and finance
The Treasury should monitor bank lending and introduce policies to encourage lending to real businesses, especially SMEs.

Health

Local Authorities have had the power to trace contacts of infectious diseases for a century or more.  When COVID19 struck those who knew the procedures were flabbergasted to see Public Health England (PHE) take close control.  It makes sense for Local Authority Environmental Health Departments to have close responsibility for tracking infectious diseases and they have a Statutory responsibility to do so under the Public Health Act 1984.  In the COVID19 epidemic we had the spectacle of Environmental Health Officers having to sign up as Test and Trace personnel under the control of PHE when they should have been doing "test and trace" from the start.

NHS Purchasing turned the acquisition of Personal Protective Equipment into a catastrophe.  All of their surgical gowns were being acquired from a single wholesaler and the rest of the PPE was being bought from China and SE Asia where it was in high demand. (See PPE and Public Sector Contracts). The culprit was "NHS Supply Chain".  Even after the PPE shortage was known NHS Purchasing still listed largely Chinese companies as preferred suppliers and were unable to get supplies.  The NHS is a monopoly consumer and should have due regard to the diversity of supply and foster a PPE industry in the UK rather than destroying it entirely.

NHS Administration is appalling.  About 20% of doctors say they are considering emigrating.  Huge numbers of doctors are leaving the profession to be replaced by poor unsuspecting foreigners. This can be corrected by ensuring that at least 50% of NHS Senior administration posts are held by doctors and doctors are strongly represented on NHS Trusts. (See NHS Management).

Borders

Borders are the essential barrier that create diversity and difference in the world.  Borders allow different economic and social systems to coexist.  Without borders the whole world would be homogenised and uniform.  Diversity is essential for any complex system to be stable.  We homogenise the world at our peril.  Countries that controlled their borders at the start of the COVID19 outbreak controlled the disease (See Coronavirus: What went wrong?).

England now has almost 10% of its land area covered by houses and gardens and serious water scarcity in the South East. If we want to preserve our landscape and have even a pretence of sustainability we must control population growth.  Any target other than zero population growth on this island is absurd.  Flows of people across our borders must be carefully managed.

Social Services

It is clear that Care Homes are a semi-medical facility.  There should be a medical team in each district, perhaps attached to NHS Community Health, that visits and inspects Care Homes randomly and provides support for all except the more serious medical cases.  At present Care Home residents are sent to hospital for problems as simple as urinary tract infections.  This should be stopped because hospitals are a prime source of infections, not just COVID19, and moving patients and staff around is very expensive.  All Care Homes should be encouraged towards having at least one isolation room. Care for the elderly should be free at the point of use, this would also save millions by avoiding Social Services conferences on funding individuals.

Council "care" for children has now exceeded the problems associated with the old Children's Homes by an order of magnitude.  There should be a move back towards a well inspected boarding school environment for children who are taken into care; such a policy should take into account the problems of institutionalisation, using measures such as making foster homes available for the school holidays, to lessen it.

Benefits for those out of work should be sufficient for reasonable living.  Benefits should be given automatically upon unemployment or housing need on condition that the recipients accept random visits and monitoring by mobile support staff who will also supply genuine support such as discussing vacancies, preparing CVs, arranging childcare etc. at a minimum frequency of once per month.  The support staff should, in turn, agree to be monitored as a condition of employment.

There will always be a proportion of the population who are unable to lead independent lives.  Communal living facilities composed of independent flats with cleaners, wardens and helpers, especially voluntary helpers, are needed for this sector of society.  Such facilities would be inspected randomly, drugs and alcohol would be utterly banned. Separate facilities would be needed for drug users.

Education

Poor students find that it can be expensive to become a plumber or electrician etc in the UK (£1000 - £2000 for NVQ Level 2).   Technical education should be funded by non-repayable grants and this would be excellent value for the economy compared with, say, funding a degree in media studies.  There should be a huge effort to make NVQ establishments pleasant, the students may come from difficult backgrounds and need social help as well as technical training. A poor social environment will lead to a high drop out rate and money wasted.

University courses in STEM subjects should be financed by non-repayable grants.

The staff selection process for universities and colleges should be investigated and discrimination against those who do not have left wing views tackled and ended, especially in Humanities Faculties.  In the humanities it is currently extremely difficult to publish papers if they do not represent a left wing viewpoint.  This is a national scandal (See When will Governments react to discrimination in academia?).  There is a similar problem in teacher training which also needs to be addressed.

The Media

The BBC has just announced £100m for multicultural productions. In the context of the BBC budget this sounds reasonable.  Now is the time to also stop classism in the BBC. 60% of BBC journalists and presenters are from private schools.  This discriminatory practice must be ended.  The BBC must also demonstrate that it is hiring talent from outside humanities graduates and Guardian/Independent style journalism.

The World Service should be removed from the BBC because the current integration of Global and National News Desks has led the Corporation to regard the UK as just another country.  This is wholly inappropriate for our National Broadcaster.

Foreign Policy

Now that the UK has left the EU it needs an independent foreign policy. Economic threats come from the USA, China and EU, security threats from China, Russia and the Middle East and friendship and support from Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

Multinational Corporations and the EU will want the UK to remove borders and border controls of all types.

Foreign policy is often dictated by Media pressure.  The COVID19 epidemic has provided an insight into the mindset of BBC journalists who have argued that any British produced vaccine should be given to the world rather than prioritising the UK population. What the BBC are attempting to do is divert vaccines from our relatives to people overseas. Why?  Fortunately population protection by mass vaccination must be performed as mass vaccination campaigns in specific regions and countries to create herd immunity so the correct practical and moral decision is to vaccinate the UK first.  But why is the BBC happy to inflict harm on the UK?  It is because they are Extreme Internationalists.

The biggest threat to the UK comes from 5th column Extreme Internationalists who are split into four groups.  The first is the old pro-EU lobby who have not yet realised that destroying the UK as an independent nation within the EU is different from destroying it on the world stage; the second is the Trotskyist fringe that considers World Government at any price is worthwhile because once in place any future revolution cannot be reversed; the third is the environmentalist lobby that considers that global government rather than sustainable nations is the answer to environmental problems and the last are the servants of Multinational Corporations who want to acquire staff without training and to owe nothing to any locality.
As we can see above with the attempt to remove early vaccination from the UK population, these 5th columnists are a serious threat to us all.  The threat is not just that they view the population of the UK as disposable, Global Government means handing power to China which is a National Socialist State complete with concentration camps and an expansionist ambition.  The desire to homogenise humanity that is common to all these groups is the ultimate racism and the eradication of nations is the destruction of the jewel in the crown of humanity: its diversity.  Extreme Internationalists have recruited each other to important public sector positions in the BBC and academia to secure their aims. British governments should make it a priority to remove these Extreme Internationalists from positions of power and influence because otherwise all progress for our own economy and fellow citizens will be undermined at every turn by their internationalist agenda.




23/6/2020

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