Council Tax is a pernicious form of taxation as it isn't based upon an individual's ability to pay. Also it often & unaccountably increases above the rate of inflation for ever decreasing & reduced quality Local Authority services.

The average UK salary is £30k. The basic MP salary is £81k (putting them in the top 5%). On top of this MPs can take other well-paid jobs for example in journalism or public speaking and claim for expenses, sometimes in the region of £50k. The average person is unable to claim expenses, their only option is to seek extra help in the form of benefits where their incomes and assets are thoroughly assessed and help is denied if they are lucky enough to have over £16k in savings, and minimized if they have over £6k in savings. This disparity needs assessing. MPs complacency and reliance on expenses breeds contempt for the average person looking for a little extra support but it's the MPs who are truly receiving the "hand-out" that they claim to despise. With such a large divide between wealth, means and class, how can MPs truly relate to their constituents? Can an MP with savings worth £2M and claiming £40K expenses really understand what it's like to be living on £28K and struggling to sustain a family because you're oh-so-slowly saving up (£17k in 6 years!) to buy a house so the kids don't have to share a room?

Previous government has secured a "get out" committee for the setting of their wages that ignores the state of the economy that their Government Ministers and MPs are ultimately responsible for. This has led to MPs salaries way above inflation while they vote against wage increases for others for reasons of affordability. Linking pay in this way is a simple way to use performance related pay to remunerate our leaders. It would hopefully help to bring back some fairness and trust to politics.

The Coronavirus restrictions and disagreements over them have revealed how little Central Government either knows about regions outside of London or cares. The creation of combined Local Authorities with Metro Mayors such as Andy Burnham and Steve Rotherham came with little extra money and few extra powers. Yorkshire has more people than Scotland, Greater Manchester is almost twice the size of Northern Ireland, Merseyside nearing the population of Wales. England is one of the most centralised countries in the world. In recent weeks Central Government has shown its contempt for the regions by not inviting relevant MPs, such as Lisa Nandy, to meetings because they don’t know who they represent, offering lower financial support than under full lockdown, ignoring the fact that Greater Manchester has been under the equivalent of tier 2 ineffectual lockdown for two and a half months. But they still don’t listen to local leaders, whether they be Labour, such as Andy Burnham or Conservative such as Andy Street, Mayor of West Midlands. By signing you will be supporting local leaders in the North and Midlands of England to support their people.

The Events industry has been hardest hit during the pandemic. Locked down since March they have seen none of the recent relaxing of restrictions that have enable other businesses to get back to work, and now the original furlough scheme is coming to an end, the industry faces approx 600,000 people unemployed and thousands of businesses collapsing as workers will not be eligible for the new winter scheme as they cannot work at all. We want the existing, simple meaningful furlough scheme to continue to support the Events industry, staff and Businesses

MP's have not suffered on Universal Credit, been forced below the poverty line, had to borrow money, rely on credit cards to get by or worry that they might be evicted this year. However, many millions have. NHS Staff and Key Workers have been lauded as heroes by the government whilst also being stabbed in the back by them financially via cuts and empty platitudes. To give MP's a payrise is a direct and agregious insult to these selfless and vital people and we must show the government we won't stand for it.

A US -UK trade deal is likely to have a profoundly negative impact on the lives of people in the UK. Many regulations that have kept us and the environment safe will disappear along with animal welfare standards. A Trade Deal with the US will be in reality a trade deal between the U.K and ruthless multinational corporations that wield huge amounts of power. Most trade deals contain clauses known as ISDS clauses, (Investor State Dispute Settlement) clauses whereby governments can be fined millions of pounds if an investor's profits are reduced in any way and for whatever reason. Big business is likely to play a major but negative part in our lives in the future. Parliamentarians should be granted a final vote on the US trade deal; secrecy should be lifted in support of transparency and democracy.

Too often policies and decisions are made where there turns out that the politicians involved have some form of connections which could lead them to be biased. For instance, scrutiny of MPs’ interests shows donations and gifts from fossil fuel firms and climate contrarians and that there is a pattern that conservative MP's are more inclined to accept these donations. Members of the public should be able to challenge MP's decisions to accept certain donations.

Measures announced by the Chancellor on July 8th were touted to support young people through the economic repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic. It included a range of measures, but very few were aimed young people. The £2.1bn "kickstart scheme" which will provide 6 month work placements to those at risk of long-term unemployment was dwarfed by the £3.8bn stamp duty holiday for home buyers. This is not the way to support a generation that will likely bear the brunt of what may be the worst recession in a generation. Young people have a much less stable relationship with the economy and so are disproportionately affected by economic crises. Following the 2008 economic recession, youth unemployment peaked at over 22%, compared to 8% for the population as a whole. We need an ambitious government intervention to prevent it from being even worse with this crisis. A successful scheme would include measures to create entry-level jobs - not placements - for those coming out of education, support for renters who make up the majority of young people and programmes to support young carers, apprentices and others who have been ignored by previous announcements. We have the chance to prevent a lost generation if we act now with ambition. Invest in young people today!

On 17th June this year "FAT CAT" Councillors at Kent County Council, during a vitual meeting of the full council, voted to award themselves a 4.2% increase to their basic allowances. In total £1.3million will be paid out to the 81 council members. This is despite having awarded themselves a 15% increase in their allowances less than two years ago and today announcing a budget shortfall of at least £50million over the next 12 months. Having already increased council tax by 4.4% for this financial year and having recieved £67m of Government emergency Covid-19 funding in March and May KCC continues to lobby Boris Johnson for more money and are considering yet another hike in council tax along with redundancies for council staff. Considering KCC's recent track record on financial dealings beginning with their considerable losses during the Icelanic banking crisis, £50m invested by the council which represented £32m from its own reserves, £16m from Kent Pension Fund and £1m from Kent Fire & Rescue Authority, this is an apalling state of affairs and MORALLY CORRUPT to boot.

It will save many peoples lives and restore some trust in the government.

It is important to separate aid to developing countries from diplomatic presence within them. Without separation, aid becomes a carrot to persuade developing countries to accept economic proposals which benefit the donor country. Aid is altruism, it is not commercial pressure. Merging the DFID and the FCO would be a return to colonialism.