Barnet's Council Tax Rip-off

When my dad lost his job I advised him to ring up his energy provider to seek out a better deal.  One of the first tasks he had time to do was to claim council tax benefit.  We pay one of the top rates of council tax and when you don't have anywhere to go, often we feel a lot poorer than we are on paper (we get junk mail from estate agents daily).

The Brighton & Hove Green Party propose an alternative to council tax called Progressive Council Tax.  What is PCT? So basically it means the council has the power to levy a bit more council tax.  However, the majority get it back straight away because it's linked to the ability to pay.

Dave Wetzel who just joined the Green Party here in London liked our promise of a Land Value Tax.  His promises for this tax is almost a panacea, and he claims it would stop urban sprawl.

Looking at the Oxfam Policy website I'm inclined to look at places like the West Hendon estate as paradise.  Sure there may not be public toilets or stacks of loo roll, or any remaining pubs and clubs on the Broad way but at least when you turn the tap on you have clean water.

I've believed for a long time that whilst population is key, it's more about car population, and population of rubbish rather than good people that should be capped.  The implications of the environment and social justice message is very much about re-distribution of wealth.  Recently James Hansen of NASA came up with the idea of a carbon fee.  Put it this way: Average carbon emissions in Africa is less than one tonne per capita.  BRIC countries get 2 tonnes and are looking to make cuts.  Britain and USA are around 10-20.  This should be rationed and brought to zero by 2030.  The Zero Carbon Britain report can show you how.  For me the objective of bringing it down is to allow a longer term availability of energy, lower bills in the longer term, so in seven generations time there'll still be plentiful oil, gas, and coal, but also a safe climate for global prosperity.

An other thing I'll be pushing towards the election for 2015-20 is a £10 national minimum wage which would be a living wage; higher in London, if the cost of living is higher.  This must be combined with a maximum wage as well.  NUS policy is to bring the ratio down to 8:1.  Personally I need a lot more; training is expensive, I work hard, and the cost of living is higher than ever.  Plus I re-invest a lot in tools.

Also since uni I've supported the idea of a basic unconditional citizen's income (BIG).  This was a demand in Occupy and surprise, surprise, the government is doing the opposite.