Digby Jones - Fixing Britain

Digby Jones is a remarkable, dedicated and passionate supporter of British Business and UK PLC. He's the former head of the CBI (confederation of British Industry), 'The UK's voice of business'.

Digby's a forthright individual, who oozes enthusiasm, frequently challenges the status quo and speaks his mind. He was described by Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair as a 'Great British Patriot'.

He wrote 'Fixing Britain', a candid book laying out the critical issues and reforms necessary to make Britain 'fit for purpose' and ready to compete in a globalized economy.

In my view, he's a breath of fresh air, especially in a country run by boring men in grey suits and uninspiring politicians reciting their party lines, fearful of expressing politically incorrect views.

He highlights the key problems:

-A country run by career politicians with no experience of real life or ever having held a real job. These people come from university, bypass real employment and go straight into politics as a research assistant. 

They then become a 'special advisor' to a cabinet minister. They obey orders and climb the 'greasy pole' and are eventually parachuted into a safe seat - from there on, their party comes first, second and third. MPs become prisoners of system where they either obey orders or lose their careers, should they dare to speak out.

-He says excessive state intervention and protection has produced a 'gimmie society' where people focus on 'their' rights and not responsibilities for their actions.

-We're too inward looking, always apologising for our past and forever criticising ourselves. He wants us to celebrate our achievements - Four of the top ten universities in the world are English, the most productive car plant in Europe (Nissans plant in Sunderland) etc.

-A dumbed-down education system producing young people ill-equipped for the world of work. He explains the total absence of parental responsibility where kids are simply dumped in front of a television. The idea of even reading a book outside school was just considered a foreign act. An parents shunned responsibility as they often thought the state would provide.

Solutions

Political reform

Slim down the number of members of parliament from 650 to 400. India manages with just 500 MP's for 1 billion people!

Furthermore reform the imbalanced constituency boundaries. For example one mp serving 80,000 people and another serving 50,000 with one vote each in the houses of legislature, which can hardly be representative.

In addition, he advocates capping leaders to two five year terms. Past leaders have caused great damaged by staying on too long, as they grow arrogant and out of touch.

House of Lords

The house of lords, the second chamber of parliament is an institution with no democratic accountability. Its purpose is to 'revise, amend and delay', but not to overrule the house of commons.

In the House of Lords, there are currently 760 life peers and of those 92 are present through family lineage, 'hereditary peers'. Peers do bring a wealth of experience, people who've actually done something with their lives and so provide vital insights.

Again his solution, reduce the number of peers to 500 people and introduce a democratic element of 100 peers, a 80/20 split. The non-elected peers would be independent appointees chosen by a 'independent commission', they would be totally free of political influence.

Politicians Pay

The expenses scandal highlighted the folly of MP's setting their own expenses, salary, pensions and benefits. The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa), an independent body created in the wake of the expenses scandal has recommended an 11 per cent pay rise for MPs. 

MP's are content on kicking this 'into the long grass', a grave mistake.

Digby controversially wants to give MPs a realistic wage and do-away with the carte-blanche method of topping up their income. Failure to do so may result in further scandals like the parliament expenses debacle.

Economy, welfare and public sector reform

One simple principle he advocates: have a wide enough gap between take home pay of the lowest paid workers and the highest level of unemployment benefit, thereby making work worthwhile.

Unfortunately, politicians eager to help the less fortunate though welfare has had to unintentional effect of imprisoning them to a cycle of dependency and self-perpetuating poverty.

He proposes increasing the tax free threshold for income tax to £12,000, I concur entirely, nobody on minimum wage should pay income tax. This he believes would bring a generation into the world of work.

The coalition government has pledged to increase foreign aid to 0.7% of national income, that is over £11.5bn this year, simply unacceptable given massive austerity at home. Urgent reforms are required, starting with a reduction in foreign aid and linking it to contractual awards in the recipient country, like similar aid programs in Western Europe and US.

Many more proposals in his book: Digby Jones: The Business of Reshaping our Nation, a strongly recommended read.