Where does your party stand on EU integration and does your party support a referendum on European Union membership?
TSR Libertarian
The Libertarian Party does not oppose any free and consensual association of peoples. Unfortunately the EU is neither. Whilst Schengen and the EFTA are movements in the right direction, we wish to offer the Three Freedoms -- to live, to work and to purchase goods and services -- to people from every country and nation. We would therefore attempt a wholesale re-negotiation of our relationship with the EU in the context of our vision of the free movement of goods services and people across the whole planet.
TSR Liberal Democrats
We believe that EU integration, if done correctly, is of great benefit to the UK. It makes us politically, socially, and economically stronger. However, the EU is also in need of reform, to make it more democratic and transparent, and more relevant to the people who’s interest it represents, as well as removing unnecessary expenditure.
We support the Lisbon Treaty as a first step towards this, but also strongly believe that a referendum should be held, so that those who the EU should be representing, the UK people, are those who decide what we should be doing as a part of the EU.
TSR Labour party
The TSR Labour Party supports the UK’s involvement in the EU, however, not in its current form. We would like to see the EU become more transparent in its law making and its processes.
TSR Socialist party
The Socialist Party believes in a united world, EU membership is a great step towards that and withdrawal from the EU will be a step backwards, a step back into an individualistic, greedy nation. The Socialist Party believes that the EU is a great step forward for mankind, even though it may need reforming.
However, The Socialist Party believes in the democratic right of the people. Before any referendum we will seek to enhance knowledge of the EU in a bid to attract more voters, and to stop people making irrational decisions. But we will support the peoples decision to remain within, or withdraw from the European Union.
TSR Centre Party
The Centre Party recognizes that the EU makes two important contributions to British society: it provides a free trade area and it provides the institutions for political cooperation among the European countries. However, we also recognize that the EU cannot completely replace national government; to that end, we do not want to see a federal Europe and, at the moment, do not want to adopt the Euro.
The Centre Party thinks it is important to provide political freedoms to the citizens of the UK. Given that the Lisbon Treaty will change the way the EU works, we will give citizens the chance to vote on EU membership five years after the implementation of the treaty. This will provide citizens with the chance to evaluate the performance of the EU after the Lisbon Treaty, and allow them to decide whether they want the country to remain within the EU or not. The power to decide on EU membership is one that we want to give to citizens.
TSR Conservative party
The Conservatives want a renegotiation on British terms of our European Union membership, which would probably include a great number of permanent opt-outs. Free trade is good, but it is not an acceptable tradeoff for the increasing loss of autonomy that is coming with the European Union and the amount of red tape and regulation there. We believe Britain is better off in free trade agreements with the Continent but we believe that Parliament ought to be practically, not theoretically, sovereign. Britain should not have to accept laws from the Continent, and visa versa.
Matthew_Lowson
As I have stated in my manifesto I will seek a referendum on EU membership
Where does your party stand on prison overcrowding?
TSR Libertarian
The prisons are overcrowded with many people who should not be there. Adults arrested for the offence of putting something into their mouths that the government does not approve of, and more recently observing certain activities between consenting adults. We would end this paternalism by legalising all drugs for adult consumption, and all pornography of consenting adults that does not depict illegal acts.
Furthermore, by privatising the prison system we allow contractors to compete on price and innovation in the provision of punitive punishment, whilst ensuring that the system can grow or shrink in accordance with the needs of the courts.
TSR Liberal Democrats
We think that firstly, the way to solve prison overcrowding is to build more prisons. To often are people going free early from prison, based on our ability to hold them, rather than the nature of their crime. However, we also need to reform the criminal justice system, so that serious offenders of the worst crimes, murder, rape, assault, are held for a length of time befitting their crime, but also greatly improving rehabilitation, to reduce reoffending, and the removal of some crimes invented by the real life labour administration, detaining and charging people unnecessarily.
TSR Labour party
The TSR Labour Party support the view of balancing rehabilitation and punishment to ensure that those convicted are less likely to re-offend. The general public have shown their disgust at small sentences given to rapists and murderers and in many cases this is due to prison over crowding.
We would like to see 2 further prisons built which would make a difference in the immediate term, but also, aim to build half-way houses up and down the country for those leaving prison providing support and a bed whilst they start to integrate back into society.
It is a waste of public money to lock an individual up and then throw them back out in to the street with no where to go. What choice do they then have? 70% will re-offend, others will be left homeless and possibly become addicted to drugs, this is not a society the TSR Labour Party wants to see.
TSR Socialist party
Prison overcrowding cannot be easily solved. Merely building more prisons is not an option, what the criminal justice system should do is assist more in rehabilitation of criminals, rather then serve as a tool for revenge. The biggest problems many petty criminals face are due to problems from the past, such as a lack of qualifications, the socialist party, therefore, advocate better education within prisons to offer criminals a better opportunity to lead an honest life when they are released. A more difficult problem is the culture surrounding prisons, as this exacerbates criminal tenancies, which is clearly shown in the UKs high re-offence rates. Ideally, the UK should take from Japan, who have a low crime rate and an even lower re-offence rate.
But the biggest cause of crime are economic factors, namely deprivation and poverty. This can clearly be seen by looking at the state our council estates are in. The long term solution? Invest more in community centres, schools, social housing. Help those facing poverty so they don't need to turn to theft, drugs or gangs.
TSR Centre Party
The Centre Party sees prisons as a tool to help offenders move on from their criminal livelihoods and to stop re-offending. To that end, we would reduce the number of prison inmates by creating a rehabilitation centre as a halfway house for offenders who've committed less serious crimes to focus on helping them become law-abiding members of society. While we recognize the importance of making the public safer by keeping those who pose a danger to the public in prison, we will not confuse those who pose a danger to the public with those who have the chance to lead more productive lives given rehabilitation opportunities.
TSR Conservative party
Criminals found guilty of crimes should never be let off with warnings or lower sentences solely because there are not sufficient spaces in prisons. Although we plan to cut alot of Labour's 3,000 new criminal offences, we are also interested in new ways of prison finance. We would choose an option that is best for Britain, not for PFI contractors or state bureaucrats.
Matthew_Lowson
Prison overcrowding is obviously a problem when you do not have enough places for prisoners. What should never happen however is more lenient sentences or premature release to ease the problem however
Does your party believe we should open up Britain to more business through deregulation and lower taxation?
TSR Libertarian
The Libertarian Party believes that the most important regulation in the protection of consumers against the predations of Big Business is a strong court system consistently and fairly applying contract law and property rights. Other regulations -- no matter how well intentioned -- can often be "gamed" by Big Businesses with huge compliance departments and end up only pushing small players out of the market.
Yes, the Libertarian party supports cutting taxes at any time on anything and for any reason, focusing of course on the least well off first. Many things paid for by "taxation" can be equally well or better paid for through subscription -- hybrid public/private bin collection in the Republic of Ireland is a very successful example.
Where taxation is absolutely unavoidable, we support consumption rather than income tax -- which are naturally progressive and encourage saving and investment, promoting sustainable economic growth over consumerist short-termism.
TSR Liberal Democrats
We believe that there are benefits of deregulation, making it easier to conduct business within the UK, but also particularly with the recent crisis in the banking sector, we have all seen how vital it is to regulate appropriately, to protect our interests. So we shall seek to use regulation where necessary, but remove unnecessary regulation. As for taxation, again, a balance is needed, to encourage investment from abroad, but to ensure that investment is of benefit to the UK, creating jobs for the UK population, so any reduction in taxation should be based on this.
TSR Labour party
The TSR Labour Party supports high taxation on the rich and low taxation on the poor. It is more important to society to reduce poverty than open the country to more business.
TSR Socialist party
We've seen what deregulation can do through the banks, which only survived through government intervention (indeed, without this the economy would have sunk even further). Giving greedy corporations the power to do as they please without regulation would merely mean more exploitation, should we follow America and deregulate businesses to the point we have no minimum wage? Of course not.
Lower taxes would mean less money for essential public services. The socialist party will not stand for cuts in the quality of healthcare, education, transport and will not have people starving due to benefit cuts.
TSR Centre Party
The Centre Party believes the key here is to regulate and tax smarter. Some regulation is needed, especially in areas like finance, but we also need Britain to be a competitive place to do business. We will look at all regulation and see if it serves a useful purpose, and remove those regulations that don't have a useful purpose or that cause other problems. For example, we would reduce the power of unions to strike because, aside from the damage caused directly by striking (the royal mail strikes hurt a lot of businesses), strong unions lead to higher wages and higher unemployment. They make those with jobs better off at the expense of the truly poor who are unemployed.
Taxes are a necessary evil. To afford the education and healthcare system people demand, without running up an even larger mountain of debt, we can't cut them too far. However tax reform to make the UK more competitive is possible and essential. For example, cutting tax on start-up firms and encouraging investment helps entrepreneurs to create jobs and wealth without costing too much. The Centre Party will fight to make tax and regulation do more good for people and make Britain a wealthier place that's better to do business.
TSR Conservative party
Yes, absolutely. The reason that Britain fell into recession so quickly and is taking so long to get out is because our economy is fragile. It's fragile because years and years of state intervention in virtually almost all sectors, of regulation, tax, attacks on the fundamentals of economic science, have left it beaten and bruised. It's time to restore free market principles. Free trade, not protectionism, made Britain the country it was and is. We emerged into our most glorious history in the years when we entered free trade. Economic freedom is just as important as personal freedom. Capital is what makes us prosperous: fighting the war on capital that the Left propose will send us back to the dark ages.
Matthew_Lowson
My belief is that we should do what we can to protect the jobs of the people, we have become the Daddy of Europe given that we seem central to everything - the problem is that our money has to come from somewhere and we need to pay for vital services. The problem is through lower taxation we will struggle to maintain our services completely
what does your party think about classification of cannabis and indeed drugs policy reform in general?
TSR Libertarian
It is no business of anyone -- least of all faceless bureaucrats -- what grown men and women put into their mouths. Experiments with decriminalisation in Portugal, and extensive research have show that decriminalisation and legalisation result in lower addiction rates, lower costs on the heath and police systems, and of course -- if legalised -- consumers are protected from predatory dealers by contract law.
TSR Liberal Democrats
We generally believe in the individuals right to their own person, and in the importance of such civil liberties. In general, drugs should be banned only if they cause serious health risks to the person using them, or are highly addictive, meaning that the individual can’t make a rational choice to use drugs. Cannabis, while found to cause some level of health risk, is no more dangerous than tobacco or alcohol, so we believe should be treated the same way. As for other drugs, we believe that their classification should be based on medical research, and the evidence that we have of their risks.
TSR Labour party
The TSR Labour Party will reform drugs policy making a system where drugs will be legislated according to relative risks, as decided by scientists and experts in the field.
However, the TSR Labour Party will not make drugs such as cannabis or heroin legal, if the drug allows terrorists or organised crime to profiteer. Only drugs sold over the counter from pharmacists would be legal and all other distributors would be punished harshly as they are currently.
TSR Socialist party
The Socialist Party will fight for an evidence based drug policy. The Socialist Party doesn't believe people need to be sheltered and kept away from drugs that cause little harm in comparison to those we already have legalised, namely tobacco and alcohol. We believe in the right for the individual, and if an increase of these rights will not infringe on the rights of any other individual, we will fight for fairer legislation.
The Socialist Party also note that many of the problems with drug overdose are caused by the impurities within the drugs because they are illegal. If certain substances are legalised, it allows us to protect the individual, and use any money gained from them through taxation to set up more rehabilitation clinics.
The Socialist Party do not believe that Professor David Nutt should have been fired for an honest academic report.
TSR Centre Party
The Centre Party thinks cannabis should be legalised. While we would provide education to people about the dangers associated with drug use, our social liberalism means that we think the choice about use ultimately lies with the user. We do not think it is the role of the state to regulate the lifestyle choices that people freely and knowingly make.
Matthew_Lowson
Drugs have been made illegal in the past in the interests of the British people, the reason they have been made illegal because they can be harmful, as a result I would be opposed to drug reform.
