As someone who worked in the building industry for over twenty years and watched the BBC 2 documentary entitled Inside the commons. In my personal opinion The palace of Westminster would need to be closed in the near future to be refurbished as a grade 1 listed building that was built in the 1840s. This type of refurbishment would come under heritage restrictions and cost the tax payer up to 3 Billion pounds. With services like the NHS and local government in this county coming under Budgetary pressures it's called austerity. Can we really justify this immense expense of a future refurbishment of the palace of Westminster with out first giving the people of Great Britain a referendum if they agree the massive cost to the tax payer . Democracy may judge that the general public say they want MPs to do there business in another way in there constituency locality. With out the filibustering of Prime ministers question times.

Over 80% of people in Britain now believe the gap between rich and poor is too big. The UK’s current tax system exacerbates this inequality. These are two of the findings in a report about the tax system in the UK by The Equality Trust entitled ‘Unfair and Unclear’ http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/sites/default/files/attachments/resources/Unfair%20and%20Unclear_0.pdf The report concludes ‘The gap between perceptions, preferences and reality when it comes to the UK’s current tax system should be of deep concern to politicians. Building a system that is fit for a fair society must now be a priority.’ Major tax reform to tackle inequality does not seem to be in any party manifestos for the election in May 2015. (Just minor window dressing!) Do you want a tax system in Britain which favours the rich or do you want a tax system which delivers fairness and opportunity for all? The poorest 10% in our society pay a much higher proportion of their income overall in tax (because of taxes like VAT and Council Tax). This is not generally realised because the tax system is so complicated. Is it not time to rebalance this? Austerity has been borne by the poor, while the rich have prospered. Is this not an outrage which should be redressed? We are told time and time again we cannot afford basic living standards for the poor, and yet we can afford massive remuneration for the rich. The ability for everyone to own a home, once a flagship Tory policy, has become an impossible dream as house prices have been forced up because of irresponsible lending, second homes, ‘buy-to-let’ and building luxury accommodation for the super rich to have as an investment, often lying empty. The system is broken and major action is necessary. I, as a concerned voter who does not see anyone to vote for, wish to see specific measures like these being adopted: 1 A ‘Making Tax Fair’ Bill to be drawn up to change the tax distribution in line with the Equality Trust’s broad recommendation: o From poorest 43%; mid 36%; richest 36% (of income) o To poorest 15%; mid 22%; richest 39% (of income) as a contribution to all taxes (inc VAT, Council Tax, Fuel Tax, etc as well as Income Tax – see report for list of all taxes) 2 A wealth tax on the richest 1%, to help redistribute the vast wealth amassed over the last few decades, gained while the rest of us were in austerity, and while the system has been designed to make the rich richer. 3 Action from government to force corporations and rich individuals to pay the tax they owe. It has been government policy since the 1980s to allow large tax breaks because of the ‘trickle down’ effect. We have known for a long time this is a myth and in fact the flow goes up not down. But the tax breaks are still in place! (War On Want are leading a campaign on Tax Dodging specifically to address this – click here if you haven’t supported it already http://www.waronwant.org/news/latest-news/18270-tdbcampaign) 4 A tax on luxury property left empty. It is a scandal that parts of London are left uninhabited, property having been bought by members of the super-rich elite as an investment and then left vacant. Often local people are evicted to make way for these. 5 A tax on second homes left vacant more than half-time. It is a scandal that local people cannot buy homes because of inflated prices. 6 A review of ‘buy-to-let’ to make it prohibitive, so that the conditions are reversed that led to the prediction that by 2032 more people will have to rent (at inflated prices), than own their own homes Please lend your support by signing the online petition. If enough of us do, we can put pressure on the next Government to act responsibly to ‘rebuild a tax system fit for a fair society’, and significantly alter the nature of the debate during this election. When you sign the online petition, we will present it to all political parties and ask for a response to be published pre-election. I believe in ‘wealth-for-all capitalism’, where people in all walks of life can work hard to achieve individual rewards while contributing to the ‘common-wealth’. Together we create one nation which works for everyone. I despise the ‘greed-is-good capitalism’ experiment, begun in the 1980s. It has ended where many predicted it would – many greedy and selfish people have worked the system to their own advantage, with government acquiescence, at the expense of everyone else, having amassed vast personal fortunes, and having looted the infrastructure of the country. Two nations have been created – the very rich and the very poor. This will continue after the election unless the 99% of us, who do not benefit, put pressure on to stop it happening!’ Please add your voice to this online petition so that we can reverse this process and again create Britain as a fair society. PLEASE SHARE WITH AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN!

He defends himself by stating that there were risks and saying he thought the people had the right know. But he completely ignored that rules are for everybody. They do not bend for any group no matter the opinion of those who work under them. By boasting about it in a speech to his rich cronies he has shown an arrogance beyond belief and total disregard for the Scottish people, by not allowing them to assess the risks (which he himself played a large part in manufacturing) for themselves to make up their own minds. Instead he wholeheartedly helped to build and promote possibly the most frightening and effective of the NO scare stories.

Surely, when so many people throughout Britain are in poverty regardless of how hard they try to work their way out of it, we can agree that to put massive amounts of public funding in to an obsolete defence system is unjustifiable, and to do so without the consent of the public is indefensible. Read more here: http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/scottish-politics/labour-mps-to-snub-commons-trident-debate.116412304 http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jan/17/trident-future-election-agenda-costs-spiral-nuclear-submarines

Because I feel it is taking money unfairly from single parents to provide for their one or more children.

This is especially important to the NHS. The NHS gets a LOT of funding, plenty of funding to provide an excellent 24h 365 day service to millions. BUT: A HUGE amount of this funding is syphoned off to "Private Finance Initiative" deals whereby a hospital that costs 1.34Bn to build is actually costing 10.32Bn via PFI repayments. This is the reason the NHS is so stretched,- the amount given by the treasury to the NHS is plenty for the service, but it its being massively wasted by epically badly planned government devised PFI deals whereby middle men and hedge funds make an absolutely (offshore) fortune from the fact they can charge anything (and do) and the government can't (legally or morally) give in and let hospitals go to waste. ===== Why has this occurred? The PFI deals came around from Gordon Brown as Treasury Cabinet Minister to allow the government to make massive expenses and to not declare them because they're actually "Private business" expenses, so the government says "Over the course of 10/25 years we will pay you an amount you want if you build this [hospital/airbase/whatever] for us right now. The Businesses said "oooh yes!" and built what was asked and had a legal contract in place that the government would pay them back a net sum approximately (as illustrated above) of approximately ten times the build cost. Failure to pay back the costs (for example if voters forced government to renegotiate or void the contract) would also be covered by legally binding charges for ~8Bn, in the example above and rather than paid for over years that would be IMMEDIATELY REQUIRED. So the government and the NHS is saddled with massive charges that are extortionate, just for build now, pay later hospital buildings. ===== What we Can do: We can not (as detailed above) void the current contracts, but we can push and force the government to remove PFI as an option for any future contracts for any public service, and also make government only take contracts where the costs are reasonable, and provable - as often PFI contracts where awarded by only being a few hundred pounds under the nearest competition offer - and then once awarded the contract costs "escalated". Certain politicians (David Cameron, I believe) did promise to end PFI before taking office, but has now changed his tune - force him to keep his word. Force his successor to keep his word. PFI is now widespread across the NHS and is the principle cause of shortage of funding, it is also getting a larger and larger hold in the UK Armed forces as well as other departments of government. We Must Stop It. ===== Background reading: This issue is well outlined in Private Eye 1383 page 10. this issue is also very well explained in the Private Finance Initiative Special Report by Paul Foot in 2004.

This will go a great way to re-engaging the general public with politics and increasing trust in politicians. There would be obvious problems when coalition governments occur, but this would have to be written into the manifesto promises, i.e. If we are given a majority we would do this.. If we are in coalition we would do this.. Therefore whomever they enter into a coalition with would understand what bargains they are entering into from the start. This would limit rash promises and give much greater weight to any promises that are made.

There is a public school educated parliamentary candidate who uses the persona of a xenophobic ale swilling buffoon to emulate an affinity with the "working man". Opposing this candidate in South Thanet, is Al Murray, pub landlord. http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jan/14/al-murray-the-pub-landlord-to-stand-against-nigel-farage-in-south-thanet Yet Al Murray, and a number of other National party leaders who spend a lot less time in pubs, and a lot more time on politics, will not have the chance to prove himself against the three major parties, and, for some reason, Nigel Farage (also running in South Thanet). Sign Now to grant Al Murray and other national party leaders their say in the leaders' debates. The recently formed Free United Kingdom Party (FUKP) seeks to oppose Nigel Farage's UKIP party in their leader's intended constituency. It would seem that someone informed the beer swilling funny-man that there's no point running against the Speaker, which is a seat traditionally uncontested. Despite polling below flipper and other joke candidates, see: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/may/07/nigel-farage-ukip-john-bercow Nigel Farage and his party have been given far too much attention by the mainstream media in the UK. We think this should stop, and that the national media must ensure that national parties gain fair representation in national news.

Democracy - the leadership debates help the electorate to decide who to vote for, It is our general election not the parties and they need to realise that we elect them and they are here to serve us. The support levels of different parties are changing as are voting intentions and we should have the democratic right tot hear all the leaders explain their policies.

Education on Mental health is vital. To end the stigma and to help children understand and cope if they are suffering with this illness.

GIVE YOUNG PEOPLE A REASON TO VOTE AGAIN What is the point of voting if you live in a Tory / Lib Dem./ Labour stronghold. My vote is wasted unless I do tactiful voting. I want my vote to count, otherwise there is no point in voting at all. I've waited years for this change to happen, I've listened to broken promises of leading parties, I'm tired of waiting. These days , with new available communications through internet I've discovered like minded people all facing the same dilemma, why should we vote any more if we are not counted. Hence the apathy in people turning up to vote.

Political involvement of the People is key in any democracy and it is a disgrace that after such an amazing upsurge in political involvement, seeing 80% of Scots put to use their right to vote, the response is to punish people for their input. If we want politics to be FAIR and represent ALL of our society then we need EVERYONE'S input and their is no way that will happen if people are punished for making their voice heard. I want my vote NO STRINGS ATTACHED!