The British People’s Alliance: The Party of Liberal Democracy

The British People’s Alliance is the only party in the tradition of Keynes and Beveridge

Freedom: Repeal of the Civil Contingencies Act. Repeal of the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act. Restoration of the situation whereby a Bill which runs out of parliamentary time is lost at the end of that session. No further extension of detention without charge. No identity cards. No control orders. Repeal of existing erosions of trial by jury and of the right to silence, of existing reversals of the burden of proof, of provision for majority verdicts (which, by definition, provide for conviction even where there is reasonable doubt), and of provision for Police confiscation of assets without a conviction. Repeal of the Official Secrets Acts.

Social Justice: A unified benefits, pensions, student funding, and minimum wage system, so that no one’s income falls below half national median earnings. Progress towards giving every household a base of real property from which to resist both over-mighty commercial interests and an over-mighty State.

A permanently higher rate of corporation tax on the banks and the privatised utilities, with the money spent on reimbursing employers’ National Insurance contributions for workers aged 25 or under and 55 or over, and with strict regulation to ensure that no cost is passed on to workers, consumers, communities or the environment.

A ban on any company paying any employee more than ten times what it pays any other employee, with the whole public sector (including MPs and Ministers) functioning as one for this purpose, its median wage pegged permanently at the median wage in the private sector.

Every public limited company to have one non-executive director appointed by the Secretary of State for a fixed term equivalent to that of other directors, and responsible for protecting the interests of workers, small shareholders, consumers, communities and the environment.

Public Transport: Renationalisation of the railways, uniquely without compensation in view of the manner of their privatisation, as the basis for a national network of public transport free at the point of use, including the reversal of bus route and (where possible) rail line closures going back to the 1950s.

Local Government: Abolition of all remaining vestiges of Compulsory Competitive Tendering, of the capping of councils, and of the power of central government to rule local services ultra vires.

A Real NHS: Freezing of prescription charges, and restoration of free eye and dental check-ups.

Peace and Disarmament: Removal of all nuclear, radiological, chemical and biological weapons from British soil and waters. A total ban on the sale of arms abroad. Removal of foreign forces from British soil and waters. Restoration of British overall control of our defence capability. No more participation in neoconservative wars. Immediate and unconditional withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Countryside: Defence of rural services, leading in particular to the systematic reversal of bus route and (where possible) rail line closures going back to the 1950s, as well as of the erosion of local schools, medical facilities, Post Offices, and so on. A national network of public transport free at the point of use.

Real agriculture as the mainstay of strong communities, environmental responsibility and animal welfare (leading to safe, healthy and inexpensive food), as against American-style ‘factory farming’. Defence of the remaining field sports. A free vote in government time on repeal of the ban on hunting with dogs.

A new and powerful second chamber elected on the basis of the English ceremonial counties, Scottish lieutenancy areas, Welsh preserved counties, and Northern Irish counties, with each of those 99 units having equal representation.

Agriculture and Small Business: The supermarkets to be made to fund investment in agriculture and small business (investment to be determined in close consultation with the National Farmers’ Union and the Federation of Small Businesses) by means of a windfall tax, to be followed if necessary by a permanently higher flat rate of corporation tax. In either case, strict regulation to ensure that the costs of this are not passed on to suppliers, workers, consumers, communities or the environment.

British Independence: Restoration of the supremacy of British over EU law. Use of this to restore Britain’s historic fishing rights. No EU law to apply in the United Kingdom without having gone through exactly the same parliamentary process as if it were a Bill which had originated in our own Parliament. The show-stopping Empty Chair Policy until the Council of Ministers meets in public and publishes an Official Report akin to Hansard.

Disapplication in the United Kingdom of any ruling of the European Court of Justice by resolution of the House of Commons, giving this country the same level of independence as is rightly enjoyed by Germany through her Constitutional Court. Non-application of any ruling under either the Human Rights Act or the European Convention on Human Rights unless and until ratified by such a resolution.

No need for a referendum on further European integration, since Parliament to do its job properly and just say no.

A Real Voice: A real voice for currently neglected areas including the North of Scotland, the South of Scotland, Mid-Wales, and the West Country, as well as for those in Northern Ireland excluded by the carve-up between, on the one hand, a pseudo-Unionist party seeking its own statelet, and, on the other hand, those who believe the Provisional Army Council of the IRA to be the sovereign body throughout Ireland.

The British People’s Alliance is the only party in the tradition of Lloyd George: of One Nation politics with an equal emphasis on the One and on the Nation