34. EDUCATION

There should be a widescale, in depth, high quality, compulsory scheme for re-training and training all head teachers.

33. I.D.

No I.D, Cards.

32. EDUCATION

Teachers and others in public service professions should not have to pay back student grants

31. JUSTICE

Extradition treaties should be revised so British wrong-doers serve their sentences in this country.

30. SAVINGS

Street lights should come on ten minutes later.

29. LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Police Officials should be appointed, not elected.

28. EDUCATION

Cookery should be taught as a science as well as an art.

27. MPs

The staff of MPs should be paid directly by The State with constituencies having the right to raise funds for extra workers.

27. TAXATION

Progressive taxation may be less important than clarity. Taxes, National Insurance etc. should be easy to understand and quick to organise.

JIM KNIGHT RESPONDS

JIM KNIGHT has been the Member of Parliament for South Dorset since 2001 and is standing again in the current election.  Amongst other posts, he has been a Minister in the Department for Schools and in the Department for Rural Affairs.  (This is all very much abbreviated.)  He is currently Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform at the Department for Work and Pensions (attending Cabinet) and Minister for the South West.

Jim has kindly emailed a response to many of the points in the Lucy and Esther Manifesto.

They are all here - in black bold on a white background  - interleaved in places with responses to his responses (in red - which turns out to be a bit tiring on the eyes so I'll change it later)!

Please do feel free to leave your own comments!

_____

This is what he said:-

Whilst we've chatted on the doorstep I thought your manifesto deserves a quick reply.

CUTS AND COSTS

Fewer students; more grants.  No fees; more apprenticeships (real ones).

More students - we need them to compete with huge numbers of graduates now from China and India etc, more grants for those from poorer homes; yes more apprenticeships.

'More students' - but it's not being a student that is useful for the individual or the economy, nor is holding a certificate; it's the quality of learning and training that matters. Even the word 'apprentice' can be misused. Are you convinced that all college and university courses meet standards needed for constructive employment? You like the idea of more apprentices so wouldn't it be worth swapping quite a lot of formal certificating for 'on the job' training (supplemented with more day-release and sandwich courses)?

If this were to happen, I'd suggest there should also be training for the people who are given apprentices under their watch because they too are teachers.

And about grants - public servants like teachers shouldn't have to pay back grants or fees.

IDENTITY

Anonymity is a tool of democracy. Its appropriate use on the internet should be protected.

Agreed within reason - "appropriate" important.

21. SCHOOLS

Commercial companies should not run schools.

Agreed - not for private gain - they can get involved through educational charities.

But 'private gain' isn't confined to financial advantage. It can be about power, prestige, advertising and ideology. Other worries are that

a.)schools may run adrift when their sponsoring bodies or individuals lose interest

and

b.)where there are clusters of faith schools, academies and specialist colleges - parents and children can be left with no 'neutral' option.

20. BEING OLD

High-quality care for elderly people should be put on an equal footing with high-quality education for children.

That is the aim of the National Care Service to sit along side the NHS.

Good. If I understand rightly, there will be much more help for people who want to stay in their own homes. (A bit worried about how they will organise it if they are a bit confused and frail however . . . ) However, residential care homes need an enormous amount of attention, funding, regulation, inspection and imagination - surely much more of all of these are needed than are in the pipeline, more than people in government seem to be contemplating even in the long term.

19. - MPs

The induction of new MPs should include twelve separate weeks living with constituents in twelve different kinds of UK community.

Nice idea - not sure it would happen in the end.  Electors need to judge whether candidates will listen and understand them.

Definitely electors need to know that their MPs will listen and understand (and, despite our differences, I do know you have been an exceptionally engaged MP) but, however important their constituencies, MPs are working for the good of the nation (nations) and the areas within it (them) are astonishingly varied. I doubt if anyone can get much more than a vague grip on this without consciously setting out to do so. Iain Duncan Smith was transformed by a visit to one new place. Maybe there are other MPs who need their eyes opened by geography.

18. EUROPE

Citizens should have more direct democratic control over EU policies, laws and regulations.

Agreed - EU is a good idea but needs further reform including better engagement with citizens.

Oh good, we agree on something!

17. POWER

No new nuclear power stations.

Sorry but disagree - we need to reduce burning of fossil fuels and as the current nuclear power comes to the end of its life we need the new generation as part of the future energy mix.

But we might blow up the world or poison bits of it in the process!

17. CUTS

No Council, Police or Health Authority should create or distribute self-advertising newspapers. They mislead and are a waste of money.

I agree - use the internet and the local paper, but we shouldn't ban it in law - they respond to local views.

Really? Are there local views to respond to? Maybe it's the nature of this constituency but I've never really thought there's much cohesion in public outlook. Aren't we mostly a bit vague?

16. MPs

The state should own houses in London for MPs to live in.

Disagree - would stop people with young families being MPs, especially women who want their children with them in London. Would also make politicians even more inward looking and out of touch.

It would depend how it's done. I'm not thinking of hall of residence style accommodation but a pool of properties of different kinds and sizes spread around London.

(Oh, and don't men MPs want their children with them too? ? ? ? )

15. STATE BENEFITS

Children with parents on Benefit should not be disqualified for free travel because their first choice school is outside the catchment area.

Nice idea - needs funding.

14. STATE BENEFITS

Benefit should not be affected by co-habitation.

Contributory benefits are not but means tested are and reflect the cost of living.

At such low levels of income, I doubt the state would lose much by letting people keep separate allowances. (Especially when administration and checking up on people are taken into account.) However, the pressure to decide on whether a relationship is something developing or is a co-habitation can push people apart. It can push people together too soon too. And it makes people vulnerable to the (not necessarily charitable) opinions of neighbours.

13. MPs

No-one should become a Member of Parliament without having ten years experience in other kinds of work first.

Tempting but would prevent some younger people getting elected which has been good for Parliament.

But younger people age. They don't just vanish at thirty! Indeed, they are still young at thirty. (Wouldn't you say?) It's just that they know more by then. (Hopefully!)

12. WORK

The school leaving age should not be raised beyond sixteen.  (It might be lowered.)

Strongly believe people should have to carry on in school or training until at least 18 - can leave school at 16 to do an apprenticeship or other form of training in work - we need more skills.

I agree training and employment are important but if proper apprenticeships were available more widely this could be done less formally. It isn't fair to keep children in school against their wishes. For some, it's bad enough staying there till fifteen! It isn't fair on teachers who have to deal with teenagers who would rather be elsewhere. It isn't fair on children who want to study but who have aggressive and disruptive peers rattling round while they try to listen and learn. Hopefully a good proportion of those who were to leave school early would come back to education in the narrower sense once they had matured, saw the need for it and knew what they wanted from it.

Couldn't people work at fifteen and train later?

11. CUTS

The amount of paper used in letters about State Benefits should be reduced by three quarters.

Agreed - as part of digitisation we can move to a lot more being done electronically.

I'm not thinking people on low incomes should be expected to access benefits and information through computers; more that when benefit letters are sent out they should be concise, should have fewer pages and the content should be much easier to understand. Some pages, at present, have hardly anything on them! Nor do people need to be sent little leaflets about complaints and . . . (I think the other one is about when to notify the Benefits Agency if circumstances change) in every envelope.

10. HEALTH

Ballet should be put on an equal footing with football in state schools and fully qualified ballet teachers employed to teach it.

Ballet too narrow - but dance should be part of the mainstream offer in schools alongside sports - this is pretty much the norm now.

Alright, ballet is too narrow and I'm not meaning everyone should do it right through to the sixth form. But, when you think of how many children go to Ballet Schools on Saturdays and how many children would like to 'do' ballet but whose parents can't afford it or who don't have the time to take them to lessons - think how many would enjoy it if it were brought into the main stream! Many children would far prefer ballet to jumping into hoops, or netball, or running round a track.

I know schools do dance but I don't think they teach it to the standard needed if the students are hoping to go into a career in musical theatre, dance or ballet. It doesn't even qualify people to go on to further, high quality, specialist courses. It is an example of what I was saying earlier - that having a certificate isn't the point. It's what you can do that matters.

9. HEALTH

If pressure is to be taken off Accident and Emergency Departments, out-of-hours health care must be improved.

A&E a lot better than it was when we had 24 hour trolley waits, partly because we now have walk-in GP services 7 days/week in places like Weymouth hospital.

One of the troubles about Walk in Services at hospitals is that, if you are ill - you may not be able to walk in!

My two experiences of out of hours GP services have been dreadful.

The most recent - I had a minor operation, came home, collapsed in agony. The out of hours GP was phoned and a message left. He only phoned back when I was already being put into an ambulance. The paramedics had been at my house for an hour and a quarter, trying to control the pain enough to move me but the GP service had been contacted before 999 was dialled. It's daft!

8. TRANSPORT

Major local employers like Hospitals and County Halls should provide shift-related transport for their staff.

Nice idea - needs funding - should it be done on a co-op basis paid by staff users?

I think it would need to be organised by employers if it were to work. If there were hospital / County Hall organised buses between Weymouth and Dorchester to co-incide with shifts, less space would be needed for staff to park and there would be fewer cars going backwards and forwards between the two towns. There's no reason why the people using the service shouldn't contribute.

(Of course, I speak as someone who didn't want the relief road built.)

7. STATE BENEFITS

Benefits should be adjusted at a moment's notice when short-term employment is offered and reinstated correctly the moment it ends.

Yes, within reason, and more possible as we move to more automation with on-line claims.

But the people who would find this most useful might be those who can only find very temporary, low-paid work and they are less likely than others to have computers. On-line is great. Off-line needs to be just as efficient.

6. DEFENCE

Trident should not be replaced.

Disagree - we are not yet at a point where I am comfortable that proliferation is under control enough to lose that capability.

But nuclear weapons are wrong! (I know that isn't a political point - but it is what I think.)

There's an uncomfortable hypocrisy about us having nuclear weapons. How can we ask other nations not to develop them while we maintain them ourselves?

And if you bunch us in with our allies - wouldn't you think that, once you can blow up the world once, there's little point in being able to blow it up lots of times?

(Trident is expensive too!)

5. BUSINESS

Give the Royal Mail to the Co-op.

We are setting up a Peoples Bank with the Post Office which will go some way to what you may be thinking of.

At first, I was thinking only of the mail bit (letters and parcels). Attempts to run The Royal Mail as a purely commercial business have run it down. Since raising this on Twitter though, I'm beginning to think the Co-op might take over the whole caboodle. The Post Office used to have the Giro Bank. That was taken over by the Alliance and Leicester, now by Santander. Post Office Savings Books have been discarded. Basic accounts are . . . basic. We need an easy to use, really useful, moral, non-capitalist service.

4. MUSEUMS

Works of art and history stored out of sight by Museums should be released for display around our countries.

Nice idea - if the National Collections can be secured.

3. LIBRARIES

Public Libraries should contain public loos as well as lots of books.

Needs funding but in principle yes.

Funded by not building silly new ones. (Do you know the house-sized two-loos near The Smugglers in Portland Road?). Trying to maintain public loos that are unpleasant (and dangerous) must be costly too.

And as for the book bit . . . libraries don't have enough books. Computers are encroaching. Libraries don't have enough tables either. Or comfortable chairs.

Don't suppose you're in favour of people sitting in libraries because they have no-where to go and need to keep warm but . . . well I am!

2. SCHOOLS

If Public School children can form public-performance level choirs and orchestras, children in State Schools should be enabled to do so too.

Yes - lots of investment in music in schools to try to get more of the above.

Hurray!

It's not just funding though. It's also the quality and imagination of the teachers and how much confidence they have in the ability of the children they are teaching.

1. SCHOOLS

Specialist schools should have outstanding departments in the specialities they are supposed to specialise in.

Correct.

Yes, but they don't at present!

Hope that helps

Jim

 ---------

For Ros Keays' Response

(Ros is the Liberal Democrat Candidate for South Dorset)

For Brian Heatley's Response

(Brian is the Green Party Candidate for South Dorset)

26. RUBBISH

Local authorities should arrange large-rubbish amnesties (fridges, beds, bikes etc.) once a quarter, street by street, free to user.

25. SCHOOLS

No parent should go to prison because a child refuses to go to school.

24. TRANSPORT

Railway companies should be required to provide space for pushchairs, children and luggage.

23. CUTS AND COSTS

Fewer students; more grants.  No fees; more apprenticeships (real ones).

22. IDENTITY

Anonymity is a tool of democracy. Its appropriate use on the internet should be protected.

21. SCHOOLS

Commercial companies should not run schools.

20. BEING OLD

High-quality care for elderly people should be put on an equal footing with high-quality education for children.

19. - MPs

The induction of new MPs should include twelve separate weeks living with constituents in twelve different kinds of UK community.

ROS KAYES, LIBERAL DEMOCRAT CANDIDATE, RESPONDS TO 'LUCY AND ESTHER TAKE ON THE ELECTION'

This is the text of an email from Ros Kayes, the South Dorset Parliamentary Candidate for the Liberal Democrats.

So now I'm back at my PC I've actually managed to bring your blog up - good way to comment on what's going on without all of the sniping that's going on at the moment. I agree with the reducing official letters by 3/4 to reduce paper & the benefits being immediately reinstated when jobs are lost etc. Then obviously there's Trident, &  self advertising Local Govt publications ARE a waste of money - Dorset County Council have about 12 media people employed to tell us just how great they are. If they have to make redundancies who should go first - these people or social workers? 

I will take on board your feedback that I should tweet on more local issues - am involved in lots locally from supporting the campaign to  save the James Day Care Home in Swanage to protesting against the Palm Oil plant on Portland; supporting the brilliant education Swanage & their attempt to challenge the Purbeck review & set up their own secondary school - community activism at its best - & setting up a fundraising body to raise money to support the Women's Refuge in Weymouth when we get it restarted, as well as planning funding & resources to set up a Freedom Programme for victims of domestic violence, as well as all sorts of casework throughout the constituency from solving people's housing problems to supporting their legal representation in court. I think  MPs should be like terriers - refusing to let go of an issue that is being ignored for their area & always fighting against unfairness & bad government. 

Fighting a general election is totally absorbing & really exciting - I would recommend it to anyone -  especially when your party is getting the kind of really positive support that we are at the moment. People contact me & say things like 'I've dreamed about this happening for years - but never thought it could'. I'd like to say to them 'It is - let's make a big push to reform everything that's wrong about our political system & give ordinary people a chance to have an impact on their own lives.' We want ALL parties & ALL persuasions to have a democratic voice in the way this country is run - not just two oligarchical institutions funded by the people whose interests they serve !  Reform, reform , reform.

Oh yes - & our policies can be found at www.libdems.org.uk

Cheers,

Ros

You can now follow Ros on Facebook and Twitter

Facebook: Ros4Dorset http://bit.ly/aD3VMN

Twitter: Ros4Dorset http://bit.ly/aV6jIf

18. EUROPE

Citizens should have more direct democratic control over EU policies, laws and regulations.

(To ask for this is neither anti-EU nor right wing.)

BRIAN HEATLEY, GREEN PARTY CANDIDATE, RESPONDS TO 'ESTHER AND LUCY TAKE ON THE ELECTION'

This is the text of an email I have received from Brian Heatley.  Brian is the Green Party Parliamentary Candidate for South Dorset.

I’ve taken a look at your blog and I found it fascinating.  One of the things you quickly discover as a candidate is that people’s views don’t all cluster around the narrow centre as defined by the media, but are much more diverse.

Some of the things you suggest would of course be quite expensive.  We have issued a manifesto (you can find it at http://www.greenparty.org.uk/policies.html) where we have not been inclined to use that as an excuse not to do things, but we do propose a hefty programme of taxation to pay for it all.  True things like ending Trident will save some money, but that is not enough by itself.

I particularly liked your ideas about public loos (an absolutely basic public service that sadly has declined in recent years), not raising the school leaving age (though there I disagree with my party) and some of your ideas about benefits.  We have a radical plan to simplify and reform the benefits system called Citizen’s Income and here is a link to a note about ithttp://policy.greenparty.org.uk/policypointers/ppcitizensincome.pdf .  I’d be interested to know what you think.

Brian

Brian Heatley

Green Party parliamentary candidate for South Dorset

17. POWER

No new nuclear power stations

17. CUTS

No Council, Police or Health Authority should create or distribute self-advertising newspapers. They mislead and are a waste of money.

16. MPs

The state should own houses in London for MPs to live in.

15. STATE BENEFITS

Children with parents on Benefit should not be disqualified for free travel because their first choice school is outside the catchment area.

14. STATE BENEFITS

Benefit should not be affected by co-habitation.

13. MPs

No-one should become a Member of Parliament without having ten years experience in other kinds of work first.

12. WORK

The school leaving age should not be raised beyond sixteen.  (It might be lowered.)

11. CUTS

The amount of paper used in letters about State Benefits should be reduced by three quarters.

10. HEALTH

Ballet should be put on an equal footing with football in state schools and fully qualified ballet teachers employed to teach it.

9. HEALTH

If pressure is to be taken off Accident and Emergency Departments, out-of-hours health care must be improved.

8. TRANSPORT

Major local employers like Hospitals and County Halls should provide shift-related transport for their staff.

7. STATE BENEFITS

Benefits should be adjusted at a moment's notice when short-term employment is offered and reinstated correctly the moment it ends.

6. DEFENCE

Trident should not be replaced.

5. BUSINESS

Give the Royal Mail to the Co-op.

4. MUSEUMS

Works of art and history stored out of sight by Museums should be released for display around our countries.

3. LIBRARIES

Public Libraries should contain public loos as well as lots of books.

2. SCHOOLS

If Public School children can form public-performance level choirs and orchestras, children in State Schools should be enabled to do so too.

1. SCHOOLS

Specialist schools should have outstanding departments in the specialities they are supposed to specialise in.