Government

	As a truly progressive party our ultimate goal is to strive for better standards of democracy, society and government through new policies, ideas and methods which work on a real world level to benefit the people of Britain.
We believe in respecting our institutions, such as our democratically elected House of Commons, our constitutional monarchy, our system of common law and our House of Lords. We do not however accept the present situation of over-centralisation, and excessive government ministers, civil servants and quangos.
Topic Links www.cutredtape.org www.taxpayersalliance.com www.no2id.net
Our Policies 1. Supporting the British people. We recognise and respect Northern Ireland's place as part of Britain, and as such support the Unionist people, their democratic parties and peaceful organisations of Ulster. Under our current Labour Government, recognised terrorists who wish to make the province a foreign state have been allowed to enter Government and make decisions on key British issues. We will enforce a strict vetting process in order to ensure that those with links to terrorist activities and organisations are prevented from having any involvement in the democratic process, unless an unconditional lay down of arms is proven.
2. Cutting their waste. Saving your money. £50billion a year is being wasted by the Government. And without the waste, Chancellor Gordon Brown could chop 10p off income tax or abolish the £19billion council tax AND the £31billion corporation tax, or make each household on average £2,000 better off. >>> How £50bn goes down the drain £9billion could have been saved in 2003 by stopping public sector inflation soaring to 8.4%. Billions more went on bureaucrats, the railways, pointless grants, subsidies, failed projects and work. Small-scale waste, such as a £100,000 study on how to open a plastic bag and £70,000 to change the name of Arts Council of England to Arts Council England have been widely condemned. Our aim is to wipe out profligate government spending by: Cutting the excessive number of government departments, and reduce the unnecessary number of government ministers - cutting 40 from the current total of 112. Moving government bureaucracy out of London, starting with investigating further the possibility of moving government departments - such as the Treasury - to locations such as the Midlands and the North. There would be savings on office rents, whilst wealth and jobs are spread more equally through the UK, ending Britain's over-centralisation. A mass cull on Britain's 529 quangos, all of whom are financed with billions of pounds of taxpayers' money. At least 111 of these non-departmental public bodies - which are supposed to advise on a wide swathe of British life - have been set up since Labour came to power in 1997. We will abolish over 160 quangos at a saving of £4.5bn. Cut the excessive and unnecessary number of civil servants and reform wage structures, ensuring that future generations of civil servants earn more realistic salaries. Currently these employees are commonly earning much more than the average national wage. Penalise councils who engage in pathetic politically correct activities and aim to eradicate PC culture in all levels of government.
3. Uniting against fascism. Support civil liberties. While we accept that a degree of authoritarianism is acceptable in areas of national security, we are strongly opposed to the totalitarian state created by the Labour government. We are already seeing the state controlled regulation and restriction of free speech and criticism with the creation of new "terror laws", and the widespread use of mass surveillance is eerily reminiscent of the George Orwell novel 1984. We take for granted our freedom in this country, but at our peril. Walter Wolfgang, who heckled the foreign secretary at the Labour party conference, was ejected and detained under terrorism legislation. Had he said "nonsense" twice, he could have been charged under the Protection from Harassment Act. Our stance on civil liberties is proudly libertarian and we absolutely reject the intrusive, expensive and pointless ID card proposals. Researchers LSE have revealed that the final bill for the proposal is between £18bn - £28bn.
4. Giving power back to the people. Our democratic system of government has not prevented our political leaders from transferring powers to the European Union. To provide some protection from this misuse of office by professional politicians and to restore some confidence in our democratic process we believe there is a place for an additional safeguard. We will put power back into the hands of the people by offering regular referendum votes on issues of national importance. Whenever there is sufficient public concern on a particular issue we will connect with the public directly, allowing a Templar government to serve much more efficiently. And in addition to restoring power for governing Britain to our own democratically elected parliament by withdrawing from the EU, we will return local government to local control. County and Borough Councils need to answer to their local communities rather than obey orders from central government. They also need to be more transparent, which means an end to secretive cabinet-style decision making. In serving their local communities, they need to be aware that people would rather have their bins emptied than pay for jobs for politically-correct officials.