Good thread.

My three:

1) Invest in a programme of building council houses (and give councils the freedom to build new council houses and ring-fence revenue from rents and sales to invest in council house stock;
2) Introduce legislation on trade union freedom and equal rights for temporary and agency workers;
3) Make some big moves in defence of the welfare state - beginning with ensuring that the genuinely disabled are not forced of incapacity benefit.

It was very hard to keep it down to three...  Can I come on again under an assumed name?  (I'm assuming others will do the constitutional stuff, so have focused elsewhere).

Mine are slightly different:

1)  Reduce the working week to a maximum 35 hours without loss of pay (similar to what was done in France recently).  Lo and behold - productivity will increase...

2)  A minimum wage of 8.00 an hour or more.

3)  Encouraging forms of democratic social ownership by giving working people a stake or control of companies by allowing them to sit on the board and elect their managers.  Bennite idea of early 80's, equally as important now. 

If I had a fourth it would be, er, a massive social house building programme!!

This is my first time on Labourhome.  I have watched with interest over the last couple of years, occassionally been moved to comment but never got around to it.  This could just be laziness or it could be that actually there was, and remains, a clear tendency amongst posters to hit the panic button at the slightest issue and I did not really want to add to the general malaise so beloved of the left.

I have been a member of the Labour Party for all my adult life, about 20 years now.  I was bereft at Kinnock losing in 1992, I wept when John Smith died, and I leaped for joy when Tony Blair was first elected Leader and then became Prime Minister, three times in a row.

I would consider myself a leadership loyalist, recognising that no sane individual is going to agree with everything every political party does across hundreds of issues, and hundreds of billions of annual expenditure, but broadly accepting that I support the general direction of travel and believing that it was always better to have a Labour Government than not.

However, my concern about Labourhome, and many other left/Labour websites, and unfortunately many of the activists I have met over the years is that they simply did not accept that basic assessment, that a Labour Government is better than a non-Labour government.  Indeed many take it further, much further, whilst refusing to admit it even to themselves, which is that they simply do not like being in power.  The compromises, the complications, the discipline of power is too much for them.  Opposition is simpler, purer, easier, and it panders to why they got into politics, to be outraged, rage against the machine, stand outside and criticise, call for things that made them feel good but took no account of the country they claimed to want to represent.  Basically, power was dirty, opposition was good clean fun.

I still believe too many in the party believe that, which is why I distinctly remember Tony Blair saying during the Clause 4 Roadshow that he was getting his betrayal in first, because Labour leaders in too many of our colleagues eyes are there to be despised, attacked, and generally hated, because if we cannot be in real opposition we can at least be in internal opposition.

These naysayers have been in the party for ever.  Just look at the history of the party, even Atlee faced attacks from the hard left.  They hated Kinnock for taking on the Militant.  They despised him for stopping Tony Benn becoming deputy leader.  They wanted Smith to be more radical than one last push (as did I admittedly from a different perspective but I never said it in public).  They hated Blair from day one.  They hated Cruddass for not delivering for McDonnell.  Now they hate Brown.  And they will hate whoever takes over from Brown - even if it is McDonnell.

But now these people have something to really get their teeth into.  The Labour Government is in trouble.  The knives are out and being sharpened.  And despite the, "If only Gordon would do this" slant to the comments, what they really want is for Gordon to fail, the Tories to be elected, and then to reenter the nirvana of opposition with added "I told you so". 

This is long introduction to my first comment on this blog, but I did not want people to misunderstand where I am coming from as I plan to be a regular member of the Labourhome community for a while. 

The lists are sad, tired old campaign slogans.  Build our way out of recession.  Council housing is the way forward.  Down with people wanting to own where they live.  Up with the minimum wage regardless of consequences.  Down with working hours.  15 days guaranteed sick pay for all.  If we wanted to position the party with a core vote strategy this is the way forward.  A manifesto which destroys the housing market, raises prices, reduces competitiveness, and gives everyone in the country an extra guaranteed two weeks holiday is bonkers in the extreme.

My three are:

1. Recognise that crime impacts more on working class people that any other section of society and ensure that police and stations are more noticeable and available in every locality, including on many of our most socially deprived housing estates who should have a dedicated police presence.

2. Cut taxes for the lowest paid by raising the allowance to a level that can be managed within the needs of continued investment in services, but also raise the 40% tax level so that hard working families such as police officers, matrons, teachers etc are not in this bracket.  Balance this out with some reductions in public spending on quangos and othe areas and a new tax rate for the higher paid as needed.  Also, guarantee that both the lower tax bands will move with earnings year on year.

3. Legislate to give all staff a share in the businesses they work for, and to give them rights to join together as shareholders.  This should be allied to shareholders being able to vote down senior pay packages without voting against the whole annual report.

These three measures would deal with fear of crime amongst our core vote and reassure many others; would solve some the current unfairness in the tax system whilst sending a powerful message to the many not the few; and would make workforce relations a business imperitive as well as giving the market the powers it wants to deal with excessive pay, again sending a powerful message about the many not the few.

Well, that is it.  My first foray.  Hope to see you again soon.

My three:

1) Free hospital car-parking.

2) Free prescriptions.

3) Free bus passes for all under 21s.

Told you I liked free things...

Thank you jijb2 and doctordunc for your welcome, much appreciated. 

However, doctordunc, don't think you read my second point as closely as you could have, probably still too cross with me by that stage, I add a raising of the 40% tax threshold to take more people out of that tax bracket and say we should cut some public spending as well.  Am definitely sure they did not appear on any other list in this section.

I accept that some people in the party are just more to the left than me and genuinely want a Labour Government to do all the things they want to do.  HOwever, there are people who are like those I describe as well and my problem comes when those on the left who want a left wing labour government - and don't get every i dotted and t crossed then go to extremes in attacking their own party as no better or different from the Tories.  That is just not true.  There is not one person in the Cabinet who is a Tory, thinks like a Tory and wants to be a Tory.  They are social democrats who believe in equality of opportunity, a safety net for those who need it, and a vibrant economy that pays for schools, the NHS and other vital public services.

I am sure you all believe in better public services, my problem is that you don't want the first bit that leads to better public services.  You believe in the ultimate power of the state to deliver when history shows us the state is not always the right tool. 

And, as for jljb2 list.  Sorry, but there are far better things to spend NHS money on than free prescriptions when the vast majority are already free according to need (the principle of the NHS); and free car parking at a time when we are trying to encourage less car use and more public transport use.

Oh, and I agree with ID cards.

Thanks

1- immediate resumption of council housing building programme;

2- get police back on the streets and reintroduce police stations in areas where they have been closed (I lived in a semi rural area in Scotland and the police station was miles away)

3- newly qualified GPs to be committed to working a certain number of sessions per week in NHS General Practice for,say, 5 years after qualifying. Too many qualify, buy into partnerships, then work three days a week as that's all the income they need, or they undertake private work in their free time.

1. Progressive taxation

2. Local living wage

3. Ethical foreign policy. 

Lots of interesting suggestions on here, hard to cut down to three but here goes:

1) Transformation of social housing. Not only should we be building more social housing, we should be offering funding and incentives to housing associations to buy up rental properties. The worst effect of any housing market crash will come in the over-supply of flats, disproportionately owned by buy-to-let speculators. The govt can actively, and visibly, protect the housing market from the worst by intervening in this way at the bottom end. I know Brown promised £200M for this last week, but that is a paltry figure that will change nothing. Longer-term we should be disincentivising multiple home-ownership by incrementally raising tax on second, third homes etc.

2) Entrench the many redistributive social programmes that would be Cameron's first target in govt. Tax credits need to be simplified, reformed and properly sold to the public, Sure Start needs to be entrenched. I'll bet my bottom dollar Cameron follows the neo-conservative direction we've already seen in the States. Bush trashed many, many programmes on the grounds that they 'weren't working'. Well, Labour needs to prepare for this assault on the public sphere by publicising and defending these programmes, showing that they do 'work'.

3) Grant genuine rights to all agency, and temporary workers. I can't believe this point has to be made after 11 years of a Labour government.

Education : Ensure education is free to first degree level - If we want to get back in then we need an electorate that won't vote for the Daily Mail

Privatisation : Get rid of it - give the control and the responsibility of our utilities back to the state - these are necessities not cash cows for shareholders

Unemployment:  Keep it low and a good economy will follow.

Fairness on taxation

I'm genuinely surprised that nobody has mention universal childcare yet. That could potentially be a big vote-winning idea.

1) Making service industries public service industries again

2) Introduce serious eco-policies and stop the building of motorways and runways etc but invest heavily in public transport instead

3) Focus on rebuilding our industrial and agricultural roots again so that we are less reliant on global trends and imports

1) a pledge that no member of society will remain with basic numeracy or literacy skills including:
i) additional investment in schools and colleges in basic skills;
ii) an employer levy/requirement to pledge to upskilling staff;
iii) simplified school/college targets based upon basic skills outcomes and progression

2) Excepting pensions, that no-one can receive in total benefits from the state more than 25 hours multiplied by the minimum wage per week and that this is redistributed via taxation allowances (i.e. a tax allowance that was not just a "no-tax" but an initial payment) for the first £5,000 of income to end the trap of being worse off by working and effectively provide the payment for childcare and transport

3) To separate the civil service into front-line delivery (tax inspectors, social security etc.) and management areas (funding bodies of education, health).  To retain the delivery element and to significantly reduce the management element placing greater emphasis upon bottom-up leadership and management by front-line services.

4) (yes I am having 4) To realise that we are no longer a world power and to stop wasting money on military spending as if we were still one.  To roll back from all of our "foreign adventures" and to drastically cut our military spending to prevent any new ones.  To take all that wasted money and plough it into more effective public services and a reduction of the tax burden.

1 - Stop retreating on inheritance tax. Follow the recent Fabian proposals and replace the current estates tax with a lifetime capital receipts tax, earmark the money towards extending free childcare. The arguments in favour of equality of opportunity follow from both left and right wing principles. It's disgraceful we've allowed a campaign orchestrated by nothing more principled than greed to win public opinion, because hardly anyone has had the guts to make the case.

2 - Bring in a personal carbon allowance, following in the example of the carbon rationing for business (which incidentally needs to have the numbers of permits issued set according to how much carbon we can afford to release, not how much businesses ask to be issued). Though I think otherwise it would be a waste of money, the ID card scheme could help here if digital carbon rationing was added to it, which wouldn't be that difficult. This would both limit carbon usage and create redistributive markets as the wealthy who use more carbon buy carbon credits (or whatever we call them) from poorer families. At the same time put make money avaiable for free insulation etc. so those in cheap inefficient houses aren't hit.

3 - Introduce a raft of change to reinvigorate democracy. Replace the Lords with a Senate elected by STV, also introduce STV for local council elections. Maybe don't bring in PR for the Commons just yet, there are more issues to overcome there, but at least bring in alternative vote. Implement the brilliant idea of the Power Inquiry with regards funding for parties - at each election every voter has the right to allocate a certain amount, say £3 per year, to any party, which need not be the one they vote for. If they wish, they can choose for the money to not go to any, and stay in the public coffers. The money from this goes directly to the constituency party, not to central party organisations, which still rely on (regulated) donations. This means parties have to rely on popular support to get funding, and opens up the possibility for parties to build themselves up anywhere. (Ideally on constitutional issues I'd like to abolish the Monarchy but that's definitely one to wait for public support).